Things I've been up to: fly fringe, Christmas, England, Titanic, knitting...

It's early morning here in London and I'm sitting in the lounge of my hotel with toast and a cup of tea. No one wakes up this early on vacation except the businessy types and the jet lagged. 

It's very nice and quiet. 

Actually, I'm the only one. Cricket, cricket.

Since my husband's still asleep and I'm sitting in this nice, quiet room, finally with a moment all to myself, I thought I would catch up on the last few weeks of fun things I have been doing.

And first things first, a belated Merry Christmas to all, and an early Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season.

Test go of creating passementerie.

Classic cars and a tea set. Day trip!

So, not too far from Las Vegas is Boulder City (with the dam), which we love, because it has a charming little old town street, a historic district with homes from the 30's and it is very "Mayberry." Well, if you use your imagination a little...

But anyway, point being, they do all kinds of cute small town things, like this car show and antiques market that we happened upon last time we drove out there for lunch. It was such a blast! We had a bite to eat and walked around and ditched Vegas for a few hours. 

I especially love going to Boulder for antiques, since we don't have too many good shops in the city. Lots of depression glass and vintage china, and lucky me, at the antiques market I came across the most amazing tea set. It's only silver plate, but I'm not complaining! It was in stellar shape with not a scratch on it, complete with tea, coffee, sugar, cream, waste bowl and tray. It was a steal, and the best part is that it's the same pattern as our silverware. What luck! It was like it was waiting for us!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Happy Sunday!

Where's Branson?

Tablescape Thursday: A Garden of Jadeite

Welcome to tablescape thursday number two! Special thank you to Between Naps on the Porch for hosting this fun, weekly event.

This week I have a garden green theme, complete with froggy pitcher and birdie salt and peppers. The luminous jadeite glows in the afternoon sun and yellow napkins add some cheery color to a mostly white background.

Fire King Jade-ite in "Jane Ray" shown with yellow and white
 print napkins from Target

Antique mother of pearl cutlery is mixed with Wallace "Grand Baroque"

An alternative to traditional chargers, printed paper cake-liners from
Sur la Table add a bit of fun to the table.

Tweet tweet! I collect bird salt and peppers.
This colorful pair are from Pottery Barn.

Bee themed glassware by La Rochere. An
"Antique Silver" coaster from Pottery Barn
catches any condensation from cold
 ice tea. Don't want to ruin the printed swiss
dot tablecloth!

I love how the light illuminates jadeite!

I love love love this frog pitcher from Sur la Table!

So as promised, I will share some history bits.

Jadeite

This green colored glass dates back to the 1930's. Started by McKee Glass company, jade kitchenware and dinnerware was originally inexpensive and serviceable. Next came Jeanette Glass Company ewith thier colored glass line. Jeanette coined the term "jadeite." Almost a decade later, Anchor Hocking's Fire-king division introduced their "jade-ite." Now, among collectors, all green glassware of this style is just referred to as jadeite. It remained popular into the 70's, with its hey day during the 40's and 50's. Even at the height of it's popularity it was very cheap. Mostly jadeite was distributed as give aways, sometimes in boxes of oatmeal, other times as a gift if you went to the movie theater.

My pattern, "Jane Ray," was given it's name decades after production by collectors. It is one of Anchor Hocking's domestic lines. Anchor Hocking is most well known for it's "Restaurant Ware" line, which was very hearty and was originally used in institutions such as schools and hospitals. Now it is highly collectable. 

Jadeite is a fun thing to collect. It is relatively inexpensive and very available. Most antique shops or flea markets, even thrift shops, have a some for sale. Basically, you don't have to search too far to come up with a set.

Mother of Pearl Cutlery

The most popular time for mother of pearl (MOP) handled cutlery was late 1800's, early nineteen. MOP handled pieces were popular for dessert service, so they are usually blunt knives and forks. I have yet to come across antique MOP spoon, though I have been looking. I like to use mine for breakfast, since they are very delicate. MOP pieces are often silver plated with sterling ferrules (the little silver band between the handle and fork/knife implement). When they are indeed silver plated, antique MOP can be used as a fish service. Today, stainless steel is made differently than it was in years past, but in Victorian times, steel reacted with the fish and created an off taste, which is why antique fish services pieces are traditionally silver or silver plate.

La Rochere Glasses

La Rochere goes back to 1475 France. If you read French, click here for the company's history. The bee pattern is inspired by the Napoleonic Bee. Apparently, the glasses are based on a set that Napoleon had made with his symbol. Napoleon.org says that the bee is a "Symbol of immortality and resurrection, the bee was chosen so as to link the new dynasty to the very origins of France. Golden bees (in fact, cicadas) were discovered in 1653 in Tournai in the tomb of Childeric I, founder in 457 of the Merovingian dynasty and father of Clovis. They were considered as the oldest emblem of the sovereigns of France."

And to learn about the Wallace "Grand Baroque" silverware, please visit my post from last week.

Happy Thursday all!

A Tea Party and an Antique French Embroidered Handkerchief

First the tea party.

I had the pleasure of being invited to a bridal shower the other day and it happened to be a tea party. A very well done tea party at that. It was everything you expected from a tea party, including darling desserts and fab china!

Trembleuse in Old Country Roses by Royal Albert

Above is a "trembluese" in the "Old Country Roses" pattern by Royal Albert. I was like eeeeeeeee!!! when I saw them. 

You just don't see a trembluese every day.

The trembluese is the precursor to the "party pack" - think the plate that you hang your wine glass off the side of. They originated in the 18th century actually. Trembluese comes form the french for tremble. In early examples, the cup fits into an elevated rim to hold it steady, likely for the elderly. In the 19th century they morphed into what we see here, where the cup is offset on a larger-than-a-saucer plate, which allows the user to hold a cup and plate in one hand, instead of getting bogged down by a cup, saucer and plate. Very handy!

Old Country Roses has been in production since the 1960's. Royal Albert goes back to 1896.

The pastry forks are from two different sets. The set on the right is "Repousse" by Kirk Steiff. Repousse is one of my favorite patterns. It is especially interesting because it has been in production here in America since 1828! That makes it the oldest pattern still in production.

Marina and I taking tea :)
If you want to know some interesting history bits,
visit her blog, the Enlightened Age.

So this brings me to the antique handkerchief.

While at the party, the bride was given an antique hankie to carry at her wedding. It reminded me that I never did put my hankie from my wedding in acid free paper. Trip to the wedding box! I ended up wrapping everything I could find in my tissue paper: hankie, veil, candles, flowers... Why risk it?

But before I wrapped up the handkerchief, I took some pictures to share.

The hankie was given to me by my grandmother and I carried it in my purse for my wedding. It was given to her by a friend at the time of her wedding. It is French and probably early 20th, late 19th century. The embroidery looks to be machine done, as it is very uniform, but I am not 100% positive. Either way, it's gorgeous! So elaborate!

Important!!! PS...

Acid free paper is a must! I really must stress how important it is to store your worthy fabric pieces in an acid free environment. As a costumer and collector of antique/vintage textiles, I have learned that proper storage is imperative. 

Heirloom Sewing for Children has great acid free paper in big sheets (30x40''). Click here to be redirected.

Get some acid-free, archival quality paper and tissue and wrap all your goodies in it, then store them where there is air flow and it is cool and dark and dry. Natural fibers especially need to breath (linen, silk, cotton...). Also, it is unwise to store anything in plastic for long stretches of time. If you live in a humid environment, the fabric can get mildew and sometimes the plastic breaks down and then you have a mess.

This applies to both old fabrics as well as new things you may make as a costumer. It would be so sad to spend hours and hours of hard work stitching or embroidering a piece, only to find it years later with those awful yellow discolorations that are a nightmare to get out. Wrapping in paper also helps with wrinkles, believe it or not.

When wrapping up your things, it helps to arrange the tissue so when you fold, the fabric doesn't touch itself and it is always separated by a layer of tissue.

If you really want to up the anti, wrap seasonal clothes, lengerie, delicate fabrics, etc in acid free paper to store. Some people do this when they pack as well, but I don't have the patience.

Trying something new: Tablescape Thursdays.

Recently I heard about Tablescape Thursdays, from Between Naps on the Porch, and I thought it would be something fun to participate in. I have been a little obsessed with china lately...

Basically, each Thursday, any one who wants to play along gets to submit a "tablescape" to her blog and the blogger does one too. They're quite fun to browse through, and it's almost like a fun homework assignment to come up with a new one each week (I wish we had done that in school!). I don't know if I will participate every time, but I thought I would give it a shot.

With one added rule.

To keep with the theme of my blog, and what motivates me to collect china/silver in the first place, the table has to involve a historical element. Think antique plates, vintage linens, reproduction pieces, etc. I encourage anyone who wants to give it a try. You can link to her page, or just to mine. I would love to see what beautiful, historically inspired tables others can create. Even if it's just a vintage tea cup on a nifty napkin. Go for it!

Since this is my first one, and it's already Thursday (eek! Where has the week gone?), I thought I'd pull a picture from a couple weekends ago. Sunday breakfast. It's the last time I took a picture of my table.

And to note, this is only inspired by history, it in no way is a historically accurate table. Just clearing that up! Also, it's more a set table, than a "table scape" but eh whatever. It's for fun.

Yummy! All gone! 

Coffee set: Herend "Queen Victoria" and "Rothschild Bird"

Tray: Wallace "American Chippendale"

Silverware: Wallace "Grand Baroque"

Plates and Tea Cups/Saucers: Royal Copenhagen "Flora Danica"

Crystal: Waterford "Lismore"

Salt Cellars and Silver Serving Dish: Unknown, but purchased at a silver shop in Merchant Square, in Williamsburg.

Jam Pots: Bacarrat

Egg cups: Unknown, purchased from Bloomingdales.

Small Plates: Bernardaud "Constance"

Butter server: Unknown maker, c. 1920.

Muffineer/Castor: Unknown maker. Purchased on Portobello Rd, London.

Linens: Waterford hemstiched

So a bit about each piece, and why this table is inspired by history:

Starting with the china, I went a bit in depth about Royal Copenhagen's Flora Danica recently. In short, it has been in production since the 18th century. It was originally commissioned as a set for Catherine the Great. The Herend coffee pot is in the "Queen Victoria" pattern. The original set was introduced in 1851 at the First World Exhibition in London. It was purchased by Queen Victoria herself and was later named after her. "Rothschild Bird" was first created in 1860 for the Rothschild family. It portrays a 19th century tale about Baroness Rothschild, who lost a pearl necklace in her garden. Days later it was found by her gardener, who saw birds playing with it in a tree.

The smaller, green plates are by Bernardaud, "Constance," and are Limoges porcelain. Limoges is a hard paste porcelain that has been made in Limoges, France, since the 18th century. Bernardaud was established after the Revolution, and the Contance pattern is reminiscent design during the French Empire.

The antique silver pieces speak for themselves. The covered butter, which can be seen next to the jam pots, is from the 1920's. The sugar castor was a gift, brought back from Portobello Road, and my husband and I picked up the salt cellars and covered serving dish (holding the waffles) when we were in Virginia. 

The silverware is new, but is in the "Grand Baroque" pattern, reminiscent of baroque design. Wallace has been making Grand Baroque since 1941.

The crystal is Waterford, which is one of the oldest crystal manufacturers. It was established in 1783 in Ireland. "Lismore" had it's 50th anniversary in 2002.

The linen under the coffee set is displayed pressed. In the 18th century, linens were set out with creases to show that the house had a press.

P.S. If you want to join in, take this handy badge for your blog:

Some very pretty fabric, an inkwell and a snuff box.

Last time I was in Williamsburg I bought a ton of reproduction printed cotton. I got enough for two simple dresses. I am absolutely in love with this "bat wing" fabric (above), but I don't know what to do with it. Part of me thinks the answer is pretty straight forward: simple anglaise, but another part of me loves the print so much (and it's surprisingly modern), I almost want to make something I can wear out of the house. Or something for my house, like some great throw pillows. I'm saving it till the lightbulb clicks.

Below is more reproduction cotton from Williamsburg. This is much more "18th century", and I'm sure I will be whipping it up into a dress soon enough. Though it would make very pretty bedding...

But in the mean time, while I wait to get inspired, I will still be working on my 1804 dress embroidery. I've been picking it up as I can, fitting it in while I watch TV. I haven't been super diligent about finishing it, but since I have no deadline I'm trying to relax and appreciate having something fun to work on. I really enjoy embroidery.

In other news, I have been doing a lot of antique shopping. A couple especially cool finds: I found a beautiful silver, late 18th century ink well and my husband found the most awesome silver snuff box. It's 1780's and is in AMAZING condition. It looks like it was never used. The hinge is very strong and smooth. He uses it for vitamins :)

The little box in the middle is fixed to the tray.
I wonder what to put inside... Maybe my seal and some sealing wax?

The ink pot.

The pounce pot, or sander.

The ink pot and sander still have their original crystal pots.
They have a lovely etched circle design down the sides,
echoing the beading along the edge of the silver.

Isn't the filigree work on the sander superb!?

The charming little snuff box.

No doubt the design is hand tooled.

The inside is gold washed.

The Anchor is for Birmingham, the "ML" stands for the maker,
Matthew Linwood, and the "P" in the shield denotes the year, 1787.

To give a perspective of size. It's very cute and small!
Just a little teeny bit of scratches.