The Snowbird brings winter with her!

Alas, my shop, Deer Path Vintage, is feeling a little empty now. That's because I've flown the Up North coop and migrated south for the winter with the rest of the opposed-to-the-cold birds. I couldn't bring my entire shop with me, but I didn't want to close it up entirely, so I've had to limit what is on the shelves right now. I'll be back up north right after Easter, and I'll be putting many items back--besides adding some new old things.
I do love this creamer and sugar set. Homer Laughlin, of course, and anyone who knows me knows how I love HL. I just don't have room for everything any more, or I would keep it, for sure.

Homer Laughlin for Cunningham Pickett, "Cardinal" design

I love these Poole Pottery dishes, too. They're hand painted and each piece is slightly different. I have two dessert dishes and two dessert bowls and I really love the look and feel of them. Poole is as British as Homer Laughlin is American. Vive La Difference!

Poole Pottery "Constellation" pattern - 1952-55

But let me get back to explaining my title. We came south for some warmth, but I think we brought the cold with us. Everywhere we go, the locals are complaining about the weather--record cold this year, and even three inches of snow one day! I keep my mouth shut. I don't want to tell them that it may have been us.

The local kids got the day off, and some of them had never seen that much snow before. They had to hurry up and build their snowpeople before it melted. Which of course it did by the end of the day.

Snow on the palms 1-13-10

A rare South Carolina beach scene

I've been wandering around the thrift and antique shops here and I'm really pretty astonished at the prices people put on their things. I can understand that times are tight and they want to make a profit, but I have to bite my tongue whenever I reach for a tag that reads three to five times the actual worth. A little research would save them from having to live with those pieces from here to eternity!

Mona

A faded English Garden

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love transferware--particularly Homer Laughlin's English Garden pattern. (which technically is decalware, not transferware) So I was thrilled last week when I won this little creamer on eBay. I was the only bidder and I wondered why, until it arrived today and I saw it up close and personal.

The transfer is badly faded, and I think I know why, but I'll get to that. I went back to the original eBay listing to see if I should have been able to tell just how faded it was. The picture was dark and the transfer looked pretty normal. I'll leave it to others to decide whether the seller was trying to put one over on us.


I should know better than to trust a dark or fuzzy picture--especially if there is only one. But that's not the point of this post.

I wanted to show this because I think what happened to this lovely little creamer is that it was "dishwashered". So let me take a moment out of my sad day to say, as loudly and as forcefully as I can: DO NOT PUT OLD CHINA IN THE DISHWASHER!

The processes used on old china can't stand up to the fury of the machine or the harsh chemicals used in the detergents. I've seen so many pieces ruined that way. Also, it goes without saying that scrapers and scrubbers should be far, far away from these delicate pieces. I know some of them don't LOOK delicate, but they're old and they're often painted or decaled and they don't LIKE chemical baths or rub-a-dub-dubbings.

I didn't pay much for my little creamer, so I'll keep it until another one comes along. I love the creamy matte glaze and the Riviera design. I even love the picture, though I feel as though I'm looking at it through a fine mist. . .

That's my sad story for the day, along with the moral. If I've saved even one person from. . .

Oh, boo hoo. . .

Mona

Toward a New Year

Happy, happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas. Blogging went by the wayside in December, as I got further and further behind and worked like the devil to catch up. (I never did catch up, and the New Year started anyway.)

But I had to show you two super Christmas presents I was absolutely THRILLED to receive:

Pearl China Tea Set

The color is a teal green, and the tea pot has the Pearl curlicue on it. The scroll and flowers are a bright gold. Lovely! I have to do more research to find the pattern and year(s) produced.

Homer Laughlin "English Garden"

This is my absolute favorite American china pattern. I have three small pieces, and am always lusting for more, but this gorgeous platter was beyond my wildest dreams! Here is a closeup of the cottage (Love it, love it, LOVE it):

And. . .I know Christmas is over, but I wanted to show you some pictures of my daughter's Department 56 Snowbabies collection. Every Christmas for almost 20 years, I've bought her a new little bisque Snowbabies figurine, and it's become almost as much fun as buying something wonderful for myself!

For the past five or six years, my granddaughter, now eleven, has done the choosing, and I'm happy to let her. She takes a long time, and chooses very carefully, because her auntie has promised that the collection will be hers someday. What an incentive!

Every year my daughter and her niece, the Snowbabies heiress, come up with new ways to display them. This year they outdid themselves. They placed different sized boxes here and there in a garden window, laid tiny light strings around them, and covered the whole thing with yards of batting. They look adorable!

This is what it looks like at night.

Snowbabies started in Germany some time in the nineteenth century, and are still being made there. Department 56 began issuing their own versions around 1986, and kept to the original all-white figurines until recently, when they joined up with Disney and Warner Bros, added color, and totally ruined them, as far as I'm concerned. My daughter and granddaughter agree. They prefer the classic Snowbabies, though you'll notice there is one partially colored "Frosty the Snowman" in there. Who could say no to Frosty?

My best wishes for a Glorious year ahead for everyone.

New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. ~Mark Twain