Pink Love

Morning everyone!  I hope that everyone is excited for the start of a new week!  Who am I kidding, now that it’s November the run up to Christmas has begun and we all know that it will be here in a blink of the eye.  What a better way to put it off than to talk about some utility china!

I won this on eBay during my hiatus from my blog.  It wasn’t super expensive, but it wasn’t cheap either.  I think it was partially this object that made me put my speed of acquisition on hold.  This item was pick-up only, but the seller was in London, and, as I later found out, worked around the corner from me.  So one day during lunch I met her in Liverpool Street Station and she handed me two large heavy and breakable bags.  It then spent more than a week bringing it home piece by piece.

What is this mystery object you ask?  Why, it was a Grindley Peach Petal Tea/Coffee set.  

Bliss.

So I am now the proud owner of four tea cups:

A milk jug:

A sugar bowl:

Some type of tray:

And a coffee pot!

All with this backstamp:

This past week while checking out the Thursday antique far in Spittlefields I spotted 3 Grindley Peach Petal serving plates, large, medium and small.  The seller wanted £20 and then proceded to tell me that they were made between 1891 and 1901, as after 1901 Grindley started printing Made in England instead of just England on their backstamp.  I told him that they were post war and not as old as he thought.  He then told me that it was impossible to find anything with this backstamp.  I had to go back on him and say, no its not, I've got a tea set! Needless to say, I didn't buy.  Partially because he wouldn't budge on price and paritially because I didn't think they were in very good shape, in fact, they might not be usable anymore.  When I got back to my office I looked up the backstamp, Peach Petal went into production in 1954.  I can't believe how much he was trying to lie to me.  Buyer always beware

Anyone else ever have a seller try to really do one over on them?

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations.

 

 

Trick or Treat!

I've been busy baking and thought I'd share!

I hope you have a very scary Halloween!

I'm linking up with Faith Hope and Charity Shopping!

Johnson Brothers Haul

A few weeks ago I once again convinced the long suffering Mr Grumpy to join me in a quick thrift run one town over.  Don’t feel too bad for him though folks, he likes to visit a used DVD shop there and pick up Blue Rays of dubious quality.  Well, the Blue Ray itself is always fine; it’s the content it holds that can be bad enough to make me beg for that hour and a half of my life back!

Ok, tangent over, back to the real news. 

We weaved in and out of the shops, and I tried to speed thrift so that Mr Grumpy wouldn’t become extremely grumpy.  When we walked in one shop I immediately laid eyes on a piece of my desire.  I was behind Mr Grumpy and I started to push him a bit, saying “It’s go time, go, go, go!”  Yes people, I am that insane.  He thankfully held his ground because there was an elderly woman right in front of him that I couldn’t see.  This slight delay didn’t prevent me from grabbing this rather heavy pile off of the shelf.

Wow, was all I could think.  Mr Grumpy tried to bargain down the price of £12.99, but I blocked him a bit.  I’m not really comfortable trying to bargain with a charity. 

So what exactly was in the Johnson Brothers stack?

First up were these beautiful Greydawn large dinner plates.  Oddly, they had two different backstamps and I can't figure out which one is older.  Do you know?

The next two pieces were pretty simular, I  got two serving plates, including one ginormous one.  Its so big that a very large turkey could fit on it! Both plates have the same backstamp.  I thought I took a picture of these together, but I guess not.

I've saved the best for last.  I can't tell you how many times I've bid on, and lost  this Greydawn jug/pitcher.  I can't believe that I managed to find it in the wild.  It was such a rush!

 You can't really see the backstamp, but I thought that I'd share anyway. 

Johnson Brothers is my favourite pattern and I have so little of it that this haul was a definite rush.  I’m so pleased to have it in my collection.  But I am worried that I’m losing it a bit.  After I find something amazing, like the JB haul or the Pyrex piece I found a few weeks ago I just want more, and I want it now.  It’s like I’m a drug addict looking for my next fix.  Anyone else feel this way, or am I alone?

Also, a big thank you to Mr Grumpy, he carried the haul for the next hour so that I could have both hands to search through the remaining charity shops. 

I’m going to link up with Magpie Monday at Me and my Shadow, and Thrift Share Monday at Apron Thrift Girl, and Thrifty Love at Cap Creations.