Monday, January 14, 2013

Red Transferware = Love


Last weekend I headed off to Maine to see some of my very favorite folks and spend the day syphoning  inspiration from one of my most creative pals Kate from Scissors, Spatula’s & Sneakers.  I had started a “scrapbook” to chronicle some of the fun moments of my 2012 travel.  Now, I am not at all a scrapper but all the pretty papers and adornments really call to me.  My pal is a huge scrapper and really does amazing things so I decided her house would be a great place to try to figure out how to put together the free form pages I had started.  I really just cut 6” x 8” pages and decided to stick some of my favorite photos that representing each trip…nothing complicated just a fun memory book.


So we had a wonderful afternoon catching up & gluing things on paper...fun!

On my way home as I often do I took the “road less travelled” (aka Route 1) and headed south to see what new amusement I could find along the way.

Columbary House
1286 US Route 1, Cape Neddick ME

Well, in Cape Neddick Maine my car just happened to pull into a parking lot for Columbary House Antiques.  Now, I have passed by this place I can’t even tell you how many times and have never noticed it.  I have no idea why I not only noticed it but decided to stop on Sunday, it was literally a last minute decision to take the turn (luckily there was no one behind me on the road) but let me tell you I am so glad I did!


How great is this to re-purpose old windows?  I'm thinking this would be so great
on the built-in's in my bathroom.
Red transfer ware is in my heart but wow I love this display of blue

As I mentioned in my Plan B Rowley post from last spring (see it here) I am always on the lookout for Colonial Burslem Woods Red transfer ware.  This was my great-grandmother’s everyday china pattern.  I grew up eating many, many yummy meals on it and still all these years later love it.  She made the absolute best homemade donuts…and let me tell you fresh fried homemade donuts is the absolute best scent to wake up to!  My brother could polish off a dozen in one sitting when we were kids.

Some of my red transfer ware pieces

Anyway back to Columbary House, there are 2 buildings – the front and more serious antiques house and the back building that has wonderful vintage items of all sorts.  It was in the back building that I made my real score.

And these babies were just waiting for me to find them on the bottom shelf below the wrap desk...luckily eagle eye
spotted them right away

So excited!  It’s not often I see my pattern and even less frequent I see it priced affordably!

There are 2 styles of Burslem Woods Colonial pattern one that is a lighter weight china and one that is more of a hotel/restaurant china heavy weight.

Most of my collection is the lighter weight...notice the serving bowl though....it's the heavy weight :-(

Early on when buying I made a mistake in not paying attention and picking up the heavier weight when I really prefer the lighter weight.  So, now that I’m paying attention it seems the lighter weight is so much harder to find and particularly hard to find without chips or crazing!

While both of these pieces are Woods Burslem they are not both Colonial pattern,...that's ok I'm good with a
little mixing and matching until I find a Colonial sugar bowl
Needless to say, this was a perfect start to my 2013..I’m hoping it’s a sign that this is going to be a wonderful year with unexpected beautiful things where I least expect them


Linking back with Mod Mix Monday, Savvy Southern Style, The Charm of Home, Jennifer Rizzo, Between Naps on the Porch

12 comments:

  1. Obviously those plates were calling out to you to pull over, stop the car, and get inside to rescue them. Great find! Love these kinds of stories. ;-)

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  2. **Droooool**** I just LOVE red transferware! What beautiful finds! =D

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  3. I love it when that happens, you go into a place and it is lovely and you enjoy browsing, then all of a sudden you spot something that has been waiting for you to stop by and rescue it to join your family...lol...love that..I adore the red and white transferware, I actually love all transferware...I am a new follower of yours and would love for you to come visit and maybe you would like to follow me...

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  4. Your red transferware is lovely! And it's so much more unusual than blue.

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  5. Beautiful....red has become a new color to me. You know...I can't get away from it..just really love it. Thanks for sharing.

    Helen

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  6. I haven't been in this little gem of a place yet! I definitely need to get sidetracked there one day.

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  7. Love transferware! Red or blue! Thank you for joining Home Sweet Home!
    Sherry

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  8. Your featured today at Home Sweet Home! You had the most views last week with this post.
    Sherry

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    1. Oh my gosh how exciting is that!!! Thank you for hosting...the link parties are all new to me so I'm having so much fun seeing the increased traffic as well as checking out all of the other folks sharing.

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  9. Oh, I am swooning! I adore red transferware! How wonderful that you have your G-grandmother's china and you are able to add to it. You found some fabulous pieces! I also collect the red but it is extremely difficult to find here where I live which is why I am going to start shopping on-line again. My grandmother always made donuts and then my father and I started making them every Christmas together. Since he passed, I make them by myself. Is there anything better than a home made donut! Thank you for sharing your pretties and for the tour. Enjoy your weekend. I hope you will stop by and say Hello when you have time. I'm your newest follower.

    Blessings,
    Sandi

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  10. We vacation in this area every summer. Love the light house at Cape Neddick. Don't think I've stopped into this shop though:) www.sewsweetvintage.com

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