Writing about the old bread crock yesterday got me thinking about some of the other vintage items I have around the house and which are used (or admired) on a regular basis.
There are the two Sylvac bowls / vases which adorn one side of the mantelpiece, the smaller yellow one was a gift from my mother, the larger cream one was picked up by me in a charity shop in Exeter quite a few years ago. These are wonderfully tactile pieces as the crocus pattern is in quite deep relief.
On the other side of the mantelpiece are these black and white 1960s pieces of china - I'm not sure what make they are as there is no back stamp. They are both from charity shops - the white one first and the black one a few years later.
Also in the living room is this wonderful fifties large Italian jug / vase. I know this came from a jumble sale when we lived in Nottingham so I must have had it at least 10 years. I've recently put it to work as a store for some of my knitting needles.
When it comes to crockery for food everything we own is second-hand, and most of it mis-matched. We have a set of six Chef Ware blue and white side plates which I bought in a charity shop in Swanage, with the rest of the plates being very plain 1930s cream ones with a green border which were my aunt's. We also have these two Johnson Bros. rose-patterened plates which my sister found for me in a charity shop - these tend to get used on a daily basis as they are so pretty and summery.
For occasional use there is the wonderful Majolica-style bean pod-shaped plate which I got in a jumble sale over 20 years ago. This tends to come out in the summer when we're having tomato and mozzarella salad.
And this tiny lettuce-leaf jug which usually has mint sauce served in it. This is a more recent acquisition, having been bought a mere five or six years ago in a charity shop.
Finally, the piece de resistance of my treasured vintage china - this wonderful Crown Devon gravy jug / sauce boat in the Stockholm pattern. It is the last remaining part of the dinner set my parents received for their wedding in the very late 1950s. Such an evocative stylised pattern, absolutely typical of the period, and with wonderful childhood memories for me.
I'd been looking all over the place for this jug as I hadn't seen it since we moved here a couple of years ago. I assumed it was packed away in a box in the loft so I was most surprised when it surfaced in a box in the shed yesterday. I was out there looking for bits and bobs to build a 'home made' humane mouse trap re: the instructions given on this site (www.smithsax.btinternet.co.uk - do check out the photos of successfully caught mice - wonderful). We did build the trap yesterday but have had no success so far, but nihil desperandum!!
Anyway, whilst poking about in the boxes in the shed I also found these two huge serving plates / platters in this fabulous 'gingham' pattern. These are just a bit too big for me to use so they're destined for ebay.
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