‘Tis the Season to be Jolly…
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Category: Features
Vintage Feature – The Tools Behind Many Family Memories
As I worked on photos this week, this arrangement of our vintage kitchen tools finally materialized. Before I snapped this picture I had tried many different looks – taking things out, putting things back in, changing the background – and, after I had picked up each utensil several times, I paused to reflect upon each one and the women who once used them to create meals for their family.
Then I had that ah-ha moment – these simple kitchen tools, along with their modern-day replacements, are behind many of the family traditions we love. Their mashing, beating, and rolling produced delicious meals indeed, but even more importantly, they brought us lasting memories of laughter, fun, and love.
Here’s our salute to vintage kitchen tools and the memories they helped create at the family dinner table. Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
― Oscar Wilde
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Vintage Feature – Vintage Girl Planters are Irresistible!
We have a new infatuation – vintage girl flower vases and planters. With their simple lines and faces, the six in our collection are oddly adorable. They have this quaint vintage look that we love!
The only vase with any identification is the one below. She was made in Czechoslovakia and her story is very interesting! Here’s an excerpt from Kovels regarding her mark, Erphilia.
Erphila is a mark found on Czechoslovakian and other pottery and porcelain made after 1920. This mark was used on items imported by Ebeling & Reuss of Philadelphia, a giftware firm that was founded in 1866 and out of business sometime after 2002. The mark is a combination of the letters E and R (Ebeling & Reuss) and the first letters of the city, Phila(delphia). Erphila is one of many marks used by American importers. Many whimsical figural pitchers and creamers, figurines, platters, and other giftwares carry this mark.
The rest do not have any identifying marks and after hours of researching, their origins remain a mystery. With the exception of the one from Czechoslovakia, our educated guess is that the others were made during the 1940s-60s, probably in the USA. There were many pottery and china companies during that time in America, many of which are no longer operational. We did pick up a few names of companies that made figurines and planters – NAPCO, Royal Copley, Treasure Craft, Shawnee Pottery, Hull – but we really have no clue as to who made these specific cutie-pies.
These mysterious lovelies, as well as our other vintage vases, are available for your guests to also adore!
PS – Still updating and revising our inventory pages – newly added is our Vintage Suitcases & Such. Here’s your invitation to take a look!
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Vintage Feature – More Inventory To Share!
~ Happy November! ~
Today’s post is short and sweet but it’s been a productive week.
Check out our two additions under the Inventory tab – Vintage Silver-Plate Inventory and Vintage Vases Inventory. We are also revising and adding to our previously published inventory pages – for example, we added four charming teapots and our love for yellow is certainly showing up!
We are busy, busy, busy as we continue to showcase our wonderful vintage collections for you!
Here’s our goal for the week ahead and our wish for yours –
“… blur the line between work and play.” Arnold J. Toynbee
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Vintage Feature – Feeling Joyful!
Each week we wait, calmly and confidently, for an inspiration for our Sunday post. Sometimes it comes easily because we have lovely photos from a recent event or we’ve been adding new features to our website. Other times it’s a cool vintage treasure we think folks will love to see. But, this time, our inspiration was special – we believe it was a message from the cosmos!
Earlier this week, as a couple of ideas were stewing in my head, I received an email from Wedding Wire that we had a terrific new review from a client – we were thrilled! Two days later we hear from the caterer who hired us to help with a surprise retirement tea party – the client loved our china! Then, as the saying goes, “good things come in threes,” the next day we receive notification of a comment on a blog post from the bride’s mother with a thoughtful note about our services. Dang! Three wonderful compliments in less than a week – indeed, a cosmic signal to share these gracious sentiments!
So, gosh & golly, here are the kind words from recent clients that pleased us oh-so much!
~ Wedding Wire review
“She was wonderful to work with and her products were beautiful. Probably the best money spent for the wedding! She always responded within 24 hours of an email (often within a few hours). Highly recommend.”
~ Comment shared by caterer about a surprise retirement tea party
“Everything went great and looked beautiful! She was so surprised and absolutely LOVED all the china that we had!”
~ Blog post comment
“It was a perfect combination of country vintage. Thanks to Southern Vintage Table for the beautiful vintage china, glasses and silverware. It was very impressive and received lots of compliments… What a sight it was. Everyone together made the Bride’s vision come true. Thank you so much-Mother of the BRIDE”
“…it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
We are feeling joyful!
Quote Source: Keep Inspiring Me
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Vintage Feature – More Inventory Slideshows are Up!
Very, very brief post today – we’ll let the uploaded slideshows take center stage but with one short explanation. One page with all the inventory slideshows just wasn’t going to work so we made an adjustment. Take a look at our Inventory menu tab – we are making progress and more adjustments are pretty likely!
We’re almost ready for our Friday wedding deliveries to our two couples. Calli & Nathan are setting their tables with our blue & white dishes (yep, we have 80 in our inventory) and using marsala and amber accents – can’t wait to see photos! Allie & Steven’s farm wedding will feature our rustic decor – and we get to set up their cupcake station!
Have a lovely week!
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Vintage Feature – New Inventory Page Going Up
I’ve been musing, thinking, problem-solving, photographing, counting, editing, and thinking some more all week. The problem? How to cleanly and efficiently share our inventory counts with our clients. Even though we have many lovely photographs on our website and on Pinterest, a more detailed description was still needed so clients could know more precisely what vintage treasures we offer. The solution had eluded me until I started mucking around in WordPress and its accompanying widgets.
Then, a most wonderful thing happened…
I discovered how to make a simple slideshow that can exhibit more than one image on the screen with individual descriptions. Ta dah! Now, please appreciate that this did take a bit of trial and lots of errors, but admittedly, I am pleased with myself. 🙂
I figured out pretty quickly that each photo needed to be standardized as far as size and look. Gulp. This meant that many, if not most, of our photos would have to be re-edited at the very least and probably a lot more would need to be retaken. The magnitude of this task took a while for me to accept, but with a long, deep breath, I resolutely began with the recently-published-but now-defunct Vintage Glassware Inventory page.
After revising this slideshow and fine-tuning the settings, our teapot collection was next in line. I pulled each off the shelves, matched them with their lids stored in a separate container, organized them on the table to get an idea on how to order them in the slideshow, created a backdrop, and then photographed each one. After measuring the capacity of several pots, and deciding on how much a teacup would hold, I also had a serving estimate for each.
With the more tedious part done, I created the slideshow with the new photos and added it to a new Inventory page along with the new glassware slideshow. Check it out – the page is called Inventory and now housed on our main menu. Whoop whoop! But this is just the beginning!
The upcoming set of inventory will be our Large Decor Collection. I’ve got a good start and hope to add this slide show sometime soon. What’s after this? Still pondering that one – there are so many to choose from! 🙂 🙁
In the meantime, I’m also getting ready for a retirement tea party this week and two weddings the following weekend. Lots to do and enjoying every bit of it!
Thanks for visiting and have a terrific week! Looks like the sun will be coming back to NC mid-week – thank goodness!
(For those who are interested, I will share two secrets about taking photos. The first secret is that I use my iPhone6 camera. The technique for taking this kind of photo is a bit tricky but not rocket science. After taking the image, I first use the iPhoto app on the phone to straighten and crop the image. The second big secret is that I edit the image with an app I just love – Camera360. It’s free and amazing! (Thanks, Cat, for sharing this with me.) These photos are magically uploaded to iCloud and I then open them on my computer in iPhoto, name them and make a few minor adjustments, and export to a folder on iCloud. The final step is to import them into the WordPress library. None of this is difficult but it does take time and lots of it.)
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Vintage Feature – Our Vintage Glassware Collection
An exciting trend at Southern Vintage Table is an appreciation for our vintage glassware, and especially our colored goblet collection. Our assorted vintage mix has traveled to many venues this past year, delighting guests with their variety, color, and beauty.
As our collection has grown, we recently tallied up our goblets and tumblers. With today’s post we are sharing our numbers on our updated Vintage Drinkware page which includes our vintage goblets, teacups, punch cups, pitchers, and more!
PS – Check out an older post about our glassware, The Feel of Vintage Glassware and our Pinterest Board, Sparkling Vintage Glassware.
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Vintage Feature – Revisiting Our Vintage Silver Plate Collection
It’s time to showcase the additions to our vintage silver plate collection! In a previous post, “From Elegant to Rustic, Vintage Silver Plate is Chic,” we introduced our silver treasury but since then we have added so much more. Today’s pictorial post features these shiny, timeless, and versatile lovelies – please enjoy!
At present here is our silver collection inventory.
Large & Medium Trays – 20+
Small Trays – 8+
Sugar & Creamers – 20+
Cake Stand – 1
Coffee/Tea Pots – 3 (+one lidless that is a beautiful vase!)
Pitchers – 7
Bowls & Serving Dishes – 8+
Ice Bucket – 1 large with handles (champagne), 1 large tub (4-5 wine bottles), 1 small (1 wine bottle)
Candle Holders – 20+
Bouquet Bowl Candelabra (3 Candle Holders) – 3
Bud Vases – 6+
Goblets – 6
Silver & Glass Coasters – 20+
Flatware Place Settings (Knife, Dinner Fork, Salad/Dessert Fork, Spoon) – 150+
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Vintage Feature – Meet Clarice Cliff from Staffordshire
It’s always a sweet pleasure to find something with a rich backstory and, indeed, one unfolded when I found this vintage tiered stand at a local thrift store. The striking red and white scenic pattern caught my eye as I glanced down the filled shelves. My heart skipped a beat as I picked it up. No cracks or chips – what a nice surprise! I looked for the mark underneath and read a name I’ve never heard before – Clarice.
With the slight crazing visible from the bottom and the unique mark, I knew I found something with an interesting tale – and, as it turns out, it’s the history of an incredibly creative English designer, Clarice Cliff, who made her mark in the pottery world during the Art Deco era of the 1920s-1930s. As I admired the beautiful scene on this pattern, I expected to discover more delicate creations of Clarice’s but her more popular pieces are much more interesting!
According to Wikipedia, Clarice was born in 1899 in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, the heart of England’s pottery industry. She started working as a potter at age 13 and by age 25, Clarice was creating a new line of pottery known as Bizarre Ware with bright, striking colors and unique lines.
During the late 1920s and through the thirties, Clarice enjoyed much success and produced many different bright, colorful, and angular patterns, now highly collectible Art Deco pieces, including Honolulu and Melon. Production took a turn with onset of WWII, and English potteries were allowed to produce only white tableware. Following the war, the market returned to the traditional English patterns, which is when Tonquin was manufactured for the overseas market, including the United States.
After the war, although Cliff was occasionally nostalgic for the ‘Bizarre’ years, as witnessed in personal letters to friends, she seemed to be realistic and accepted the commercial taste was for conservative ware. Clarice seemed to enjoy playing a lesser role at the factory, knowing that she could not recapture those crazy days of the thirties.[20] Much of the post-war production went to Australia, New Zealand or North America, where the taste was for formal ware in traditional English designs such as Tonquin[21] rather than the striking patterns and shapes that had established Cliff’s reputation; thus she was never to return to creative work. – Wikipedia
From bizarre to bucolic, Clarice Cliff demonstrated an incredible range of talent during her lifetime, and although she was marginally recognized for her creative genius at the time, today she stands as a major artist of her time. To learn more about her life and work, check out the following sites. And, if you see a “bizarre” piece of pottery on the shelf, look underneath for her name – if it’s there, that would truly be a find!
Learn more about the amazing Clarice Cliff!
Wikipedia – Clarice Cliff
Inside Out – Clarice Cliff
Clarice Cliff
Clarice Cliff Facebook
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