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Showing posts from August 29, 2010

Polychrome Transferware & a Rural Scenes Fall Tablescape

I have a partiality to polychrome transferware, especially brown polychrome.  Two of my very favorite transfer patterns, Spode Byron and Royal Staffordshire Clarice Cliff Rural Scenes/AJ Wilkinson Pastoral Davenport are brown patterns with polychrome highlights. Polychrome is the transferware term which refers to a single color object that has been hand painted within the confines of the design and then glazed so that it is permanent.  It is speculated the polychroming, and clobbering were both developed in response to the cry by out of work artisans who had been replaced by transfer printing.  I'm sometimes teased by Shawn and the kids because I will have finally gotten 8-12 full place settings gathered in my own collection when someone emails and asks if I have this pattern, and then I sell it.  A year ago an interior designer and collector of transferware inquired about the pattern and I wound up selling all of my dinner plates to her.  It took several months to replace my di

Repurposing an Antique Crate as a Shelf + a Winner

Congratulations to  Donna from My Shabby Chateau who is the winner for one pillow of her choice from Word Garden.   Donna, please contact me through my email button with your full name/address and an email address and I'll put you in touch with Sally at Word Garden.  I have a collection of antique wooden crates that I assembled some years back.  One of my favorites was this crate by E J Larrabee Biscuit Company out of Albany, New York.   This company started in 1861 and quickly became a huge international success competing largely with English biscuits imported to the United States.  The firm employed 350 workers and produced 300 varieties of biscuits and crackers.  The "biscuit" in the name of the company is a British English and early American English term for cracker products.  E J Larrabee is one of many companies consolidated to form Nabisco around 1900. My crate dates somewhere around 1890.  There is a paper label on the lid and on the front of the crate.  I&