Happy Birthday Wedgwood! 261 Years Old

In 1759 on May 1st, Josiah Wedgwood opened his pottery and he began making his name something recognized around the world.

Wedgwood became synonymous with quality table ware and home decor... and is famous for transferware, majolica, jasperware and Queens Ware...the latter created by them.

This is a tray of sample colours for jasperware created in 1773 by Josiah Wedgwood as he perfected the material. This I took at the Wesgwood museum, called the World Of Wedgwood, in Barlaston just outside of Stoke-on-Trent where the pottery started...

 Here are scenes around the museum...

The Museum collection was almost dispersed in 2012 when undergoing financial difficulties, but saved by public and private donations in 2014.
Wedgwood, which had be joined into WWRD or Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton in 1989. 
in 2015 WWRD was acquired by Fiskars, Finland and is still owned and operated by them. The lines have shrunk, changed and in 2019 word came that the museum was again under threat.
With the virus situation, I have little hope it can survive as it was expected to be able to support itself with visitors.
Sigh...

We used to visit every year when we were in England for a month on a buying trip, and the World Of Wedgwood was always visitied for a day...either by ourselves or with relatives and friends. We loved watching the workers at work.

Queen Elizabeth visiting the pottery in 1953 after her coronation...

Above are some of the various items at Time Was Antiques from Wedgwood over the ages...

I am certainly hoping the Museum, and Wedgwood pottery itself long continues...

Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Wellington Art Deco, Victoria Holiday Bliss

Welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea with Antiques And Teacups and the other  wonderful tea related blog parties listed at the end of the post.

A
No surprise to anyone, I love the hand painted on transferware art deco designs of the 1920-1930s and here is another. This is from Wellington China, which was made by J. H. Cope of Stoke-on-Trent, England. The sepia transfer landscape and floral print is hand colored then hand painted with enamel paint by an artist. They are always different, and therein lies the charm of the design.  I love the little humpback bridge! So cute...and nostalgic.

To see more of the art deco teacup trio at Time Was Antiques, just click on the photos.

And here are some fall photo pages from the Victoria magazine special Holiday Bliss edition that came recently. I LOVE Victoria, and have them all. As I sit with my afternoon tea, they are always at hand to be used for inspiration, nostalgia and great recipes!

 This page has a poem by John Donne:

No spring nor

summer beauty

hath such grace

as I have seen

in one autumnal face

I am joining the following tea related blog parties and others. Enjoy the wonderful posts and fellowship!

Ruth ~ http://antiquesandteacups.blogspot.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday 
Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Wanda Lee~  http://silkenpurse.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Pam~  http://breathoffreshair-paperbutterfly.blogspot.com/ 
Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
Wanda Lee~  http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/ 
Tea For Two and Wednesday Tea For Me and Thee

Trisha~  http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/ 
Tea Party Tuesday

Lady Katherine~  http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/ 
Teatime Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday

Ruth  ~ http://timewasantiquesfamily.blogspot.com

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

 

Thursday Teacups And Tea Things, Brown Transfer Teacup, Toast Rack

Hi and welcome to Thursday Teacups and Tea Things. I am also joining Miss Spenser's Teacup Thursday and Coloradolady's Vintage Thingie Thursday.

I am really enjoying the fall season. The colors can be glorious. But already the trees are half empty having dropped the leaves that glowed so brightly so recently....sigh.  I am sharing an autum hued brownd transferware teacup with a wierd name. The cup and saucer is by Samuel Radford, England and was made in the 1930-1940s with the pattern name of Colonial Overhang. I just can't figure that out!!! Any bright ideas????

The cup and saucer is hand colored, which I love because no 2 are ever exactly alike. The teacup is ironstone and humble but so warm and homey to me...or homely if your a Brit!

I am also participating with Vintage Thingie Thursday. My vintage thingie is a toast rack. Toast racks were and still are to a certain extent, fixtures of English breakfast tables. And...you have to get used to lukewarm crispy toast to love them. But, you then have a great excuse to slather on the butter and jam to enjoy the toast.

Toast racks showed up in England in the 18th century and have been made in most materials from sterling silver to bone china with ivory and bakelite somewhere in the middle! This is a 1950s Old Hall toast rack with a very modern feel. Toast racks are now being used also as napkin holders and as letter racks in the office which is a great example for repurposing items. Recycling antiques & collectibles is green!!!!!

To see either the cup and saucer or the toast rack at Time Was Antiques, just click on the photos.

Charles and Diana Royal Wedding and Birth Of Prince William mugs, Westminster Abbey

I just added several items of British Royal memorabilia to Time Was Antiques, one of the specialties of this website. I thought I would share a couple of mugs including one from the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981 and another from the birth of Prince William in 1982. These are an ironstone in blue transferware wedding mug from Adams, England and a ceramic mug with gold profiles and lettering by Kilncraft, England celebrating the birth of Prince William. These were both very popular at the time of the wedding or the birth. For more info, click on the photo.

The interest in the wedding of Charles & Diana has strengthened again with the announcement of the upcoming wedding of their son, Prince William to Kate Middleton in April. The wedding will be in Westminster Cathedral. Charles and Diana married at St. Paul's, but Prince William's grandparents, the then Princess Elizabeth married Philip there in 1947.  Princess Elizabeth was then crowned Queen Elizabeth II there in 1953.

Westminster Abbey was actually founded in the year 960...amazing! Many of the most important people in history are buried there. I remember a line from The King's Speech (you MUST see it if you haven't...Brilliant aside for the language in parts) Lionel Logue says as he walks up the nave something like "I can't get over the thought of walking on Shakespeare, Darwin and Turner!" A visit to the Abbey is one of the highlights of any one's visit to London. Not to mention the choir...but I'm a musician, so....


These are links to pages in the Westminster Abbey so you can read some of it's illustrious history, what has happened there and what is coming up. Today most of the Royal Family attended a celebration of the life of famous soprano Dame Joan Sutherland.


Westminster Abbey home page

Westminster Abbey History


Famous People And The Abbey


If you are going to follow the upcoming wedding, you'll be seeing a lot of Westminster Abbey!


I hope you had a great day and are looking forward to a great day tomorrow. We will be sunny here in Sequim so we will be out walking and enjoying the sunshine!

Wedgwood Blue Transferware Pitcher Jug Ewer Antique

I love any color...as long as it's blue! Well, not quite, but it is my favorite. I also love trasferware and this pitcher or jug I recently acquired and listed on Time Was Antiques just made me smile!!!!

I can just picture the jug on the table full of bronze chrysanthemums or on a mantle in a place of honor. The pitcher is in excellent condition, was made by E. Wedgwood, England from 1908-1925.

Transferware is one of the most collectible things around...and has been for over 100 years. The process revolutionized English china making and has been so popular that thousands of patterns have been made by hundreds of potters in thousands of patterns, some of which are extremely popular today like the Spode Blue Italian.

For historic transferware, I can recommend the Transferware Collectors Society 
for it's extensive records of historic patterns and ongoing research. Check it out! We are members and it is a great organization.

To see more of the above transferware jug or pitcher just click the photo.

We want to post Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation 1863 which you may like to read...it's brilliant.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION 1863

   In honor of the season, I want to share with you the text of Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation from 1863:

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere in the theatre of the military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not
  arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at seas and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also , with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, comment to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State





To all of you from us....have a wonderful day of Thanks giving tomorrow with friends and family. We have so much to be thankful for, even if things are a bit tough.

We are dealing with parkinson's disease but are incredibly thankful for all of the blessings we have.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (New International Version, ©2010)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 

Romantic Brown Transferware - Window on the Past

I absolutely love transferware...always have. It started when I was in my 20s. I was enthralled by the history and world view of those windows into victorian life and perception. There are loads of people who share my interest. There is a wonderful Transferware Collector's Club website that I love to browse. The patterns & resources are incredible.

This is a great example. This is an antique brown transfer or transferware cake serving plate made by Grindley, England in a pattern called Daffodil...check out the border as well as the center...in brown transferware made in Staffordshire, England...hence the genre name Romantic Staffordshire...with the British Registry mark for 1882. I just added yesterday to  Time Was Antiques. I have stacks of plates in the warehouse from trips to England antiquing I am just getting to. Whew!!!

Transferware is decorative, evocative and highly collectible. A favorite thing is using a harmonious grouping of transferware as wall art. As the main colors are red, pink, mulberry, green, blue, brown and polychrome or more than one color, there is a color for any room available. 

I found a great Blogger site called Nancy's Daily Dish who blogs on a different dish a day. Beautifully done blog. She also mixes in her poetry. I'm following it. Great job.

We are having our SUMMER SIZZLE 15% OFF sale at Time Was Antiques with code 016 at checkout. I have gotta make room!!!

Today is blue and sunny and will be in the 70s...about perfect for us Pacific Northwesters. We are going to have a bit of a day out to go antiquing locally...we do twice a week. Have a few estate sales today and that is always fun.  This week is the l Sequim Lavender Festival which is a BIG deal around here. We always look forward to it! Visits to the various lavender farms...16 in the area, I think, plus a street fair, food and lots of local things include antique shows which, of course, we'll go to. Come visit if you're close!! Sequim Lavender Festival starts Friday, July 16th and runs all weekend. Have a great day!