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Showing posts from August 17, 2014

The Hearty Goodfellow: Blue Willow Toby

 These adorably stout little guys are called Tobies.  A Toby is a figural ceramic / earthenware piece, often a pitcher or jug, moulded into the form of a popular character.  Often, these characters are historical in nature, such as Winston Churchill, but the original Tobies date back to the 1760's shortly after the invention of transferware and were made in the form of jovial, stout men dressed in clothing of the period: knee length breaches, waistcoat, tricorn hat, frock coat, neckerchief and black buckle shoes, often seated, puffing away on a pipe and almost always clutching onto a pitcher or jug of frothy ale.   A Four Piece "Toby Jug" Cruet Set, probably Prestonpans, 19th century, comprising pepper pot, salt, vinegar and mustard.   These cruet sets are most often attributed to one of the potteries in the town of Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh, in Scotland.   This was an an ideal location for the development of potteries as early as the 17th centu

English Cottage Living Room - Before, Partly After & Still a Work in Progress

I am sorry for not posting more pictures of the progress we've made settling into this new (to us) home.   It seems life rushes by so fast and that at times, doing little things, even those that I love and enjoy, often get pushed aside and onto the back shelf of my mind where I tell myself, "I'll get to this later".  Well, it is later and though I don't have as much to share with you as I'd like, I'm going to at least share my favorite spot in our living room.  I promise to show the rest of the room soon but for now the opposite half of the living room has been occupied by my daughters boyfriend who has been staying with us for the past 7 or so weeks until his apartment is ready for him to move into, and so the couch is usually made up for him to sleep on!   Here is a photo of the current living room just as we found it, a small room just off the entry of the house with a nice marble and wood fireplace surround, hard wood floors, beautiful crown mouldi