Collecting

It started innocently enough. Anna and I have lattes on a fairly regular basis and we have been using the same latte mugs for about the last four years now. Well, I thought it might be fun to look for some different ones, but I wanted to find something unique and I didn't want to pay a lot of money. So, one day I was browsing through a Goodwill Store near our home when I spotted a sherbet bowl that reminded me of the sherbet bowls we used to have when I was a kid, and I noticed there were two of them, so I bought them both, one for me and one for Anna. I didn't find any latte mugs that I liked, but that's okay, it gives me an excuse to shop thrift stores now. Anyway, when I got home Anna was curious about what kind of Sherbet bowls these are, so we did a little research on the Internet. It turns out they are made by Anchor Hocking, and the pattern name is Wexford. The Internet article I read says they are no longer being manufactured by Anchor Hocking, but the dishes are plentiful in thrift stores. Anna and I decided to investigate the thrift store theory a bit further, and discovered that there were indeed more Wexford dishes available. We now have six water goblets to go with our two sherbet bowls and are well on our way to forming a new Anchor Hocking Wexford collection.

Now, that should be the end of the story, but there is a little more. Anna inherited a platter from her grandmother that depicts a scene of the inside of a colonial kitchen. As I was browsing this Goodwill Store, I noticed a set of dishes that looked similar, so when I got home I told Anna about them. She went with me to the store and discovered that indeed, they are the same set as her platter, so we bought the whole set. Naturally, being at a thrift store, the set is not complete, but we have a bunch of dinner plates, bread and butter plates, and cups and saucers and a few other dishes to go with the platter. This set is called "Colonial Homestead" and was made by Royal, the same company that made the Currier and Ives plates. This pattern is also no longer made, so now we have TWO reasons to hang around thrift stores. Of course, we have to be careful about how much we let the collecting bug bite, because we pack it all up and move in less than a month. But in the meantime, it is fun to learn about this stuff and have fun finding it. Now I'm on the lookout.
Blogged by Don