I like to use my vintage china. One challenge: setting a table for a group, when I only have a few of the piece types I want to use to serve the foods I’ve cooked. What can you do, when you have only two? Secondary marketplaces are spotty in their detailed offerings. Yes, there’s lots […]
I’ve been in the grocery store a lot lately, and seen ladies with their lists, checking off the items they need for their holiday party menus. (Sorry guys. I know some of you plan, too.) They are planning for the food they’ll serve for special days coming soon: Thanksgiving and Christmas among them. I wonder […]
The popular Royal Albert china pattern Old Country Roses came up, on a conference call with some Internet colleagues. It is a classic pattern, made since 1962 in numerous versions, that is still going strong today. Old Country Roses has a fluted and non-fluted version, the holiday version, the garden and damask versions. And that’s […]
Pyrex made these round baking dishes, for layer cakes and similar desserts, in the 1950s and 1960s. We eat more pie than cake at our house, but these dishes work quite well for upside down cakes, coffee cake and similar, single layer cakes that are handy for snacks and quick lunch accompaniments. And they are […]
Quite likely, everyone I know grew up with Corning Ware cookware and bakeware in the Cornflower Blue pattern. Cornflower Blue is so associated with the company that as soon as you see it, you think “Corning Ware.” The sauce maker, though, is less common. These were sold in the 1960s and 1970s, with and without […]
This quality pottery is handmade in Zanesville, Ohio, by “the original” Hartstone. This company has roots back to the 1970s. It went through a period of corporate ownership, and was closed. But in a town of 25,000, the loss of 400 jobs was painful, not to mention the loss of a piece of history. Southeastern […]
We’d never heard of Merry Mushroom, though we must have walked by pieces in this pattern many, many times. This motif is the height of 1970s kitsch… There are lots and lots of items made in this pattern, right down to the napkin holder, wall clock and dishes for corn on the cob. Many of […]
Finding special vintage dishes is fun! See what I brought home with me in recent weeks, including some extra special items.
My dishie antennae perk up when I see pieces of Mikasa’s Mediterrania line in my shopping travels. The patterns are so retro. Many of them show the best of modern style from the 1970s. The shapes are simple and sleek. The colors and motifs just work for me. I think Blue Bird is probably my […]