China Girl

Claire January 3rd, 2013

I’m a sucker for pretty bits of pottery, I really am.  Crockery mainly, but I’ll not rule out other bits and bobs as they pass by.  My excuse is always that it is generally useful and pretty and therefore more justifiable a purchase … although that’s never normally stopped me if there’s something that takes my fancy!  Leading up to Christmas and just after I managed to get yet more bits to add to my collection (and I need them like I need a hole in the head…) – 2 Johnstone Bros platters – a large Grey Dawn one and a smaller Rose Dawn, and some lovely Palissy dinner plates, side plates and 2 covered serving bowls from the 50′s.  So I needed to have a bit of a rearrange.  

When I originally repainted this dresser I wanted to store some of my baking equipment in the cupboards underneath, but that’s now had to move to a separate box next to the dresser to fit it all in!

As you can see I have a fair few bits and bobs in there….

On the shelves of the dresser is a lovely set with bluebirds on it that I bought from an antiques shop in Sheffield when we were visiting our lovely friend Lydia – I didn’t need it at all but couldn’t leave it behind.  I also have the Meakin jug I found on a car boot in a box of things that were all 20p.  It looked like it had just been dug out of someone’s garden and has a hefty chunk out of the rim, but despite all that I love it and its cheeky Parisian scene.

I haven’t taken a picture of what my crockery cupboard in the kitchen looks like as that’s rather embarrassing due to the amount of stuff I have in there…. I do have quite a bit of utility china and we use the Woods Ware Beryl dinner and side plates and soup bowls all the time, but I also have a tea set of the Iris (Blue) and a couple of bits of Jasmine (Yellow) that are in regular use as well as odd bits mainly of Meakin or Colclough.

As well as the dresser I also have a stash in the living room, thanks to last year my friend Hannah giving me a lovely china cabinet that we managed to shoehorn in next to David’s bookcase and the chimney breast, and that’s filled with all sorts of stuff that I have collected or that came from my mam’s china cabinet years ago.

Excuse the rubbish light – dark living room and winter = not conducive to taking pictures!

Finally, although it’s not china per se but I also have a display of my pretty pressed glass cake stands in the porch – I have far too many of these but, like pretty china I cannot resist a bargain and have collected them for years (way back when it used to be really easy and cheap to find bits and bobs before it became fashionable).

At least I use these, as well as the plates – I don’t drink tea or coffee so the tea sets only get cracked out every blue moon, although most people agree that they look too pretty to not have on display!

Writing this has made me realise I also have a whole stash of things on display in the kitchen that I also haven’t photographed – the blue and white Devon ware with place names on that I started collecting years ago and blogged about here, and a collection of milk jugs on a mug rack….  I’m beginning to think I have a problem!

Do you have any pretty bits of china that you couldn’t resist bringing home with you? I can’t be the only one with a “thing” for this sort of thing….!

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