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Showing posts from October 23, 2011

Dinner with The Swedish Nightingale ~ Jenny Lind Tablescape

I promise, there is a tablescape in this post. Johanna Marie Lind, more widely known as Jenny Lind, and dubbed 'The Swedish Nightingale' was an opera singer born in 1821 in Stockholm, Sweden.  It is said that she could repeat a song which she’d heard just one time…by the age of three!  By the age of 10, she was performing on the stage at Stockholm.  Her early life was spent being impoverished.  Jenny Lind grew up living at various times with her mother in a shelter for indigent women or being shuffled from home to home. Her father, from whom she inherited her musical gifts, was a tavern musician and rarely came home to visit. It was not until Jenny was 15 years old that her parents married.  When Jenny was twenty-three years old, she went to Dresden and sang for festivals held to honor the visiting Queen Victoria. She was received with much enthusiasm throughout Germany which, in turn, opened the door to much more success when she traveled to Lon

Patriotic America Transferware Exhibition Online Now

Just launched! There is a wonderful, online exhibit I want to share with those of you who are transferware enthusiasts, like me.  Winterthur, the Transferware Collectors Club, and Historic New England have joined forces to develop this exhibition. It is called Patriotic America and offers a very comprehensive set of images of blue printed pottery with American depictions during the 1820's, which documents a great time of celebration in the country.   Historical transferware is probably the most seriously collected and most expensive of transferware.   From Winterthur: "In 1815, when trade between America and England resumed following the War of 1812, Staffordshire potters were eager to regain access to one of their most lucrative markets.  This virtual exhibition brings together the production of more than twelve British potters who created an aesthetic that would be desirable to Americans eager to purchase objects highlighting their growing nation.   Many of