Life's little passions .....

Toy china is one of my little passions or obsessions depending on what way you look at it!

I first blogged about these here



GIRL WITH GOAT



This sepia & white tea service dates to around 1860 and is called Girl With Goat by Cork, Edge & Malkin of Staffordshire ... I am lucky to have the full service of teapot, sucrier, slop bowl (quite often mistaken for a sugar bowl), milk jug, six cups and six saucers. 



PARSLEY

Dating to the 1860s again this is a part service as I don't have the tea pot or milk jug



FLOW BLUE



This was a bargain find for £1 in a CS .... a little flow blue sucrier which I haven't been able to identify yet but probably dates to the 1880s



DAISY

This tureen is from a dinner service by Ridgways of Staffordshire and dates to the late 1890s ... the service has two sizes of tureen, open vegetable dishes, three graduated serving platters, dinner plates and even a tiny little ladle.

FISHERS

Another set by Cork, Edge & Malkin called Fishers dating to the 1860s

All is quiet ...... do you want to see some goodies ???

All is quiet on the Lala front now .... and the back for that matter as the borrower next door has retired for the day thank gawd!

We were intending to pop to a local produce show today .... this happens every August BH where local allotment holders bring all their excess produce and for a donation to the Keech Hospice you can fill a bag with all manner of lovely fresh fruit, veg and flowers but last night we happened to drive past the Hertfordshire Showground and saw that there was an antiques fair today.  Well I didn't need much persuading to change the plan and off we went this morning.

These are the goodies that I bought

 

Royal Albert Plate

 

Cute tray in the shape of a duck

A little pewter candle holder and behind you can see a selection of EPNS sugar tongs

Copeland Spode Cake Plate in the blue willow pattern

and what's this ????

The most exquisite Victorian leather bound photograph album which is almost full of family photographs and the only indication of the previous owner's name is Nellie which is handwritten on the inside cover.  Most of the photographs were taken in studios on the Kent and Sussex coast but what caught my eye the most was the delicate hand painted detail to these pages .... tiny little flowers, birds and insects and the colours are still so vibrant. 

Another book of 'lost people' .... I can never quite understand how such things get discarded.

My little treat of the day was this sewing table

We arrived home at lunchtime to find this

Our big brown bear Mollie and she was absolutely sparko .... don't know how she'd managed to kip with all that noise on the other side of the fence.  Poor dear is starting her season and always feels very sorry for herself at this time.

Hope you all had a super bank holiday xx



Do you have a Bank Holiday banger ??????

Not a rude question ladies and nothing to do with your sex lives

I mean one of these bangers

The twit next door to me starts every bank holiday.   On Boxing Day he decided to rip out his bathroom and at Easter was clanging around in the loft and as we are a pair of semis every sound echoed down the chimney.

Today he has decided to play silly buggers on his patio and has been out there now with what sounds like a sledge hammer banging away on concrete.  Our kitchen/family room extension wall forms the boundary and I can feel it shaking with every hammer blow.

Grrrrrrrrrr

Sorry just had to get that one off my chest before I go round and throttle him!!!

and the collection grows .....

A few more pieces with illustrations by Lilian Rowles to add to my collection

This gorgeous Valentine's postcard "A Little Ray of Sunshine" - it is a used card and this is what is on the back

I love to have a dig around and find out about the history of my little bargains so I've googled the name Waveny Whiteaway and found that she was born in Weybridge in 1922 so she was just 10 years old when she sent this card as the postmark is 28 January 1932.

I also found this photo on Photobucket and I believe the young lady in the centre is Waveny

How I wonder does a sweet little postcard, sent some 80 years ago from Worthing to Weybridge, manage to find itself on Ebay with a postcard dealer in York and now has a home with me in Bedfordshire?

A very well travelled card and I hope the Whiteaway family won't mind me telling you all about it on here .... it is so nice to put a face to the handwriting.

Another Lilian Rowles postcard ..... again Valentines

this one has never been used so no history lesson here sadly

A little story book of Aladdin with illustrations by Lilian Rowles which I think was published a little later in the 1940s

Brollies and bikinis .....

Yesterday was the Lala family outing to see the air display on Lowestoft seafront.  The car was packed with all the necessities like rain coats, brollies and sun cream because you just never can trust our good old English weather can you !

It was piddling down here but the forecast for Suffolk was fairly good with a bit of sunshine and some showers ..... after a car journey of two and a half hours (minus a brekkie stop at MaccieDs) we arrived to beautiful blue skies and sunshine.  The organisation was superb and we drove straight to a park & walk car park at the football ground which was 5 minutes away from the seafront.  Some enterprising locals were having a garage sale and it would have been rude not to look, ha ha, much to the dismay of my daughters who exclaimed oh no mum can't we go anywhere without you finding a charity shop, car boot or something similar! 

I found some lovely 1930s Art Deco coloured glassware .... in the first picture are some vases by Davidson in a lovely design called Chevron .... I'd only bought one of the small ones in our local CS a couple of days ago and there sitting in the garage was a twin small one and a big brother too!

I had a lovely chat with the lady selling them and it turns out they had moved to Lowestoft from a town just 10 miles away from us.

Anyhoo bargain hunting ceased and we found a spot on the sea front and got comfy for the start of the display at 1.00 pm  which was a parachute drop

Can you see the UJ on the underside of the parachute??

In between the displays we all went for a paddle and make sandcastles and then true to form the weather changed in a split second to this

and then just as quickly changed again to this ......

some enterprising people on the seafront were doing things in style

The afternoon ended with a display from the magnificent Red Arrows

Unfortunately my poor old camera was having a bad day and kept jamming and then ran out of memory and apart from a short video clip that was all I took of them.  They make the hairs on the back of my neck stand out and when they did the manouevre where their tail smoke is in red, white and blue everyone was clapping and cheering.  It was such a lovely contrast to all the trouble broadcast in our cities this week and made you feel proud to be British.  Ellie exclaimed that Great Britain was truly great and this was the best day ever nanny and it was.  This is a great day out and the prices of everything from the vendors on the front were extremely reasonable and a refreshing change from the rip-off days out in some places.

This morning we went over to the Flea Market in Hitchin but it was quiet and only one little thing caught my eye.  You may remember that blue and white china is my favourite and I especially love collecting antique children's china so I got quite excited when I spotted this little fellow on a £1 table ....

A diddy little transferware tea cup from a tea service dating to around 1840 .... I've got my detective's hat on now to try and identify the pattern and if anyone recognises it please let me know.  I placed the pound coin next to it to give you an idea of the size .... so cute !!

This afternoon I popped into my local CS and just inside the door was a basket of these for just £1 a bag

 A little further on an Edwardian wooden folding cake stand .... only a fiver because of a break in one of the legs but that can soon be mended and I think with a coat of paint it will be very useful for display at the vintage fairs.

 and a Victorian crinoline lady with basket attached to her back which I think was probably for spills to sit on the mantlepiece.

I do hope the weather holds out for the weekend .... I can hear the car booties calling already.

Have a good weekend xx

Sunday Car Booty Looty

We had a lovely day in Market Harborough yesterday at the Vintage Fair .... sales were good and it was another lovely opportunity to chat with bloggers, sellers and visitors ... these events are great social activities too bringing like minded folk together in one place for a day.  We were the first to arrive and I think I must have been so laid back with so much time on my hands to set up that I forgot to take photos !!

This morning was spent having a sort through the stock I brought home so that I could take some to Country Matters and then on to some car boots while the dry sunny weather was still holding out.  We were very lucky and were just on our way back to the car when the heavens opened.  Carnage then ensued as every Tom, Dick and Harry headed for the sole exit .... it was every man or woman for themselves as around six cars a time tried to squeeze out!

Thanks goodness it was a very productive outing to compensate for the car boot road rage that was bubbling in me at the stupidity of some drivers.

A pretty Cadbury's biscuit tin and Sheffield steel cake knife

 A boxed set of Sheffield butter knives

 Cute tray with chocolate box picture of kittens and flowers

 Little papier mache trinket box, crinoline lady jug and a 'Mother' brooch

A pair of 1930s banana split dishes, deco preserve pot, trinket pot, little glass salt and a pair of candle holders

A gorgeous embroidered silk panel in jesso frame

Art Deco mirror on a chain hanger

Art Deco dressing table set with unusual double sconce candle holder

We recognised this immediately as an old photo of Tilehouse Street in Hitchin .... a lot of the buildings are still there and below is how it looks today

and here's a link to google street view