Engagement Announced Prince William & Kate Middleton

Prince William and Kate Middleton have officially announced their engagement today, Nov. 16, 2010. Will gave his long time girlfriend the sapphire and diamond engagement that his father Prince Charles gave his mother Princess Diana. You can see the announcement at The Royal Channel at YouTube at this link: Will & Kate

The engagement has been long expected. The wedding is planned for spring or summer of 2011 and the couple will live in Northern Wales where the Prince is serving with the Royal Air Force.  Congratulations!!!

Coventry WWII Blitz Remembered...Family tales & Upgrade to Express

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

In other news at Time Was Antiques, we are running a non US buyer special. Pay for Priority shipping on your order and receive a free upgrade to Express Mail! 

It's so fun to me that so many of our items are so well traveled. We travel to England to buy, send them home to the US and then ship them all over the world...including back to the UK! How fun is that!

Vintage Hagen Renaker Mini Arabian Stallion White 1959

I was HORSE mad when I was young! I loved the Black Stallion books and asked for them for birthdays & Christmas until I had the whole set, then reread them until they fell apart. I had large plastic Breyer Arabians & made horse blanket, saddles & reins for them...not to mention stables and paddocks. I loved them!

I also collected ceramic horses which were lovingly stored in a china cabinet in my bedroom that nobody wanted. I especially liked the Hagen Renaker...although I couldn't have told you that that was the name of the maker because I bought by what I liked and promptly took off any labels. After all, they were real to me!

This is one of the last of my horse collection from the 1950s, and was one of my favorites. I gave half the collection about 15 years ago to 2 preteen sisters. Who knows where they are now. But....This is the miniature Arabian stallion and it is mint and beautiful. I just added it to Time Was Antiques and here is a link for more photos & descriptions: Hagen Renaker Arabian Stallion

I ended up with a quarter horse later when I worked summers wrangling at a mountain lake in California, sometimes getting to ride with the family & 25 horses 2 days up Deer Creek form Chico, California to Lake Almonor. One year my husband & I had to move 18 of them from a threatening forest fire on foot...but that's another story!  Later, we had the filly of the palomino I had for our daughter who was horse mad. Ah memories!

Washburne Court Hotel, Lower Slaughter UK

I just came across this photo I took a few years back of my favorite country house hotel in the Cotswolds in England. The Washburne Court hotel is in Lower Slaughter in the heart of the Cotswolds in one of the most picturesque villages in England.

The hotel itself is absolutely gorgeous as well as comfy, has a super restaurant and wifi! I took this a few years ago and have had it as the screen saver on my laptop since then.

The Cotswolds is a favorite place to visit and tour. The area is famous. One of our other favorite places to go is Broadway. We have been there several times & have used it as a base (close by anyway) for the whole region. A favorite place to eat is at Huffins which has the absolutely best Bangers & Mash with Cumberland sausages (the BEST IMHO) there is. It's a tourist area and can be packed on the weekends, but we are usually there in April/May or Sept/Oct so it's not bad then. That's when the antique fairs & fetes take place.

The hotel website is: http://www.washbournecourt.co.uk/
For images of the Cotswolds: Cotswolds on Google
Cotswold maps & touring info

My DH on a bridge in Lower Slaughter on a walk.

Time Was Antiques specializes in antiques, collectibles & vintage with a focus on English items. It has been our privilege to travel there and scour the markets for treasures.

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English Codd Bottles Time Was Antiques

This is too cool! Bottlemania! I just got to the last 2 Codd bottles I got in England awhile ago and have been packed away. Now come on, betcha don't know what a Codd bottle is, do you??? I didn't until I came across a lot of them at a church fete in Gloucester, England and bought the lot. And if you don't think I was glad I got them over to the US before baggage restrictions got so tight...they weigh quite a bit!

History lesson....Codd bottles were made to hold a fizzy liquid with a glass marble as a stopper, hence the pinch in the neck. This is an antique green glass Codd mineral water bottle with it's original clear glass marble stopper inside made 1880-1890s in England. This bottle is marked on the front with raised letters:  W. Button High Class Mineral Water Works Lee & Kent. The back reads: Patent Safety Groove, Dan Rylands Barnsley England. The bottle is in a form called the Codd soda bottle named after the man who invented the shape in 1873. The bottle held a fizzy liquid and the marble was the stopper. The bottle is 9.25 inches high by 2.5 inches in diameter and has the pinched shape needed to keep the marble from going to the bottom or blocking the pour.

So many of these were broken to get the marble out I'm surprised any survived intact!  My DH who is a Brit said that a lot of time as a boy was spent breaking them if found to get those marbles out. Sigh...

So...now you know! Great item for trivia.

You can see more photos at Time Was Antiques at the clickable link below to the bottle...we actually have 2 different ones, the last of my lot from Gloucester in the shop at the moment.
 Codd Bottle With Marble Button High Class Mineral Works

Agatha Christie Festival With David Suchet as Poirot

Meet David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, the fictional Belgian detective who first appeared from the pen of Agatha Christie in 1920. 
This is the second anniversary being celebrated this month during the Agatha Christie Festival on the Cornish Riviera in England. The other is the 120th anniversary of the famous writer's birth. I am so envious...I'd love to be there! Besides appearances by David Suchet there are discusssions, staging of the books, a murder mystery train,tea dances, walking/driving tours of places used in the books, a masked ball and all manner of fun things.

For more information, visit the offical website for the festival:  

http://www.englishriviera.co.uk/agathachristie/festival

Because Time Was Antiques stocks many English antiques and collectibles, we love reporting things like this. You can sign up for our newsletter at http://www.timewasantiques.net   where we reported this first.

  Have a great day....tea anyone?

Antique Pocket Watch Key Necklace 14kt Gold & Labor Day 10% Coupon

I love repurposing antique items....why not recycle an antique to be used today although not for it's original purpose?

This is an antique Victorian pocket watch key used to wind a pocketwatch. The key is 14kt gold and was long ago separated from the watch. But it makes a killer pendant! Cool! We have added a 14kt gold 18 inch rope chain to it and I juist love it.  We have had and sold several of these. The pocketwatch key necklace is certainly an unusual piece of jewelry!

You can read more about the necklace at Time Was Antiques at this clickable link:

Pocketwatch Key Necklace 14kt Gold Fob And Rope Chain

 So what are your plans this Labor Day weekend? Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone on the Eastern seaboard and let's hope Earl takes a vacation too....

We will be going to the Sequim Growers Open Air market on Saturday and who knows what else? There are a lot of great activities but we have no firm plans other than the market.  Enjoy your weekend and knowing the year is turning the corner.....

We have a Labor Day 10% off sale at Time Was Antiques  with the coupon code LABOR or 015. The LABOR coupon can be reused and is good thru Sept. 8th. Have fun!!!