Nov. 14 Prince Charles' Birthday, 1940 Anniversary of Bombing of Coventry, THANKFUL Sale

 Happy Birthday to Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall!

Born November 14, 1948

And also on November 14th...

 The nave at Coventry Cathedral, before and after November 14, 1940...

The 70th anniversary of the Nazi blitz on the town of Coventry, England was marked today. A horrible day during World War II for the family of my husband, living in Birmingham, England 20 miles away. Along with his younger sister, he was not evacuated to Wales for safety with his 2 older sisters. His oldest brother was serving in the Coldstream Guards.

The bombing was remembered as horrific and John often wonders how his parents coped with the terrors of war  and just trying to feed the family between times spent in the bomb shelter at the end of the garden.  Coventry was a strategic site for the bombers because of it's heavy industrial plants and rail interchanges. Over 1200 people were killed and most of the city was destroyed. John's father and brother who was on a short leave had walked to the bridge over the railroad bridge close to their home and watched the planes dropping their payloads and the subsequent explosions and fireballs.

As they stood there watching, John's father Sam thought he hear Annie his wife calling him so they left the railroad bridge and started quickly home. A few minutes later the railroad bridge went up in an explosion as it, too was bombed. Annie hadn't called, but if they had stayed they would have gone up in the explosion. 

story at the BBC of the anniversary of the Coventry bombing Nov. 14, 1940

Thousands were killed, much of the city was destroyed....
I can't imagine what living through it was like... but the BBC has an interesting webpage with recordings and accounts of what it was like...

BBC: What was it like living through the Coventry Blitz Timeline

From World War II era, this is a handmade silk... parachute silk, probably, embroidered RAF tea cozy from Time Was Antiques .

For more info, click on the photo.

And... our THANKFUL 15% Off coupon code sale
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A Young Jane Austen...Read Her Own Handwritten Notebooks

For the bicentennial of Jane Austen's death in 1817, the British Museum is hosting a special display of several of Jane Austen's earl hand written notebooks, and I just had to share them. 

The notebooks date between the ages of 11 and 17, and are fascinating. The illustrations are by Jane's favourite sister Cassandra, and are thought to be drawn from family members. The photo above is from a BBC article about the exhibit, and you will enjoy visiting the article for more info and photos.
Fascinating!  Here is a link to the article on the BBC website:

Jane Austen Bicentennery Exhibit at the British Museum

Prince Charles Tries Pottery At Middleport, Kate Fills In For Charles

It's been a busy few days for the Royal family. As reported a few days ago, Prince Charles visited Stoke-on-Trent to view Middleport Pottery that was saved by his Prince's Regeneration Trust. He took time out during the dedication and festivities to try his hand at applying transfer printed decoration to a jug....

And didn't look exactly thrilled with the results.....

For more from the BBC about the visit, click on the photo to go to the article.

Elsewhere, his mother, Queen Elizabeth II continued her Australian tour which has been a great success...aside from someone "mooning" the queen in Brisbane on Monday. Sheer Cheek!!! (sorry...couldn't resist!)

In another bit of royal news, Kate or Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge filled in for Prince Charles on Oct. 26th for a gala private charity dinner for  In Kind Direct, on of Prince Charles' charities at Clarence House. The prince had to call on Kate because he had to fly to Saudi Arabia to offer the Queen's condolences on the loss of the crown prince. Apparently Kate filled in admirably.

For more on the Duchess of Cambridge's stepping into the breach, click on the photo to go to the Daily Telegraph article.

Have a great day! We have shopping to do and a big order to pack and ship to a serviceman. Just got off the phone with him and was thrilled to be able to tell him how much we appreciate his service to our country. Never met him, but he is overseas doing his job for the American people.

BBC Downton Abbey spoof episodes - Uptown Downstairs Abbey - TOO Funny!

I just posted this on my other blog, Antiques And Teacups,  but wanted to post it here as well.


From a blog I follow, Jane Austen Today, I received notification that they had posted a BBC spoof of Downton Abbey called Uptown Downstairs abbey with such famous British actors as Joanna Lumley and Simon Callow. It is really funny with all sorts of innuendo and thrown away reference lines. The music and setting are from Downton Abbey and Highclere Castle. Too funny!


I especially liked the reference to the Teasmade...which I just posted on Royal Wedding Wednesday with a photo because Prince Charles & Princess Diana got one as a wedding present. 


Anyway, lots of laughs. We loved it!
Uptown Downstairs Abbey spoof at Jane Austen for Today

Will and Kate Song by Canadian, My husband the Coldstream Guard and Charles & Diana Wedding china

The BBC website posted a link to a YouTube video of a song a Canadian group wrote...and illustrated...for Will and Kate which is quite cute!
You can click on the link here to go hear it. I especially liked the fun drawings done to accompany the song. Cute! And nice song!
BBC link to Will & Kate song


A question I get asked about my DH is...is it true he guarded the Queen at Buckingham Palace, and the answer is...yes! My husband was a member of the Coldstream Guards, a crack infantry regiment that is part of the Brigade Of Guards. The Coldstream guards are affectionately known in the brigade as the Chilly Rivers.

This is not my DH. When he emigrated to the US he left his photos behind and his sister now has them.  He was from a family of guardsmen and until recently you had to have family connections to join the guards...as well as be over 6 feet tall. His brother was a guardsman as well as an uncle who was a Company Sergeant Major. The idea of being over 6 feet as well as the bearskin hat...which is actually bearskin and weigh 7-8 pounds...was to make the guards look even taller and more intimidating than they already were.


The guards used to find the guard at Buckingham Palace outside the gates that are now closed in front of the Palace. There are 2 guard houses inside which used to be outside the gates. The year my DH was guarding the palace they were hauled inside the gates because of an incident involving an American tourist and a Coldstream Guard...not my DH but a good friend of his. 


The Guardsmen were famous for remaining impassive no matter what, and were purposely trained for this. But, as they were standing outside the gates easily accessed by tourist this was not always easy. Some people made it a quest to get a reaction from a guardsman. One particular American woman was being beyond the norm offensive trying to provoke a reaction. I won't tell you what she did...I would be too embarrassed. But...the guard reacted, was reported and the guards were permanently moved inside the gates.


To explain, if you have ever watched the changing of the guards, you will notice that the 2 guardsmen seem to miraculously be able to know what the other will do and when. BUT...there are tricks involved. Under the pavement where the guards stand is a hollow space that clearly relays sound to the other guard position. Then men are in steel toed boots. When they slam feet or rifle butts it resounds to the other guard to begin a particular maneuver...indicated by a code of heels, toes, slams. Then as they march toward each other, finger signals are given to communicate. SO...on that fateful day, the guardsman telegraphed a quick 2 paces forward and slammed into the American tourist's shins with his steel toed boots.  Sounds terrible, but the provocation was extreme, and when the case was heard it was dismissed with no penalty for the guardsman but an apology, and the guards were moved in.

We do have his patches. There is a Guards Museum in London that we visited about 10 years ago which brought tears to my husband's eyes. It was fabulous! He still wears his guards tie at times and has a Coldstream Guards key fob he treasures.

This is the guards at their inside guards box during a change of the guards.

A current image used as a recruitment poster. There was a reality show 2 years ago of 8 weeks following 6 new recruits through a year in the Guards that was fabulous.


So...you can see why we, at Time Was Antiques are strong supporters of England and English antiques, collectibles and British Royal Memorabilia!


We just found a box in the warehouse of items from the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana in 1981 that have been stored since 2002 when we closed our actual antique shop to go exclusively online. I had wondewred where they had gone! We have bone chinamugs and plates from Chinacraft, a division of Caverswall, England on e of the foremost manufactureres of royal commemoratives.

The interesting thing about these designs is they include Highgrove, the organic estate of Prince Charles. They were a numbered edition of 5,000 and each one of the mugs and plates are separately numbered. Pretty cool!!!  To see more photos and info of the mugs and plates at Time Was Antiques, just click on the photos.


Have a great day, a cup of tea with a friend and cheers!

BBC Video about the making of Royal Wedding China by Royal Crown Derby Cool!

This is a link to a great video on the BBC website about the making of Royal Wedding china by Royal Crown Derby. If you have never seen china made, this is a good way to see some of the process. That used to be one of our favorite things to do on our English buying trips...to visit the manufacturing potteries near Stoke-on-Trent. Most have closed, so this is great. I had to wait through a Priceline commercial, but it's worth it:


BBC Video Making Royal Wedding China