Vintage American Made Children's Tea Set

Last week when my 4 year old granddaughter was visiting for Christmas,

we unpacked a box from our attic containing my old little girl dish sets.

There are only a few pieces of the oldest set left, a blue on white design

of 2 Dutch children by the sea with a sailboat in the background. 

I have only 1 small teacup and 3 saucers left, but remember them fondly 

from playing with them in Baltimore.  

My daughter played with them in the 1970s and now her daughter 

(and son, too) enjoyed a little tea party last week.  

They are labeled "Edwin M. Knowles china Company / Made in the U.S.A./ 42-10.

They are also labeled semi-vitrous. I recall having tea parties with my new friends

in a Baltimore suburb, Parkville, after we moved out of the city 

when I was 3 years old.I was delighted to find the company when I "Googled" the name.

Marmalade dinnerware

Marmadlade Dinnerware by International China

The blue trimmed complete set of Marmalade dinnerware 

was bought for me by my DH over the years. 

Seeing it again on your webpage brought back fond memories 

and tears as I had to sell it nearly 15 yrs ago,it reminded me 

of when all my family would dine around the large kitchen table 

and talk about our day and our thoughts for the future,

happy days indeed.

Guardian Service Ware, Served Everyone Well

Guardian Service Ware - The Best Cookware Ever Made

Here is a wonderful memory, I love tender memories that involve cooking. I have many fond memories of the
time spent in the kitchen with my granny.

Here is the memory that was shared with me:

Guardian Cookware, fully explained at my blog, Reflections From the Fence, 

The post was about memories of Christmas cookies, and read in part: I got thinking and remembering about my mother's Christmas cooking siege and my mind wandered around the subject a bit. In that wandering around time, I remembered how my mother stored her cookies. She stored them in Guardian Ware cookware. 

Guardian Ware (or Guardian Service Cookware) was manufactured by the Century Metalcraft Corporation, Los Angeles, California, between 1935 and 1956. The cookware was not sold in stores. An individual would host a party at his or her house, and a salesman would cook the party guests a meal with the cookware. It so happened that Man's father sold the cookware at one time. He would do the shopping for the food, prepare, cook and serve the meal. Man's mother pulled clean up duty. Now, back to the cookies. 

My mother would make those double sugar rolled pecan balls. They have many different names. She would buy whole pecans and grind them up in a meat type grinder that you attached to the counter top. She baked a LOT of these balls. A LOT! She must have started baking right after Thanksgiving. I cannot imagine how many batches she baked. Since they also have butter and crisco in them, and all those pecans, they can spoil. She would fill the Guardian (in fact, several pieces of Guardian) with pecan balls. Between the layers she placed waxed paper, this would keep the powered sugar from clumping together. 

Now, here was the secret to keeping the cookies fresh for several weeks. She would place the Guardian Ware full of those beautiful delicious round pecan balls with two coats of powdered sugar on the stairway to the attic. Unheated attic. In Michigan in December, in the stairwell of an unheated attic, they stayed fresh. 

location: Country state_lived_in: Michigan

Please share your fond cooking memories with us. You can post them in the comments section and I will then transfer them to the main page. If you can link to a photo please do so and I will post that too. 

Found a Treasure Long Ago

Memory Shared: I was working with my father tearing down the "La Fiesta" ballroom in downtown Kansas City. It had sat for several years and served as storage for the owner. I guess the city had maybe condemned it but my dad was hired to tear it down. 

I was probably about 10 years-old a the time and rummaged through 3 stories of the building and probably 50+ yrs. of accumulation. I found several pieces of the red J&G Meakin dinnerware pieces with all the cottages and different scenes that I thought they were so neat. I have since got married and had children and now have them displayed in my china cabinet. Thanks Robert S.

Grandma's Special Homer Laughlin Platter

Memory Shared: I have a meat platter that belonged to my mother. The pattern is the Virginia Rose and the number and letters on the back are A 37 N 8 I love it and everytime I use it I think of her.  

So I came to my computer and looked up about the Home Laughlin Company. I was born in Ohio but now live in Virginia. 

Antique Toy Dishes Just Like Moms'

I am nuts about antique and vintage toy dishes. I would play for hours with my little dishes and my baby dolls so this story really hit home. When I became a Granny I bought a very special set of 'china' dishes for my grandchild to play with when she got older. Now at age 11 she does not play with them very much anymore but we hand countless hours of fun playing tea party, just the two of us and her dolls.

The memory shared:

When I was 5 my grandmother gave me a set of Blue Willow China. This was a child's tea set with the plates, cups, saucers, teapot, sugar and creamer and covered dish.
I treasured this and still have it today. Some pieces have Occupied Japan on them. I played with this but took such good care of it. I now have a 14 year old granddaughter and have unwrapped it and showed it to her. I am passing it on to her.
location: City
state_lived_in: Texas

Never Complain About Mamma's Cooking

Another fun childhood memory that has been shared and a lesson learned.

I was looking over your site and saw the Colonial Homestead china you had listed. Years ago my mother built a set of this china-it was a special offer from the local food chain. You could purchase pieces for something like 25 cents with each $5.00 purchase or something similar. 

At any rate, she worked at it until she had a complete set for eight along with the serving pieces. We used that set for quite a few years-until my father complained about a roast of beef. My mother had a comment to make back to him and he threw the roast on the floor, platter and all. My mother followed it with every dish on the shelves. We had a lovely pile of Colonial Homestead shards in the middle of our kitchen.. 

My sister and I went next door to see what they had for dinner since it did not seem like we were going to get much to eat at home. After that we had to eat off of my great-great grandmother's wedding china until we replaced the "everyday" dishes. 

My Mom and Dad stayed married 63 years and there were quite a few of these types of incidents-they were both very strong-willed and quick-tempered, so it was never boring around the house. I have to say, my Dad never complained about a roast again and we got many a laugh out of this when we had to explain why our "everyday" dishes were 100+ years old. To those who knew my parents well it was not a big surprise. location: 

Small town state_lived_in: Cape Cod, Mass

Your mom sounds like my kind of gal. Love this story.

Please feel free to post your childhood memory stories in any of the comment sections and I will post it as a regular post for all to see. Thank you.

For Love of the Pixie

I have a collection of the red Gilner pixies, handed down to me from my mother. These pixies were treasured by my mother and as a child I looked forward to the day when she would put them out for Christmas. 

When my mother passed away in 2002, I inherited the pixies. I had no idea of their history or 'value'. I would 'show' them off every Christmas!

 I made the mistake of wrapping them in newspaper which caused some of them to slightly stain. I came across some simular gilner pixies at an antique store one day and the owner gave me so much information about the pixies. I looked up the information here on the internet and was astonished! I took my pixies out of storage & now keep them out on display all the time! location:

City state_lived_in: CA

Remember When Dishes Came in Oatmeal Boxes and Detergent Boxes?

This wonderful memory was shared with me and yes I do have a vague memory of dishes being included in detergent boxes, oatmeal boxes and other food product boxes.

When I was first married (to my first hubby) all of our towels came from detergent boxes. They were pretty crappy towels it took two to get you dry after a shower but hey, they did not cost us any extra money.

Here is the memory that was shared;

Gaithersburg, MD 

I have 8 place settings with all (?) I think of the original serving dishes and platters, S&P, etc. of the gold-rimmed Rose dishes with the Triumph, American Limoges, Sebring, Ohio mark. My mother and her younger sister each got a set and combined the 2 sets for big parties/dinners in the 1950's-1970's. Mother put a small piece of adhesive tape on her pieces so that she would'nt get any extra chipped ones back from my aunt! Both have passed on, but family lore has it that they got the pieces in detergent or soap boxes???? Have you heard a similar story for this pattern? Money would have been dear...maybe it's true??? 

location: Small town

I would love to hear your stories of items your family has that were giveaways either in food boxes, the movie theater, gas station, etc.

It Has Been Awhile Since We Last Talked

I have come across quite a few memories that have been emailed to me and it is time to get them online.

Please feel free to leave your memory in the comments section and I will repost it so that everyone can see it. If you have a photo to go with it you can leave me the link with your comment.

Here is a good one to get us restarted.

born: Peoria, ILL

memory: The smell of a fresh rain on the tarred roads in the country.

location: Farm

state_lived_in: Illinois

Guardian Service Ware Was Great Stuff

My mother had lots of Guardian Service Ware when I was growing up in Indiana. I remember her cooking vegetables from our garden in the triangular pans, soups in the big pots.  

Best of all I remember her making her famous caramels at Christmastime in the big pans. Now all these years later, I make caramels in the very same pans!

My website was hacked

Why do people do this mess. You will notice that some photos and links are not working because a jerk hacked into my newly created website... so basically 2 yrs. of work have just gone down the drain with all the work on the new site.

I hope to have it all working again next week. Thanks for visiting.

Life in a "Dog Trot" House ; I love this special memory

I love this "memory" sent in by a visitor to my antique shop website. Being a Texan myself I recall the days of getting the "switch" to the old buttocks area. It was really bad if you were asked to go cut your own switch, the child mind thinks smaller is better but in actuality it was like a little whip. When you are getting a whoopin' the bigger the better when it came to switches.

No, we were not abused children. Simply everyday kids who were disciplined when we broke the rules and yes we knew what the rules were. We got in trouble and got a spanking when we misbehaved. I can't speak for everyone but I don't have any traumatic emotional scars from getting a butt whipping I grew up to be a pretty decent adult who raised amazing children and used discipline appropriate to the incident including "the switch."

I also remember seeing many dog trot homes and wanting to live in one. The little breezeway between the buildings was a welcome respite from the Texas heat.

To this very day I call the refrigerator the icebox.

Please read this special memory and try to visualize it if you can. Thank you for sharing and bringing memories back for me.

Grandma's Special Platter Memories

year_born: 1948

memory: I have a white platter with with sprays of yellow flowers at N. S. E. and West. There is a faint gold border around the edge of the oval slightly scalloped edge. I have dated it from your site as Feb of 1938.

My dear grandmother was a simple woman who took extraordinary pains as a supurb homemaker. As a small child, I remember her pouring hot syrup that we had carefully boiled to almost the "hardball" stage into this special platter. Then we would wait until it had cooled enough to start pulling for taffy.

I also remember that this was her Fried Chicken platter. The chickens came from her yard and were small and not like the monster birds in the grocery today. The entire chicken fit perfectly on the platter...she fried the back, gizzards and liver also.

Nothing was wasted. Feathers were saved for feather beds and pillows. I have only this one small platter but I treasure it. It is worth more than gold to me.

location: Arkansas

The Laughing Place

year_born: 1957

memory: Auctions with my grandpa; I always got to bid on the trays because gram, served everyone off of them.

They had what we called the shelter house; on the southend was the kitchen, the water pump was on the west side and the wood burning stove on the east. There were 7 picnic tables, end to end and at the far end was a huge chandelier; acquired from the Palace theatre. Gram served all the people before she ever sat down. so I would make sure to buy the box of trays, ( and there was one at almost every auction).

Gradpa had cast iron cream separator, actually a couple. The old grinding wheels, of every size imaginable. The cobalt decorated crocks lined the driveway, (with Gramsflowers in them) and ever so many feet there'd be a buck board to sit on. There were so many cool things at their place (aka 'the Laughing Place'); people would stop and ask, 'are you open?' and Grandpa always said, 'we're always open, what can I do yafor?', whatever it was that caught their eye, they'd ask about and Grandpa would 'give' it to them. It happened so much, Gram was sick of antiques!

The Laughing Place is still there. My Uncle Gene wrote a song about the 'LaughingPlace', it goes something like this (in part);

Ol' briar rabbit has a laughing place in the middle of the ol'briar patch,
he can sit right there, look the farmer in the eye and never be his catch...
We'll I got me a laughin' place in the middle of the clear creek hills, I can
sit right here and watch the world drive by and never feel it's chills...

ty for letting me share. by Ginny Bell (aka Little Ginny)
location: Small townstate_lived_in: Ohio

Beautiful Memory of Granny and Special Occasions

year_born: 1962

memory: My Granny was given for her wedding a complete table ware setting of J&G Meakin Persian Garden design in 1932 apx. Only on special occasions like Chrismas was it every used. I can remember from a young age carefully setting the dinning table with irish white linen and serviettes. Silver cutlery for 8 adults.

When xmas pudding was served I was allowed to hide six penses (coin money, silver about 5 centsback then) in the plum pud before serving them to the guest. My granny died 4 years ago and she left me the table set and my sister the tea cups pots and cake plate set. Unfortunatly family pilfered pieces for the memories. So now I am trying to collect the odds missing.

I now lay my table with white irish linen and on herbirthday, set the china out for my mother( her only daughter) in her late 60's. To eat and remember the happy times when granny was alive. Now she always is alive in our hearts.

location: South Australia Gawler outside of Adelaide

Original Number One Barbie... Dreams Do Come True

year_born: 1962

memory: I had just traveled to Oregon for the Portland show. I said to a friend "I will never be able to add to my Vintage Barbie collection, the prices are so high.

"When I got back, I was on my way to visit the Cleminsons and stopped at a rundown Antique mall. There were many repro. #1 anniversary Barbies. I got all the way through the mall and looked in a dirty jewelry counter 50 ft from the cashier.There was a naked Barbie doll in the bottom. I looked at the tag it said old Barbie $5000. I looked closer at the dolls face. Something was strange about it. I thought it was a repro, then I suspiciously looked at the bottom of the feet. There were holes with copper tubes!! This was the REAL #1 doll! I looked closer at the price, it said $50.00. I almost died!!

I got the cashier to bring it out and went right to the checkstand. A lady next to me was very curious, I played it down. I put an extra $250.00 in an envelope for the dealer with a note thanking her for the opportunity to add to my collection.

Who said God doesnt care about the small stuff? He is a good Father who knows what touches our hearts. I was truly blessed and my faith has increased. My lesson is "never say never", all things are possible with God!

Purple Ceramic Cow Creamer

year_born: 1968

memory: When I was a child my mother had a purple ceramic cow creamer. She would put it on the table and put milk or cream in it for coffee use, or, if we were having cereal, she would put milk in it for pouring on our bowl of cereal; that kept the jug of milk in the refrigerator, still cold. I LOVED that cow!

My sister, on the other hand, hated it; she said that when the milk came out of the cow's mouth, it looked like it was throwing up! I told her SHE was sick!

Needless to say, the cow now sits in my china cabinet. Think I'll get it out and use it a little more often.

location: Small town

state_lived_in: Alabama

Mom was everything a Mom should be

year_born: 1943

memory: I have my mother's china from Edwin Knowles Co. that I am trying to find missing pieces for. It has the pottery bowl on the back that says semi vitreous, and the numbers underneath are 41-3 or 41-8. We were a blue collar family, mom was a stay-at-home mom, and this was her "good china". The only ones that I remember her using were the salad plates and they were used daily for eggs and lunch. At Christmas we would get out the "good china" and the table would look so pretty. She must have used the coffee cups because all I have are the saucers and no cups. I have searched many places for replacement pieces and your site is the best one I have found for information. I would love to find the few pieces that I don't have to finish the collection.

I remember when I was 16 I went to work for the dime store and was so proud when I bought Mom a new set of dishes--Melmac! Little did I know that I was replacing a loved and cherished memory.

Mom was a beautiful seamstress and made all of my clothes. And yes, I remember having "flour sack" clothes, especially when I was young. She was raised on a small farm in Mo. and we visited there every summer for a few weeks. My dream was always to buy the farm and live there but unfortunately, that wasn't to be. A cousin lost it in a failed restaurant venture and we can't even go look at it anymore. But oh, the memories.

Mom was everything a Mom should be--a soft shoulder to cry on, a loving and caring real LADY, but we also knew when she meant business! I lost her when she was only 63and that has been the hardest thing I have ever lived through but she taught me that faith can move mountains.

She was also a talented poet and writer. Her dream was always to have her writings published but it was too costly. So several years after she passed away, my husband and I sat down at the "new-fangled typewriter" (our first computer) and made her book of poems and writings. We put a graphic with each one and then printed them, one for each child and grandchild. It is one of my most cherished possessions. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit her ability for poetry but I can write a little bit and I inherited her ability to sew.

Thank you for allowing me to share my wonderful memories!

location: Small town

state_lived_in: Illinois