According to German legend, a delicate little blossom was almost forgotten when God was naming all the flowers. “Forget me not, O Lord,” cried the little flower. God decreed, “That shall be your name.” How charming!
Wikipedia describes another tale that explains the pretty shade of blue. As the Creator was assigning colors to the flowers, he heard a soft whisper, “Forget me not.” The only color left was a little bit of blue which was given to the small flower. As the story goes, the flower was delighted and so are we as we admire this lovely midcentury pattern created in its honor by Myott & Sons of England.
I first saw this pattern at Elma’s Copper Awning in Mebane. In a previous post, I mentioned that she and Scott bought this set of china for me at an auction as part of our bartering arrangement. I immediately fell in love with the creamy color, the swirl around the rim and the color of the delicate flowers. With these features, it’s perfect for mixing and matching with some of the other vintage patterns at Southern Vintage Table.
Let’s start with the dinner plate. Here are several different looks this charming pattern can create with other lovely vintage patterns!
Whether on the outside as the dinner plate, or inside as the salad, the “Forget-me-not” pattern is sweet!
Southern Vintage Table is also fortunate to have serving pieces in this lovely pattern. With such a beautiful color and pattern, Forget-Me-Not on your table will help make your gala affair unforgettable!
The first time I stepped into her shop, I didn’t meet Elma but I did meet her daughter who was minding the store for her. It was on a Saturday afternoon and my friends and I were on one of our many adventures together. Our agenda this time was to start at Dick & Jane’s Martini & Tapas Bar for lunch and well, a martini, and then browse the eclectic shops on Clay Street in Mebane. When we walked into Elma’s shop, The Copper Awning, I realized that I couldn’t slow my friends down to give me time to look through her interesting collection, so I made a mental note to return the next week to see what vintage things I could get for Southern Vintage Table.
Elma was there on my next visit and I explained to her that I was looking for miscellaneous vintage china and tableware. She told me she had some terrific finds in her back room but she needed to get it organized before I could take a look. One peek at that back room and I knew she was right – I would come back later.
The following week I returned and when Elma saw me, she smiled. “Well, I haven’t had a chance to do much back there but I’ll make a path for you.” More than a few things were moved out of the way and then she left me to look. I started making a pile of a few things – a wooden box, milk glass goblets, vintage books – and as I am surveying the room filled with stacks, boxes and bags of “stuff” as Elma calls it, my plan came to me. I walked back into the front. “Elma, I said, “you need help getting that room organized and I would like to offer my services.” I suggested a bartering deal – my organizing skills for vintage things. She loved the idea and so did I!
I’ve been there several times, sorting, organizing, opening boxes and cleaning in that back room and basement. We have carried things from the back room to the basement and from the basement up to the showroom. We have moved cabinets, shelving and bins. I’ve been there one week to return the next to find a room in the shop totally restaged. This past week she had a gorgeous wedding dress displayed on a table complete with matching shoes and bouquet!
So what treasures have been added to our vintage inventory? First, we have more beautiful goblets – milk glass, crystal, pink and blue – and a few dainty teacups. We also now have a nice collection of vintage tins to add to a tablescape – love these!
My favorite addition, however, is a gorgeous set of vintage china called Forget Me Not by Myott china. This set is perfect – cream colored with a swirl rim and sweet blue flowers. I love the pattern but mostly I love how they came to Elma’s shop. Scott and Elma bought them at an auction for me. Such an act of kindness! Look for an upcoming “mixing & matching” blog with this beautiful pattern.
This chance meeting has flourished into both a business arrangement and a friendship. I’ve met her husband, daughter, granddaughter, son and daughter-in-law when they have stopped in at the shop as well as her friends and helpers, Scott and Patsy. I have learned that her story is even more interesting than the collection of “stuff” she has in her shop – she’s a retired civilian Marine, she volunteers at her granddaughter’s school, she sings in her church choir and she was in the Pentagon on 9/11.
Check out The Copper Awning on Clay Street in Mebane. Not only will you find something you will love, you’ll meet the delightful, generous Elma. Be sure to say hi for me!
I came across another beautiful set of china that fits perfectly with the vintage china collection at Southern Vintage Table. This vintage set belonged to Grandmother Belle and, according to her daughter in law, was used on special occasions. I can imagine how delighted Belle must have been when she set her table for her guests with her fine china! This pattern is by Grace China and called Formal Garden. Discontinued in 1939, it was made in pre-war Japan which means it’s at least 75 years old!
This pattern is truly beautiful, but I think the sweet floral design stands out even more when mixed with other vintage patterns. Here’s a collection of place settings featuring the Formal Garden dinner plate with a medley of salad plates. Some patterns are contemporaries with Formal Garden and others were manufactured decades later. Such historical richness in a place setting!
Here are a few photos with the soup/salad bowl and the dessert plate. Charming!
Another gorgeous vintage china pattern in our vintage china collection ready for you to share with your guests! Contact Southern Vintage Table for more information about our event packages with our lovely, vintage wares. We look forward to hearing from you!
It’s time to catch up with some of our new additions to our inventory here at Southern Vintage Table! We have found a little bit of everything and we know you’ll love them all!
We added three new teacups to our growing collection of lovely china. This one is gorgeous, inside and out, with its purple flowers and gold trim. This vintage set is by Royal Sealy China of Japan.
Here’s a version of the Blue Willow pattern that I had not seen before. This pair of teacups were made in Occupied Japan, making them a bit of a collector’s item, and this dates them between 1945-52. I didn’t notice that detail until I brought them home because I was taken by their beautiful cobalt blue color with gold trim. What a nice surprise!
It was an amazing week as far as pink glassware! I found three Jeannette Glass Cube footed tumblers from the early 1930s. The pair of pink embossed goblets are a little less vintage. The pattern, Arbor by Noritake, was discontinued in the late 1990s.
The next three finds are now in our vintage decor collection. One is a vintage jug that would be perfect for a spray of flowers and the another is a vintage flour sifter. They belonged to Belle and they are probably from the 1930s-40s. The vintage wooden box is from a thrift store nearby – I love the rough, darkened wood!
Found this trio of charming dessert plates at a flea market. I love the hand-painted dogwood, something I can’t walk away from since the dogwood is our state’s official flower! The pattern is Dixie Dogwood by Joni and although they’re a bit crazed, I appreciate their beauty.
We added to our milk glass collection with these three vases. Their regal design is a new one for me!
Perhaps my favorite find is this beautiful, hand crocheted lace overlay. It’s incredible! I found it at a local thrift store so I do not know anymore than what I can see – but that’s saying a lot!
These and other unique vintage items are now available at Southern Vintage China. Add a bit of beauty and history to your next happy occasion!
We love vintage glassware! The feel, the look and the history embodied in a tumbler or goblet speaks to us. So when a client asked if Southern Vintage Table had one hundred small clear vintage goblets for the toast at her wedding, we told her, “not yet, but we will!” With this request from Rebekah an extra element of fun had been added to our vintage adventures. Every thrift store and antique shop we have visited in the past month has been very focused as we search for the perfect collection of small vintage goblets. Here are just a few we have found so far.
Wexford by Anchor Hocking
Love the embossed cherries!
Beautiful shape
Big Top Peanut Butter came in these!
Love the etchings on these delicate glasses!
Beautiful pair of vintage etched goblets
Not sure if these are vintage but the shape is perfect for the toast!
Be sure to notice the different stems on these vintage goblets.
Classy Park Lane pattern
Notice the foot on this goblet
Elegant!
Vintage trio
This vintage Jenkins pattern is pre 1920!
We are almost there, Rebekah, with your one hundred small clear vintage goblets and we must admit, we’lll probably still be looking way beyond that count. We definitely will be ready come September!
If you have an upcoming wedding, please contact Southern Vintage Table. We have an extensive inventory of vintage china, silverware, glassware and linens, and if we don’t have exactly what you want, we’ll do our best to find it!
My focus this week at Southern Vintage Table has been to clean and organize – linens, silverware and china. As I shared in last week’s blog, I was given a set of vintage china – a beautiful cream-colored pattern with red and blue flowers around the rim. Most of the pieces were in impeccable condition but some of the plates were discolored. I was determined to find a way to get Lillian’s china cleaned. Well, keep reading ’cause I have some good news – it can be done!
Here’s the before – washing in hot, soapy water didn’t touch these stains!Here’s after soaking in 8% hydrogen peroxide overnight and then baking in a warm oven for one hour.Amazing transformation!
Here’s how it was done. I first researched how to get discolored vintage china cleaned and below are three articles I found. Be sure to read all three because they each convey slightly different information but most importantly, there are safety precautions you’ll need to follow if you decide to use hydrogen peroxide. Of course, there are many more articles about cleaning china so you may want to do your own search for ideas, but this is certainly a good start.
I first tried OxiClean soaks by filling the sink with very warm water and adding a full scoop of the detergent. I soaked the dishes overnight, checked them in the morning, removed the cleaned items and refilled the sink.
I did this all week and many items came completely clean. I could tell some stains were fading but they were still visible so I went to the next level – 8% hydrogen peroxide, which I ordered online. The article mentions to be very careful with hydrogen peroxide and I will agree – it will hurt if you touch it with your bare hands! Be sure to wear protective gloves.
One of the articles mentions to fill a container and soak the entire dish. I didn’t have enough to soak all of them so I poured the solution on the plates and the bowls and let them soak overnight.
In this case, you can see the hydrogen peroxide seeping into the crazed cracks where the discoloration is lodged.
The next morning I poured off the solution into a container so I could reuse it, put the plates and bowls on the cold racks and then set the oven to 200 degrees. Per the directions, I baked them for 1 hour. When I removed the pieces, I put them in hot soapy water. As the article warns, do not put them in cool water straight out of the oven or they may break.
Do not preheat the oven!
The first time I removed the dishes I was so impressed with the technique! All of the dishes were definitely cleaner and most were completely unstained. Some needed a second go-around. Only a few still had some discoloration but it was hardly noticeable, especially when you saw the before and after.
After cleaning Lillian’s dishes, I tried the technique with two other sets of dishes that had similar stains. These two didn’t need baking because the hydrogen peroxide bleached them overnight.
Before soaking in 8% hydrogen peroxideAmazing transformation after an overnight soak!Before soaking in 8% hydrogen peroxideAfter and beautiful!
Right now, I have one final sink of dishes soaking in two scoops of Oxi Clean. I also added a stash of vintage napkins and I already see that the stains are disappearing! It’s been a long process and I am still at it, but what terrific results! If you have dingy or discolored china, read through the above articles and decide what technique you should use. It’s definitely worth the effort! One final note, if you have crazing, this will not fix the cracks but it will help remove the stains between which making them much less noticeable.
PS – As far as my long ago goals, I’m finished with the silver and still working on napkins but should have them finished this week! I’m crossing my fingers on that one…
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Since I opened Southern Vintage Table, I have been heartened by the excitement of my friends and family for the concept of this business. Folks love the idea of finding, collecting and bringing together the collage of vintage china and tableware patterns! Many have also generously gifted me with their personal family treasures and I have loved hearing about their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. In this post, I want to honor the family dinner table pasts of four women – Mildred, Grandmother Björk, Edna and Lillian.
Mildred, who recently passed away, lived in the NC mountains all her life. She and her husband of nearly 70 years dearly loved each other and their family. Her son and my brother-in-law, gave me her set of amber Whitehall glasses by Colony Glass. I do love this vintage amber pattern but I mostly love that they were once part of the Webb family’s happy dinner table for so many years.
Mildred’s vintage amber Whitehall tumblers
I got a call one day from Nancy that she was cleaning out cabinets and had some things she wanted to share with me. Along with the vintage glass, silver items and decorative aluminum trays, she had a set of 12 gorgeous vintage placemats made by her husband’s Grandmother Björk. Nancy remembered that Grandmother Björk loved to crochet and even when she was almost blind, she was still sewing and edging linens. With their delicate, perfect design and their classic ivory color, I can easily envision Grandmother Björk carefully stitching these to use at her family dinners.
Beautiful hand stitched vintage placemats
My friend, Priscilla, sent me a message that she wanted me to come over for a visit. She showed me all around her happy home and I reveled at the beautiful nature displays. (She and her husband both taught science.) Our tour ended in a room where she had stacked items she thought I could use with my business. Among the many treasures were two boxes of vintage silverware and one was from Edna, her husband’s mother. Edna, the wife of an agriculture professor and the mother of two PhD boys, loved to cook fresh vegetables from her garden. Everything about this visit filled my heart with gratitude, especially this lovely vintage silverware that Edna lovingly set around her family dinner table.
Edna’s lovely silverware came in the most charming box!
This week Carrie of Fernrock Farm and I made a business call to the Chapel Hill Carriage House. It turned out that the owner’s daughter was once a student of mine and I knew her sons as well. At the end of the tour of her beautiful grounds, Brenda asked me if I would like to have her grandmother’s china. She explained that it had been boxed up for years and she really wanted to share it with someone who would love using it as much her grandmother did. Her grandmother, Lillian, lived in Arlington near Boston and enjoyed serving big dinners to her family. Of course, I was both honored and thrilled!
Lillian’s beautiful china from Gilchrist Department Store
The delicate blue and red roses against the cream background give this pattern that perfect vintage look. Although I couldn’t find the name of Lillian’s china, it does say on the back that it was “made expressly for Gilchrist – Boston”. Gilchrist, I discovered, was a major department store in Boston that opened its doors in the mid 1800s and closed them in the mid 1970s. Now, Southern Vintage China is the caretaker of Lillian’s lovely set of china, which probably dates from the 1920s-30s.
Classic vintage china with delicate roses on a cream background – love the two-handled cups!
One final story about this week’s gifts. When I was visiting Priscilla, I met Becky, a friend of theirs who regularly goes on mission trips to tear down houses that need rebuilding. After Priscilla introduced us and told her about my business, Becky shared that she recently had been to her 90-year-old father’s home and had picked up a set of glasses that were now in the trunk of her car. The glasses, she explained, had once come packaged with tea and then she offered them to me. Wow – aren’t they incredible? They will be featured in an upcoming blog!
Buy some tea, get some tea glasses!
Sets of glasses, linens, silverware, china and more – all shared by the families of Mildred, Grandmother Björk, Edna, Lillian and Becky’s mother. How does one show her appreciation for such beautiful gifts? SimpIy and sincerely, I thank you.
Each time we set the table at Southern Vintage Table, we honor these women and many others who loved their families and the special time they spent around their family dinner table. Namaste.
PS – My to-do-list continues from weeks’ past. Something more interesting than ironing napkins and cleaning silverware always comes up! Thank goodness…
Two weeks ago I mentioned that I had picked up a beautiful vintage china pattern from the 1930s that I needed to photograph and inventory for Southern Vintage Table. Time to check this goal off the list!
Spring green never looked so pretty!
This pattern was made in Japan by a company called Garden City. According to a leading china replacement company, Garden City had only 17 patterns. This one is known as GAR13 – pretty plain for such a delightful, bright pattern!
Normally, I don’t buy whole sets of china, but there is the exception – might be that the pattern is extraordinary or it’s an exceptional buy – and in this case, it was both. Here’s the set I purchased.
Beautiful set of vintage green china!
What I saw in this pattern wasn’t necessarily how beautiful it would look at the dinner table but how well the florals of green, blue, yellow and pink would go with so many other patterns. With the distinct green rim, it is a perfect pattern to layer. Whether it anchors the place setting as the dinner plate or sits between the dinner and dessert, it makes a lovely presentation.
Starting with showcasing the dinner plate, here are a few gorgeous place settings!
The outer green rim sets off the trio of vintage patterns so beautifully in these settings with the Garden City pattern as the salad plate!
And, of course, two layers are simply beautiful as well!
China Garden’s GAR13 is now part of Southern Vintage Table‘s inventory. We can mix and match it with our other beautiful patterns for a charming, eclectic look your guests will love!
The continuing saga of my long list of goals continues. But first, I want to update Carrie’s ribbon count – she won 10 blue and 6 red! Her flowers are that beautiful! This week I’m focusing on painting and ironing with a marketing call in there, too. Thanks for checking in!
After months of planning, their wedding day was here. Julie and Wayne were ready to share this special life event with family and friends and Southern Vintage Table was delighted to be a part of their celebration.
Jami and I arrived early to get the tables ready. The weather was cool and overcast – and though sunny weather would have been nice – it was going to be the perfect wedding day!
With pink and blue vintage dinner plates and vintage stainless steel tableware from Southern Vintage Table along with beautiful flowers from Fernrock Farm, the tables were ready for the wedding guests.
After the barbecue and chicken dinner, guests were treated with wedding pies! With a vintage lacy overlay and a welcoming sign, the dessert table was adorned with an eclectic mix of vintage dessert plates and teacups. So lovely!
Southern Vintage Table will be delighted to help make your wedding day special for you! Congratulations and best wishes, Julie and Wayne!
Southern Vintage Table is also fortunate to have serving pieces in this lovely pattern. With such a beautiful color and pattern, Forget-Me-Not on your table will help make your gala affair unforgettable!
