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Showing posts from February 7, 2010

It's a bright, bright sunshiny day

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. I like this quote by William Arthur Ward. Today it reminds me of Eline, a blogger and Etsy shop owner  who has shown me such kindness and generosity.   I am new to Etsy and even newer to blogging.  A few weeks ago Eline sent me a note through Etsy telling me she has featured one of my teacups and saucers in her treasury list and that it had made Etsy's front page.  Unsure of what a treasury was, I sent Eline a message explaining this, and the fact that I was new to Etsy and was not a techy person in the least (I just today learned how to do a hyperlink for this post)! She took a lot of time in explaining the treasury to me, how it works and even sent a link to another site where one can see if any of their items had been featured or not. She has since used another of my items in a treasury, blogged about transferware and my Etsy shop and blog. She has been so nice and giving of her time. Her most

John Constable's romantic landscape paintings transferred to pottery by Grindley

I have always been drawn to transferware patterns depicting bucolic English scenery. When I look at the domestic animals grazing fields near quaint thatched cottages, lush flowering gardens, rivers or streams with bridges and oftentimes mountains in the background I always think to myself, "I'd love to live there" or "I want to move in"! I love the romanticism and seeming simplicity of an era long gone by. One of my favorite patterns depicting these scenic views is by Grindley, an English pottery company founded by William Harry Grindley at the Newfield Pottery, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent in 1880.   The pattern is entitled 'Scenes After Constable" showcasing an array of John Contable's romantic landscapes.   Grindley continued operation through 1991.  The company produced many wares, in particular for the markets of Canada, the United States, South America and Australia. As a young boy, John Constable developed a unique style combining objective

A favorite amongst collectors and the era of romantic Staffordshire

As my husband prepares some Super Bowl Sunday snacks (which I am happy to sample along the way)  and updates his twitter posts, I am at my desk doing some research on Ralph Stevenson and in particular, the MILLENIUM pattern which is highly sought by serious and avid collectors of transferware.  This is a rare and wonderful early transferware plate in the iconic MILLENIUM pattern. It was made by Ralph Stevenson, circa 1832-35. Marked with the pattern name "Millenium" (a misspelling of the word Millennium).  Despite the fact that my plate has a small chip (at about 5:00), it still is both valuable and collectible.  It remains one of my favorite pieces of transferware I own. The Millenium pattern was designed to illustrate the biblical prophecy set forth in the book of Isaiah, Chap. XI.VI predicting the second coming of Christ who would rule for a thousand years before the last judgment. The central image depicts this biblical prophecy of a Peaceable Kingdom, the thousand ye