All things white and beautiful

Ever since I was old enough to care about such things, I have loved simple white dishes.  When C and I got married, one of my favorite wedding gifts was a large set of white dinnerware with a fruit relief pattern.  Since then, I have accumulated other white dishes, from vintage ironstone to CorningWare's French White bakeware.  I love it all.

Unfortunately, almost anything I have that's breakable has been packed away for at least a couple of years.  Our kitchen wasn't big enough to stash it anywhere safe, let alone display it.  For years I'd had our wedding dishes displayed on an open-shelved hutch, but when our family started *really* growing, I gave a bunch of the dishes to my sister and packed away the rest.  The beautiful old china I inherited from my great aunt has been sitting in a china barrel since we moved into this house almost 8 years ago.  It's a travesty, really.

In our new kitchen, we have enough space available that I could have two whole cabinets for display (plus the small, glass door cabinets on top of the tall uppers), and we'll have the new china cabinet in the dining room.  I am really looking forward to being able to get out my white (and other) dishes and having somewhere safe for them to reside.  I also look forward to USING them again!  I can't wait to see them stacked and arranged on my shelves.

I've been scoping out new (to me) ironstone pieces and have a few things coming to join in the fun.   :o)  I can't afford anything perfect, but really, I don't mind the glaze pops and discoloration and crazing so much anyway.  A lot of this stuff is 100-180 years old.  If an item looks perfect, it's been in a box with no one enjoying it.  If it's a little worn, I can imagine the meals and hands and washing and boo-boos that have been a part of its life.  I'm not a hugely sentimental person, but for some reason, knowing that so many other wives/mothers have used, abused and treasured these items makes them really matter to me.

Here are three interesting things I have coming:

Can you imagine all the things this bowl has held?  It makes me think of mashed potatoes, but it's probably held everything from apples to keys to a sick kid's barf!  It's a J&G Meakin bowl from about 1890.

This one is a Johnson Bros pitcher, ca 1883-1913.  I just thought it was purty, but it could make an awesome receptacle for our ginormous collection of chopsticks.  ;o)

And this little sugar bowl is so sweet!  I think I'll hide my packets of Truvia inside it since they tend to disappear inexplicably.  If this were in good shape, it would have been way out of my price range, but thanks to a little chip on the lid, I paid $14.00.  It's an 1880s Anthony Shaw piece.

A little ironstone eye candy, in closing...