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speculated the polychroming, and clobbering were both developed in response to the cry by out of work artisans who had been replaced by transfer printing.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 dinner plates.  I have finally made the decision to keep my set together.

I love everything about this pattern.  Each piece bears a different scene, bucolic in nature.  The border blends farming implements such as rakes, hoes, sheathes of wheat and a bee skep  intertwined amongst grapevines and ivy.  This pattern is available in blue, red, brown, brown polychrome, purple and black.  You can click HERE to see some of what is available in my shop in this pattern.

With Fall just around the corner I decided to set my table tonight with Rural Scenes.  

I began with a jacquard drapery panel in a sage-olive green which leaves a few inches of the dark wood table showing as it helped give a more warm, rustic feel to the overall table.

I created my centerpiece by bunching up a 63" gold damask window panel and gently tucking two dark green organza runners from Always Elegant around the edges, allowing it pouf up around the edges.  I then put two sprays of faux pheasant feathers, berries and greenery end to end and scattered preserved acorns atop and over the entire table.

I placed a small, scrolled iron plant stand at the center with a Rural Scenes charger on top.  I added a trio of varied sized Linden Fig candles from Zest Candles surrounding them with a pile of acorns.

The Linden Fig candles are absolutely beautiful filled with a white wax inside and then wrapped in an outer layer of brown that is intricately cut in filigree style allowing the white to show behind.  The effect is stunning!

I often use burgundy with these dishes to bring out those colors in the hand-painting but chose to keep my color scheme to browns and greens for tonights setting.

The beautiful bronze, hand beaded placemat chargers, also from Always Elegant are a perfect compliment to my dishes.

My flatware is Spode Woodland, each piece having a slightly different pheasant/duck/quail depiction.

I doubled up napkins using simple brown cloth and green organza (they match the garland).  The beaded napkin rings match the chargers.  They are all available from Always Elegant and are very reasonably priced and come in a wide range of colors and are beautifully packaged.  

As you know I love amber glassware.  I used Zest Candles tealights placed in several vintage juice glasses around the table to cast a soft, amber glow.  I recently discovered Zest Candles while shopping online. I burn candles frequently, sometimes for fragrance and often for ambiance.  I've tried three candle varieties so far and am really impressed with the way they burn.  The tealights are the only ones I've used which actually burn all the wax.  They create a soft, steady flow of candlelight and my large candle shipment was packed with the utmost care.

My green glasses are vintage thumbprint.  My whole family loves these glasses.  They just feel right in your hand.  I buy them whenever I can find them!  I've found some for as little as $1 a piece at yard sales. 

The amber goblets are newer.  I've had mine for about 10 years.

We did not actually eat from these individual covered acorn casseroles but at the last minute I thought they'd be perfect with this table setting.  I've been dying to use them but for now, we can just look at them! ;-)  I'm sure they'll be showing up in more of my tablescapes this Fall! Aren't they cute?

Now, I'm off to finish baking my Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken while you browse some more of the tablescape photos.

Dinner is served

I'm participating in these parties:
Common Ground
Vignette Friday
Tablescape Thursday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Flaunt it Friday at Shoestring Decorating
Show Off Your Cottage Monday
Just Something I Whipped Up
Making the World Cuter
Toot Your Horn Tuesdays
Bargain Hunting with Laurie
Funky Junk Interiors 
Hodgepodge Friday 
Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper
Funky Junk Interiors 
vintage Thingy Thursday 
DIY Showoff 
Centerpiece Wednesday at the Style Sisters
Brambleberry Cottage

A Stroll Thru Life

Trendy Treehouse Blog hop
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

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've had the lid hanging in my kitchen for a long time but until recently didn't have use/space for the crate itself.  I decided to turn the crate into a shelf and hang it over the doorway leading from the kitchen into the dining room.

I simply added picture hanging hardware to the bottom of the crate (pardon the blurry photo),

asked Trev for a little help

then hung it up, and added a vintage Hershey's cookbook and some brown transferware. 

The crate as a shelf looks great from the bottom looking up since the original label shows.

I'll share more of my crate collection in an upcoming post. 

Until then...

Our house was not unsentient matter - it had a heart and a soul, and eyes to see with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benedictions.  We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out in eloquent welcome - and we could not enter it unmoved.

~Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)~

I'm participating in
Black Friday
Vignette Friday
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Flaunt it Friday at Shoestring Decorating
Show Off Your Cottage Monday
Just Something I Whipped Up
Making the World Cuter
Toot Your Horn Tuesdays
Bargain Hunting with Laurie
Funky Junk Interiors 
Hodgepodge Friday 
Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper
Funky Junk Interiors 
vintage Thingy Thursday