Sanford

Vintage Adventures – On the Road

The search for vintage blue & white plates can take one on many adventures and here we are, headed to Sanford to pick up a set of Blue Meissen china from an estate sale. Safely in the back seat is our masked vintage hunter partner, Priscilla.

When you can combine a vintage adventure with great conversation, you know you must be living right!! And, to add another layer of goodness, Priscilla has a keen eye for the unusual and takes amazing photographs on her travels. These scenic photos of Sanford are hers and add a wonderful historic flavor to today’s post.

We browsed the estate sale and both of us picked up some of Betty’s treasures, including two sets of embroidered vintage napkins, wooden candleholders and napkin rings, and a gorgeous set of vintage floral blue and white china.

We had two more thrift stores on our vintage adventure and came home with a box of candles, a few tablecloths, two candelabras and a set of vintage goblets. Priscilla bought a platter, some vintage books, and wooden spoons. At each stop, we were pleased to see that everyone wore masks and hand sanitizer was available.

No thrift store adventure is complete without a food break, usually one that includes barbecue. 🙂 Since it was on the way home, Allen & Son’s BBQ was our last stop. Their bbq, slaw, and sweet potato fries are amazing as well as the fried flounder sandwich. Since there is no dining inside, we ordered takeout and headed home with our food and a trunk full of new “old” things.

Not our ride, but a treat to see!


“Sometimes all you need is a great friend and a tank of gas. “
Unknown      


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Stoneware Plate

Vintage Adventures – New Thrift Store Treasures at SVT

Vintage Dusky Blue Goblets

SVT has been in a busy, busy stretch with events and client meetings and in-between, we’ve been “procuring inventory, ” which is the fancy term for hitting the thrift stores. Hee hee! We thought you might want to see what we found these last two weeks. Although we can’t give away our secret places, we can say that these came from 4 of our favorite spots.

We mentioned these vintage dusky blue goblets in a recent Facebook post. It was a true vintage find – 9 total, 8 at one thrift shop and one more at another, all in the same day. This color is highly popular and we are so happy to add these to our collection!

These vintage silver-plated items are soooo nice! The compote needs a little polishing, but there are no dents nor pits. Imagine this filled with apples, lemons, or even a lovely floral bouquet! We love this unique flatware pattern, too. Found bagged up, when we got back to the studio we discovered that instead of stainless, it’s inlaid silver-plated. They will look terrific with our other vintage mixed patterns.

Perhaps the most atypical find were these vintage bobeches! These unique items are used to catch the wax from a taper candle. Some are plastic and some are glass but all are great to have in our inventory for someone looking to protect the surface under the candleholder.

You might think we found these two vintage tea pieces at the same place and time but that’s didn’t happen. They were at two separate thrift stores and found days apart but they do look so lovely together!

Finally, we came across these darling stoneware patterns. As vintage stoneware becomes more appreciated, we want to make certain we can accommodate our clients with enough for their guests!

Lastly, we’ve been contemplating our featured posts on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks to those who have chimed in – we hope to start soon!


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Vintage Adventures – Mountain Wedding Weekend

Whew! We’ve been on the road again this weekend and this time we headed to the beautiful mountains of Hendersonville. Our destination was the Kenmure Country Club and the vista was spectacular. The foliage was tinged with yellows and oranges, the cool autumn weather was refreshing, and the company couldn’t have been more perfect.

After loading the van to the hilt with place settings for 175 guests, Priscilla and I began our westward journey Thursday afternoon. Along the way we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that just so happened to be near a thrift store    and arrived, via the more scenic backroads, to Kenmure in the early evening.

The tables were all ready for us and we meticulously set them with our vintage plates and goblets. The head table donned our blue and white collection while the guest tables featured a more eclectic mix of patterns. These photos are missing the floral arrangements and soft candlelight so we’ll be sharing an updated gallery in the weeks to come. Can’t wait to see them!!

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Following a restful night at a charming AirBnB home, we excitedly began exploring the thrift stores in the area. Over the course of three days, Priscilla and I browsed through 8 or so stores – some high end, some more junk, and all worth the time! What was our find of the weekend? A medley of  terrific vintage napkins – including ones with some groovy prints for our growing bohemian offerings – and a gorgeous set of china from Germany.

These last two weekends have shown us that traveling to destinations is a service we can happily accommodate, especially if it includes a day or two of exploration and delicious meals shared with a kindred soul! Thank you, Taylor and Priscilla, for two delightful back-to-back weekends!

Planning a wedding in the “beyond” region of our studio and want a vintage look? We may be able to help!


Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Adventures – On the Road to Richmond & Asheville

Southern Vintage Table is on the road this weekend and next – delivering our beautiful vintage tableware to weddings at Tuckahoe Plantation in Richmond and the Kenmure Country Club in Hendersonville.

Scouting out the trip via the backroads, this weekend’s drive up to Richmond was incredibly beautiful and relaxed – perfect temperature, gorgeous sunlight, and an easy drive. After our delivery, I met my daughter in Carytown for the weekend. Our AirBnB rental was a block away from this eclectic, fun area in Richmond and we found lots of restaurant choices and cute shops to browse. We had a grand time together – she even enjoyed going to one thrift store with me!

She’s now back on the train headed to DC and I’m getting ready to return to Tuckahoe to pickup and begin the beautiful drive home. What a lovely adventure with my sweet, amazing daughter!

PS – I’ll be adding a photo of Tuckahoe right here after I return home. This historic venue is the real deal – in fact, it was Thomas Jefferson’s boyhood home!


Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Adventures – The Story of a Teaspoon & a Jar

Part of my fascination about anything vintage is the history they embody – the companies that made them, the folks who bought them, the homes they were in, the time period they existed. Appreciating these objects as artifacts, I am thrilled when I uncover an interesting story connected to a new find. This happened last week when I found four teaspoons in the flatware bin at a local thrift store.

They stood out because of their silvery sheen and ornateness and, when I picked them up, they were nice and heavy. As usual, I didn’t bring my glasses so I couldn’t make out the maker, but the pattern was new to me. When I got to my car and found my glasses,  I read the mark – King’s Hall Silver 1088 – and quickly searched the name on my phone. Ding ding!

King's Hall Silver

My research began with a community board on Ebay.  Someone posted a question about these teaspoons and here’s Susan’s response:

… all I could find on this spoon were pages and pages of Home & Garden, Country Life, Suburban Life, … 1911 magazine ads for Kerr Glass Mfg. Economy jars. Kerr was giving away 3 of these spoons with every case of jars and 1 with a dozen caps. No doubt the use of the number 1066 was to attract attention for it was in the year 1066 that William the Conqueror invaded England. His descendants resulted in the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England for over 300 years.

With this response, I found several ads that ran during 1911.  Here are two from Country Life in America and Suburban Life.

King's Hall Silver - Kerr Glass

King's Hall Silver - Kerr GlassMystery solved – these King’s Hall Silver teaspoons were a free gift given out circa 1911 by Kerr Glass to drive sales of their canning jars, a kitchen staple well known to all of us. It may be difficult to read, so here’s an excerpt from the ad.

Cut out “Hand in Jar” trademark, like above shown, appearing on either end of each case of one dozen Economy Jars and mail it with 14c. in U. S. stamps to cover cost of packing, postage, etc., and we will present to you one Full Size King’s Hall Silver. 1086, famous sectional plate silver teaspoon, made by the manufacturers of the best silverplate in the world. The richest family in the land has no finer, richer, nor more beautiful silver plate than King’s Hall Silver, 1066.

From here, I wanted to learn more about the Kerr Glass company. My research uncovered many more twists and turns – here’s a quick synopsis of the highlights.

  • In 1903 Alexander Kerr started a fruit jar company in Portland, Oregon called the Hermetic Fruit Jar Company. The jars were made by the Illinois-Pacific Glass Company, located in San Francisco.
  • The Great Earthquake of 1906 struck San Francisco and 80% of city was destroyed. Miraculously, the Illinois-Pacific Glass manufacturing plant survived.
  • Kerr opened his first glass manufacturing plant in Kansas in 1909.
  • Kerr fell in love with a young stenographer in his office, Albertina Sechtem (who was 28 years younger), divorced his wife, and married her in 1910. The local headline read, “Rich merchant divorces wife.”
  • During 1911 Kerr Glass Manufacturing ran ads for free teaspoons with purchase of jars and lids in numerous publications.
  • Albertina Kerr contracted typhoid and died months after giving birth to a son in October, 1911.  On her deathbed she asked Alexander to “look after motherless babies, too.”
  • Kerr donated their home to the Pacific Coast Rescue Society to help orphans and single mothers. Over the next hundred years, this contribution proved to be a seed to provide support for young children, single mothers, and individuals with disabilities. Today the Albertina Kerr Center, located in Portland, Oregon, supports individuals with developmental and physical challenges.
  • In 1913, Kerr married his young secretary, Ruth Kalbus, and they had 6 children. Kerr died in 1925 from pneumonia contracted while collecting Community Chest Funds.
  • The eldest son from Kerr’s first marriage ran the company until his death in 1930.  Alexander’s third wife, Ruth, took over to become “the first woman executive in the glass-blowing industry — if not one of the first women executives in manufacturing — in the United States.”  (Healthy Canning)  She ran the company until her death in 1965. Under her direction, many women were promoted into executive positions and her company would become one of the two largest canning businesses in the United States.
  • In 1937 Ruth Kerr established the Bible Missionary Institute that would eventually become Westmont College, ranked as the 90th “America’s Best Colleges List 2013” in liberal arts colleges by US & News Report.
  • Two notable contributions to the canning industry by Alexander Kerr were the production of the first wide-mouth jar and the invention of the metal flat disk used to seal the jar.

From fruit jars, to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a scandalous divorce and marriage, free teaspoons, centers to help orphans and children with developmental needs, and one of the first women executives in manufacturing – whew! Now, this is a pretty good story, huh?

King's Hall Silver 1088 Teaspoons


Want to see more?  Check out these popular publications from 1911.
Suburban Life, July 1911
House & Garden, July 1911
Country Life in America, June 1911
The Garden Magazine, July 1911


Sources:
Ebay Community Board
Glass Bottle Marks
Alexander H. Kerr
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Albertina Kerr
Healthy Canning
Polio Wars: Sister Kenny and the Golden Age of American Medicine
Find a Grave
Westmont College


Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Adventures – Our 5 Recent Fantastic Thrift Store Finds!

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NCLately, more times than not, I have walked through a thrift store without finding anything to add to our vintage collections. Yep, I swept through the shelves and swept right out the door. Admittedly, mixed emotions were at play – disappointment and relief. Disappointment because I didn’t experience that “Wow, that’s cool” moment to the revelation, “Whew! Nothing I couldn’t resist today.”

However, things changed over the past few weeks. These additions fed our love for the hunt while adding some pretties and functional needs. Here are 5 treasures we found and the biggest prize is the last!


Find #1 – More colored vintage goblets.
Vintage glasses and goblets are hot-hot-hot right now and we totally get why.  Look at their texture, their color – and they look so beautiful on the table.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage Goblets


Find #2 – Silver-plated Sets of Vintage Candleholders
Within one week we found these two silver-plated candleholder trios.  We love these as a set but they also look terrific mixed in with our other patterns.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage Silver-plated Candleholders


Find #3 – Vintage Milk Glass Stand or Vase
Don’t you love it when you have something that can be used in more than one way?  Judging from the orientation of the embossed florals on this milk glass item, it is probably intended to be a stand for a bowl or dish, but turned upside down, it can also hold a beautiful bouquet of flowers!

Southern Vintage Table Vintage Milk Glass


Find #4 – More beautiful vintage china patterns!
Take a look at the top vintage salad plate – it’s a beauty!!  We also found one more vintage blue & white, a new Blue Ridge Pottery pattern, and several all-white ones.

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC


Find #5 – This one is definitely not sexy but it’s our most treasured – glass crates!
We have never found glass crates at a thrift store – never. But, these past few weeks we have picked up 6 – amazing – at 3 different stores!!  Not only are these used to store and transport our vintage goblets, they can also be used to transport other items such as bud vases and votives.


Thanks for visiting and have a fabulous week!  We’ll be excitedly getting ready for a styled shoot this Friday with the awesome Stacy Newburg of Events by Memory Lane. Whoo-hoo!


Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Adventure – Thrift Store Serendipity

Vintage Girl Vase

Serendipity: Such a beautiful word describing the occurrence of events by chance.
I like to think it’s the energy you put out into the world returning your energy with love.

― Steven Aitchison


As part of our vintage china rental business, we routinely pop into the local thrift stores.  We know, a pretty tough assignment and admittedly, something we do love!  As our inventory is pretty well stocked, we’re mostly browsing for unique pieces that fill a niche in our offerings. Thrift store serendipity struck this week because we came across three very wonderful vintage items, all coincidentally connected. Two are related to last week’s post about our vintage girl vases and the other was linked to a casual conversation I recently had with my husband.

Well, the first find was a girl vase!  I almost didn’t notice her because she is so much larger than the petite ones we have. Standing almost 10 inches tall with two openings for her flower bouquets, she is indeed very sweet!

Vintage Girl Vase

The other connection to last week’s post was the Erphila mark.  In almost three years of regular thrift store shopping, we have seen this mark only once and that was on one of the girl vases featured last week.  This week we found this pretty vase with the Erphila mark.  As you see, this footed vase was made in Bavaria and, as shared last week, the Erphila mark refers to the owners of the import company with the E and R being the first initials of their names, and Phila referring to Philadelphia where their business was located.  Can’t wait to see a beautiful bouquet in this one!

Vintage Vase

The final lucky find was a cup and saucer. We have a sincere appreciation for Blue Ridge Pottery because of its charming history, shared in a post last year.  I was showing a plate to my husband this past week and mentioned that I haven’t come across any Blue Ridge cups and saucers. Yep, that changed – came across four cups and one saucer – at separate thrift stores, too!

Blue Ridge Cup & Saucer

Thank you, cosmos.  We will share these vintage treasures with great appreciation and love.

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Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Adventure – On the Road for a Vintage Wedding in Tarboro

One thing I love about my business is seeing the many different venues in our area. This weekend was especially a treat as we traveled to the small city of Tarboro in eastern North Carolina. According to the town’s website, Tarboro was originally inhabited by the Tuscarora tribe.  By 1733 Europeans discovered this beautiful area by a river, known as the Taw, the Native American word for “river of health.” Over the years, the area was called Tawboro, Tarrburg, and Tarborough, until today’s name of Tarboro finally settled in.

Our destination was a beautiful, historic church called Saint Anne’s Chapel on the outskirts of town. It was designed by a German Baltimore architect and built in 1922 by two sisters with help from their cousins. Services were held here until the 1950s but after the sisters’ death, it started to fall into disrepair. Rescued by Kevin and Trish Wilson in 1999 and carefully restored to its former beauty, Saint Anne’s Chapel is now a lovely place for weddings and community events. Be sure to check out their website to learn more about this gorgeous piece of history!

We left our 225 place settings with Brooke’s family and crew and can’t wait to see scenes from their wedding and reception!  Many thanks go out to her family and friends for helping Priscilla and me unload, and for sharing a bit of their stories as well.

PS – One unexpected philosophical nugget that came up during our conversation on the road to Tarboro is this thought from a Barbara Kingsolver book  – The most important thing about a person is the thing you don’t know.  Hmmm…food for thought, indeed.

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Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Decor Rental NC

Vintage Adventure – All In A Day’s Work

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC


It was all in a day’s work – scouring the local thrift stores for unusual vintage items. And, true to thrift shopping lore, I didn’t see what I was looking for but I did find some terrific treasures I couldn’t pass up!

As I browse around a thrift store, I’m thinking about our clients and their upcoming celebrations. One of our brides, Anna, is getting married next month and together we designed her table centerpieces which include lots of lovely items such as vintage tins, frames, brass candle holders, and teapot vases. She also loved the vintage petite artwork as much as I do. A few of these items are pretty rare to come across, but the vintage gods must have been directing me this week because many were there, on the shelves, as if they were waiting for me to pick them up!

I am so looking forward to seeing many of these new items gathered together on Anna’s tables along with the other charming trinkets in our vintage decor inventory at Southern Vintage Table!

  • Vintage Brass Candle Holder
  • Vintage Decor Rental NC
  • Vintage Decor Rental
  • Vintage Decor Rental
  • Vintage Decor Rental NC
  • Vintage Decor Rental NC
  • Vintage Decor Rental NC
  • Vintage Decor Rental NC
  • Vintage Decor Rental NC

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Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

Vintage Adventure – A More-Than-Century-Old Thrift Store Treasure

The snow is gone, spring is almost here, and it’s time to do the thrift store circuit to uncover vintage gems for Southern Vintage Table.  And, what would make a great day even better?  Browsing my favorite thrift stores with Jami!  Little did we know we would find something really, really wonderful.

So, it was our third stop and as soon as we opened the door to the old-house-turned-thrift-store, I spied these cups on the table. Neither of us could read the mark without our glasses, but even with our blurry vision, it had that distinctive vintage look.  I bought them and couldn’t wait to find out more.

Bodley StampAlthough I couldn’t find a photo or pattern name, I did discover more about the company that made them. Here’s a bit of their story.

The pottery company is Edwin J.D. Bodley from Burslem, England.  Edwin was the son of Edward Fisher Bodley and originally the two worked together but later the father retired and Edwin took over.  According to thepotteries.org, these are key dates for Edwin’s company:

  • In 1875 the father retired and the son carried on on his own accord. 
  • In the 1881 census the company is recorded as having 140 employees. 
  • In 1892 the company was declared bankrupt. 

So, using a little bit of math, this means these teacups are at least 123 years old!  Holy moly!  This advertisement from The Pottery Gazette, American and Canadian Edition, January 1st, 1880, also from thepotteries.org site, gives some insight into the company’s business plan. I definitely appreciate Edwin’s quest to create “fancy goods” for the American market!

bodley+edwin

My guess is these were made for the American market in the 1880s, with all their fanciness, shape and decorative style, and bought somewhere here. Who bought them, where they lived and how many cups of tea were stylishly served in them – alas – that’s all left to our own imagination. But, we do know they now reside at Southern Vintage Table for all to joyfully admire!  Aren’t they fabulous?

Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC

 

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Southern Vintage Table Vintage China Rental NC