POTTED MEMORIES

How are you all on this autumn morning? I was going to do a blog on the great antique and vintage fair I went to up in Durham this week end, but the camera batteries ran out so I couldn't up load photos, and as I had allotted a little time over a grabbed lunch to drop in and do a post to let you know i am still hanging in here!! As you know from my last post we had a bit of a flood .... insurance men, and builders to quote for work have been and gone , we are living with dehumidifiers ,machines that blow, some that suck and others i have no idea what they are doing!!! this morning I went into the dinning room to check on them ,coffee cup in hand and to survey the mess and all my belongings piled at the Dry end of the room, and I thought please let it all be sorted for Christmas ,as i hate to say it its not that far away, and as I let my mind slip away with thoughts of Christmas( I have been designing and starting Christmas hampers where I work,yes all ready!) my eyes fell on my armoire full of my Victorian dinner service, which will all have to be taken out and stored safely when the floors come up,... and I began to realise what a special place these pieces of pottery have in my memories of family Christmases and special occasions,





This design is called Alexandria and as made by Wallis and gimpson, of lane delph potteries staffordshire, and was made in about 1885, I started collecting this pottery over 26 years a go when a friend in wales gave me 6 plates as a thank you for looking after his antique shop when he went to Australia for holiday, ( he is no longer with us so, a added extra layer of love attached to them) they were on a dresser in his shop and I so admired them and thought about collecting blue and white stuff ,but thought this turquoises and white just a little different, so by hook and by crook have amassed over the years over a hundred and odd pieces,




I can remember the story behind finding every pieces, I was told by a antique dealer it would be near impossible to find a teapot as they got broke so easily, so when I spotted this at the back of a closed antique shop in a little village in Ireland when we had stopped for chips on the way back to catch the ferry back from our family holiday. i refused to budge and was jumping up and down outside on the pavement ,because to me it was like finding the holy grail!!!we phoned the owner with D wailing we WILL miss the bl--dy ferry.. thank fully the owner came, opened up we did the deal and I hugged the teapot all the way across the Irish sea on the ferry!!!

I find it harder and harder to find ,and i have bid on pieces on ebay but there is a lovely lady called Antonia who lives near Windsor who also collects it and we have had bidding wars, we contacted each other and now correspond and tip each other off on pieces , but still hard to get, if i am ever murdered ,please inform the police it was Antonia who would kill for my muffin dish as she really wants it!!!


I like to think of all the other people who have dinned off these plates down the last 125 years ,there celebrations , there shared times as family's , and how it has survived wars etc, I like to think of them treasuring and keeping it for best like I do,



If I don't blog for a while I may be in prison ... as I have spotted 8 cups and saucers in a house at Beamish museum , and as i don't have them in my collection, I have to have them ho yes I do.., I wrote a begging letter to the curator, but as they had been gifted to the museum she wouldn't let me buy them even though I said name your price(GOD , hope D doesn't read this!!) so I am planning a raid, soon...


our table at Christmas, boxing day evening , supper for the family, not fully laded yet.. so please ladies fingers crossed for me and my dinning room ,so it can look like this again and create another memory to be added to the many allready........ batteries charging as I write this so I can blog soon about Durham ,and meeting two lovely blog ladies!!