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!
Three little sugar dishes lost their lids and became sweet flower vases!
Recently I ventured outside of the thrift store arena to attend a couple of auctions and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I got some things that you probably can’t find at a thrift store today, like a butter churn and washboard. But, for basic vintage bargains, the thrift store can’t be beat. Whether it’s one topless sugar dish, a vintage ironing board or a set of beautiful gold trimmed bar glasses, thrift stores have it all – not all at once or at every store, but that’s part of the fun – you have to go out and find it. And, you have to be a frequent visitor.
Here are some of my latest thrift store finds that have been added to the Southern Vintage Table collection.
These gold trimmed vintage bar glasses are stunning!
After visiting my mom I usually stop at a thrift store closeby. On this last trip there was a set of the coolest highball glasses sitting on the shelf! They were all in perfect condition with their intricate, delicate gold trim. While I was inspecting them, the thrift store employee put out these small lovely blue vases. With the vintage glasses, vases, blue drawer, sign and decanter, the bar is open!
Take one vintage wooden ironing board, add vintage dishes and linens and throw in a vintage butter churn and you’ve got a charming dessert station!
I found this vintage ironing board at one of the junkiest stores in town – it’s so packed you have to move furniture to get to some of the items. Needless to say, I love stopping in. This vintage wooden ironing board was sitting behind the door with a split down the middle. After some wood glue and clamping, it’s ready to be part of your vintage decor. Whether it’s a dessert table, welcoming station or drink bar, it will be charming!
This seafoam green vintage typewriter actually works!
At one of the thrift stores nearby, they have an outside area with bins filled with left overs from estates. Some broken, dusty and dirty, but good stuff to look through. For $2, which goes into a fund to help local folks with the upkeep of their homes, you get to fill a box. Sometimes there are also larger items nearby, which is where I found this vintage typewriter. I have to say this is one of my most favorite finds – the color, the condition and the look embodies the spirit of retro vintage.
This vintage silver plated shell dish has a beautiful sheen1
Another favorite thrift store is close to my home and I stop in pretty often. The prices are usually very low and folks appreciate it, so if you see something you like, or even think you like, you better get it that day or it will be gone. I found this silver-plated shell dish for under $2. It was very tarnished and a bit unsightly, but I took a chance it would shine right up. It did – I almost can’t believe how beautiful it is. Looked this one up – it was made in England and valued at about $50.
Found all of these vintage items at various thrift stores in the area
This collection of items all came from various stores. I love the old tins and the two candle holders, once tarnished and encrusted with wax, now gleam. The teapot didn’t have a lid and I even found the candles on the shelf. When I think about where each of these items have been and how they ended up with me, it’s like an adventure story!
So, will I go to another auction? You bet – the energy, the variety of vintage items and the people make it very exciting. The gambling atmosphere is a little risky (at least for novices like me) but certainly fun. However, the everyday thrift store is still my favorite place to hunt. For the unexpected, and usually, very inexpensive vintage item, thrift stores are where it’s at.
All of these wonderful vintage items are here at Southern Vintage Table and we would love to share them with you at your next gathering!
Square vintage plates are now high on my list of favorites here at Southern Vintage Table. Whether it’s a dinner, salad or dessert plate, glass or porcelain, the unexpected shape is a sweet surprise! They look terrific layered and also make fabulous serving dishes.
One classic vintage square plate pattern is Madrid by Federal Glass, manufactured during the early 1930s in Columbus, Ohio. This is the only Madrid dinner plate I have found on my adventures and will be a lovely serving plate for sweet treats or hors d’oeuvres.
This depression glass pattern was also made in clear, pink, green and blue.Here’s a beter look at the intricate detail of the Madrid pattern.
Classic blue and white – a look we all love. This white swirl salad plate by Johnson Brothers between the two vintage blue dishes makes this place setting distinctive.
Liberty Blue, Regency White and Bluebonnet vintage china patterns
This setting features a square plate with a Godey print. The image comes from a publication called Godey’s Lady’s Book which was popular in the mid to late1800s. Here’s a link to the site, Accessible Archives, with articles from this vintage publication – very interesting material!
The sheen of gold on this plate is stunning!
This final layered settings are for that high drama look. These vintage china patterns featuring gold and flowers and beautiful by themselves but layered together, wow!
Gold and flowers – perfect combination!Ooh-la-la! The gold glitters in this place setting!
Square is in – at least for vintage china place settings. They can be center stage or the backdrop pattern but two things are for certain – they will add pizzazz to your table and Southern Vintage Table is ready to help!
