Tuesday, October 24, 2006

China Dishes and Candlelight

Thanks to SombraKnight from Shadowlight blog http://sombraknight.blogspot.com/
for identifying the bug, a Western Conifer Seed Bug, I no longer have to wonder and am glad that even though they`re a nuicance, they aren`t harmful to anything.

After work yesterday my Mum called and wanted me to come over to have a look at some vintage china dishes she had bought. After me exclaiming how pretty they were, she told me that they were my early Christmas/birthday gift! She`s the greatest :) They`re from the early 1940`s. There are six full place settings and some extra dinner plates, cups and saucers and bread and butter. The kitchen has some accent of pink shades in the curtains so these will match perfect. And we`re going to use them. They`ll be for our good old fashioned comfort meals and the white dishes can be for pastas and other European type meals. Someday I`d like a china cabinet to display them in. The true colour is the bigger plate.

I just had to have a nice cup of tea in this. I can imagine some lady sipping her tea from this cup and as the cup emptied, the pretty roses appeared, perhaps to bring something pretty into her mind for a moment, amidst worry that lived heavily there for her man or her son away at war. She would see this if right handed that is. Back then it was only proper to be right handed. Left handedness was a no no. I remember my left handed Dad telling me that when he stayed with his grandparents, his grandmother taught him to use his right hand. He can use both now for different things. She was a very elegant English lady who set a nice table I`m told and his grandfather had the most beautiful English gardens.

I cooked pasta for supper with a home made....well half home made tomato sauce with olives, onions and some extra chopped tomato thrown into a nice store bought three cheese and spinach sauce.
It was a later supper and I forgot to take a picture, but we ate it in front of the tv with candles and a bottle of Cabernet Savignon watching Coronation Street LOL.

And last but never least.....caught again!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mmm mmm mmm! Looks good! Sounds good too!
Marc

Anonymous said...

Pretty china and the meal sounds delicious.
C'mon Tea..where else is Elvis supposed to sit when he watches Corrie ? !

JacquiG said...

What pretty dishes! I've seen similar ones before and always been attracted to that type of china as well. But my everyday dishes are the Blue Willow pattern and my good dishes are my Grandmothers Old Country Roses (not the pattern I would have selected for myself).

That picture of the dog on the sofa, the whole composition of the room looks so cosy and comfortable! And a cute dog too!

Jackie in ON

Kim @ Twice Remembered said...

Hehe, look at that sheepish look on your doggy's little face...how precious!

What a beautiful candlelight dinner setting, and how cozy to have it in the living watching a show with wine to boot!

You have a very beautiful and warm living room...I don't blame your doggy for wanting to jump on the couch and cozy up:)

VintagePretty said...

I love the china - I myself found a stash last week but haven't posted pictures yet - I should! The candle light dinner looks so cozy and that dog of yours is adorable :)

Saur♥Kraut said...

Oooooh, what pretty dishes! My family collects that sort of thing, too. We grew up amid antiques, and my mom's basically the Martha Stewart of Florida. ;o)

Farmgirl Cyn said...

Love the sweet dishes. I am always on the lookout for pretty china. I have an assortment I can choose from, but for the most part we use white restaurant ironstone. Dinner sounds delish, especially the wine!

Rowan said...

Your dishes are really pretty and I like your vision of the 1940s housewife thinking of her husband or son overseas while drinking tea. The photo of Elvis on nthe sofa is great he's such a lovable looking dog.

Anonymous said...

Well done Elvis, you're a smart dog! I like the pots, it all sounds very English in your house even watching Coronation Street. I'm afraid the potting shed is out of action for some reason so I'm speaking from the hills today.

Heather said...

lovely dishes!!! what is the pattern called?

Tea said...

Hi Heather :

These ones are "Meissen Pink Rose Bouquet" with 22K Gold Gilding. It was hard to find it beause there are so many different patterns with this gold.

Here`s what I found....
History:

The Limoges China Company was founded in 1900 in Sebring, Ohio and has a somewhat checkered history. They first opened under the name Sterling China, then quickly changed to the Sebring China Company as the Sterling name was very similar to the Sterling China Company already in operation. The name was very shortly changed once again to the Limoges China Company as the Sebring China Company also already existed. They operated under this name until the late 1940's when they were threatened with a lawsuit by the Limoges Company in France. This was due, once again, to their use of a name, in this case Limoges, which was already in use by an established company.



At that time, they started to call their products American Limoges and the name was changed to the American Limoges China Company. They also occasionally used the name Lincoln China Company for marketing purposes which enabled them to give an exclusive dealership to more than one customer in the same town, a rather common practice of the time. In the 1940's, the well known designer Victor Schreckengost worked for them at times while also designing for the Salem China Company and the Sebring Pottery Company who were all under the same ownership as the Limoges China Company at that time. Because of this, you can find duplication of patterns and designs made during this time by the different companies. Most of Sebring’s designs during the late 1930s and early 1940s incorporated 22K Gold into the pottery making it highly sought after. Due to the High Quality Gold content, the pieces became known as Golden Ware by Sebring Co. In early 1955, the American Limoges China Company went into bankruptcy and closed their doors. Their sister and daughter companied followed suit shortly thereafter.

tea
xo

couragetocreatewriteandlove said...

Tea:
What a nice surprise from your mom, and they look beautiful, what a lovely treasure.
Sometimes that's how my husband and I eat dinner, Aren't we lucky?

Anonymous said...

That pasta sounds great! That picture of your dog is cute.
:-)

Daisy Lupin said...

That is an absolutely gorgeous set of china, you re very lucky, you must feel elegant eating out off it.

Alexiev said...

Muy lindas copas para te...

Bob said...

Hi Tea, Thanks for taking a look at the Hiking Gardener, you said that you didn't realise it was me, did you also realise it was me who sent you the mail with the pics of the garden the other day? Anyway I just thought I would check if you got it okay. Take care.

Tea said...

UKBob,

I didn`t get the garden pics :(
But I`d love to see them!

Janet said...

The dishes are beautiful. How sweet of your mom to do that. And the pasta sounds delicious. And last but not least, I think Elvis looks quite comfortable. He seems to be such a loveable dog.

Janie Walsh said...

I think one of my teapots matches your new dishes. I also love blue and white dishes. What a lucky find you made!

Blue Willow China