Thursday Tea Things And Talk, Union Jack Mug, History of Stay Calm And Carry On

Hello and welcome to Thursday Tea Things And Talk, and I am joining Vintage Thingie Thursday with Coloradolady and Miss Spenser's Teacup Thursday. Today I have a Dunoon, England bone china mug that is the Union Jack, or flag of Great Britain that I have in the shop Time Was Antiques.

This is one of my favorites, but then I'm prejudiced! It's the perfect size for a good cuppa in the morning. Sometimes my honey has coffee in it, but it's usually tea. PG tips is my favorite morning cuppa at the moment, rather mundane but its starts the day well. Green in the mid morning and back to a nice strong English black blend for afternoon tea. Lovely!

The reason I chose this as my Thursday Tea Things post was because of this:

 I know we have all seen this poster, and variations of it in the last few years, but I came across a YouTube video about the refinding of the poster and it's renaissance as a culture icon in 1999 which I have added below.  The poster was one of 3 designs from World War II. My husband and I were really interested in the video. Now that's vintage! Here is the video:

This is the version I have on my sidebar!

And please remember Sandi's Tea On The Titanic on April 15th:

 

Have fun visiting the other blog parties and have a cuppa and Keep Calm and Carry On!

 

Thursday Tea Things And Talk, Shelley Teacup, Queen Elizabeth In York, Maundy Thursday

Welcome to Thursday Tea Things and Talk. I am joining Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser and Vintage Thingie Thursday with Coloradolady. Today I want to share several things. It is Maundy Thursday, the day in the Christian calendar that commemorates the Last Supper.

 In honor of the color of Queen Elizabeth's hat in the photo below, I have a Shelley teacup with an aqua feather design. 

The pattern is called Serenity and was made by Shelley between 1940-1966 when the pottery closed and has platinum trim. The shape is Gainsborough, which is a favorite shape. So elegant!

Maundy Thursday has been traditionally celebrated in the UK by royalty giving our Maundy Money to deserving poor. This year Queen Elizabeth II was in York with Prince Philip and Princess Beatrice (she of the pretzel hat at her cousin Prince William's royal wedding to Kate Middleton almost a year ago) for the ceremony. The visit was also part of Queen Elizabeth;s Diamond Jubilee trips around the UK.

Beatrice, who is the daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson is 5th in line for the throne.

In the royal Maundy money tradition dates to medieval times and originally had the monarch or a representative washing the feet of the poor. King George V changed the custom to the current one of the reigning monarch presenting red leather bags (or cases) of money to worthy elderly recipients...one male and female for every year of the monarch's life, so this year there were 86 men and 86 women. Normally the ceremony is done in London, but as Queen Elizabeth was in York on her Diamond Jubilee visit it was done there.

York minster from a 2005 visit

Below is a link to a video of giving the Maundy money and other photos of the York visit from the Daily Mail. Click on the Daily Mail name to go to the article and video or click this link to the video:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2125538/The-Queen-Bea-Royals-hand-money-pensioners-York-mark-Maundy-Thursday.html

I hope your preparations for Easter are going well. I want to also wish our Jewish friends a Pesach Shalom.

Royal Stafford Edwardian Teacup, Downton Abbey and the Darning Mushrooms

Welcome to our Thursday post. I am joining

Miss Spenser ~ http://missspensersblog.blogspot.com/

Teacup Thursday

Coloradolady  ~ http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Because I want to talk about Downton Abbey again (see my last post for a Downton Abbey quiz and Dpownton Abbey paperdolls) I have chose an Edwardian period teacup by Royal Stafford, England that I love.

I love the pattern...and it's blue and white, which I love. I can just see this at afternoon tea at Downton. For more info on the cup and saucer at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

 I don't know if any of you noticed this scene while you were watching Downton Abbey, with ex housemaid Ethel cradking her son Charlie. Sorry the photo isn't very good, but it was the best I could do.  Charlie had a toy he was playing with through most of his scenes, but did any of you guess what it was? Because it wasn't a toy but a common Victorian and Edwardian domestic gadget. Can you guess what it's for?

These are what are called a darner or darning mushroom, and are used to mend socks...you know, like you do every day, right???!!! Well, in the Edwardian and Victorian times you did mend them. The USA preferred the egg shaped darning egg but England has always favored the darning mushroom. Over the years, I have sold them made of ebony, ivory, sterling silver, celluloid, maple, oak, mahogany, china, rosewood and one of my favorites is below:

 This mushroom darner is made of confetti bakelite. Cool!  Darners were even featured in the March 2012 issue of Country Living magazine. How fun is that! 

 

So if you re-watch Downton Abbey, look for Ethel and baby Charlie and his toy!  The darning mushrooms above are from (all except the 1930s red painted one like a real mushroom) the Time Was Antiques archives. To see our current stock (what's left since the Country Living article, that is) here is a link to our DARNING MUSHROOMS.

Have fun visiting the wonderful teacups and Vintage Thingies!

Thursday Teacups And Tea Things, Miss Read Christmas Tales Dunoon Christmas Mug

Hi there. It's Thursday Teacups And Tea Things. Thanks for joining me. I am also joining Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser and Vintage Thingie Thursday with Coloradolady.

I love Christmas mugs...at times I have had 20 or more around the house, but tend to give them away with goodies for my tea drinking friends. But we stocked Dunoon mugs in our antique & tea items shop for years, because we loved the quality. I'm drinking my morning cuppa in one at the moment, but I'll share that one another day. ANYWAY, I recently found this one. The mug is by a favorite Dunoon artist Sue Scullard and goes back to 2001. But the design is so cute. I love the framed windows with all the Christmas goodies inside!  So this is my teacup for today.

To see more of this mug or other Christmas china or Dunoon mugs, click on the photos.

If you have followed my blog for long, you will know that I love Miss Read, the pseudonym of a teacher who wrote a large series of books about several small, rural schools in the small villages in the Cotswolds, England spanning the end of Queen Victoria's reign to World War II. They are a joy and a wonderful window into, really, a vanished England, the one related to my by my family and my husband and his family. The England they knew which is very hard to find now.

Although there are Christmas sections in many of her books, she did 2 exclusively Christmas themed books. This one, Christmas Tales,  was published in 1995. I read it every year. It is 2 stories in one book. Village Christmas which is the story of a baby born in the small village of Fairacre to a new family having difficulty fitting in with old fashioned village ways, and the child's impact on the village.

The other story is called The Christmas Mouse and is about a small boy runaway and his encounter with an elderly spinster at Christmas and other village situations and nostalgic looks back to another century and customs. The book...as all Miss Read stories are...charming, touching and uplifting. The illustrations are wonderful.

It's the sort of book that is part of my annual Christmas reading list. I sit with a lovely Christmas cup of tea in a Christmas mug and just indulge in the pleasure of good literature about the season. Ahh....what can be better???

 

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Teacup Thursday, Spode Christmas Tree, American Annual Of Art 1978

Hello and happy December 1st. Didn't that sneak up on us? It did me. But the outside lights are up and the tree is up but not all decorated. Will find the Christmas CDs & videos in the closet and...Bob's your uncle!

For Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser's blog and Vintage Thingie Thursday with Coloradolady, I have chosen a prennial favorite of mine...Christmas Tree by Spode, which has been being made for about 30 years now. It is really a classic pattern, and so nostalgic. Unfortunatly it is no longer made in the UK, which is a shame. But... There are different versions with and without green trim and mark differences. This set was made in the UK in the 1970s. Cool! I love the little sprigs of mistletoe!

For more info on the Spode Christmas Tree teacup at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

When I was a kindergarten teacher in the 1970s I worked with a woman from the mid west who introduced me to the American Annual Of Literature And Art which was produced by the Augsburg Publishing House in Minneapolis, Minn. The first annual was published in 1931. I don't think it is still published, but I have a few I get out annually at Christmas. This is the 1978 edition. It is a large size paperback, and I had difficulty photographing it, but here are a few of the pages and articles:

 There are stories, poems, music manuscripts and art works in various media. One of the annual features I love is a story  or narrative of the people in a small town in the Victorian era through the first World War leading up to Christmas with all sorts of fun vignettes, snippets of lore and custom and the cutest drawings. Wonderful!

Then there is always a full page contemporary...to the date of publication...art work relating to the nativity. This is the one for 1979 by Richard Huele:

Have a wonderful day visiting the teacup and vintage thingies...and Christmas is coming!
 

Thursday Teacups Shelley English Lakes and Butter Paddles for Vintage Thingies

Happy Thursday! I am joining Antiques And Teacups for Thursday Teacups and Things and Coloradolady for Vintage Thingie Thursday and Teacup Thursday with Miss Spenser.

I love landscape teacups, so this is one of my favorites. The design is called English lakes and it was made by Shelley China, England between 1954-1966 when the company closed.

The lake district is a gorgeous place, and well worth a visit if you haven't been there. I think the teacup design captures it so well!

It also made me think of what to share for Vintage Thingie Thursday. There are a lot of cows in the lake district, so here is a pair of butter paddles I brought home from a buying trip to England. I always think they are so fun when I find them. They are also called butter hands. They were used to incorporate, mix and form butter into slabs, large pats or molds so that the butter would not be warmed by your own hands. They made the work much quicker and much more efficient than doing the job with your bare hands.  They are usually in maple or another fine grained wood, but I have had an ornate pair of Victorian era walnut ones that were quite posh!

To see more info about the Shelley English Lakes teacup or the butter paddles at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos.

Have a great Thursday vising the teacups and Thingies, and don't forget to have a cup of tea with a friend.

Cheers!