Monday, August 25, 2014

Treasures from the Trip to Alexandria

(Thank you to Cindy at Dwellings and Dawn at We call It Junkin' for featuring this post!)
I left you hanging last week when I posted about our trip to Alexandria. The teaser photo (below) was the only glimpse of what I scooped up while on the town. Savvy readers, you are!   Whether it was my use of the word "pottery" interchangeably for "dishes", or that trademark within, the guess of something French and Quimper were spot on!
Check out the mother lode I scored at auction (online) prior to making the trip!
Quimper serving pieces
I won 22 pieces of Quimper, almost all of which are serving pieces. I love how they will complement the Quimper Soleil that I won a few years ago. Knowing we were traveling to Alexandria anyway, I was able to save the shipping fees by picking these pieces up in person.

The win included a covered tureen, covered sugar bowl, and covered honey pot with underplate.
Quimper covered tureen, sugar, and honey pot
Here's a view of the pear detail on the tureen lid (below).
Quimper tureen detail
There is also an open-handled serving tray, teapot, four cups & saucers, and two egg cups.
Quimper tea service
Lastly, the lot also included a covered vegetable dish, two graduated oval serving bowls, a round bowl, a two-lipped gravy boat, and a covered butter or cheese keeper.
Quimper covered vegetable, oval and round bowls, gravy boat, covered butter/cheese keeper
The covered vegetable dish in the photo above is the only piece that is unique to the lot in that it doesn't have the Breton characters hand-painted on it, and its hues are a lighter blue.

Not all of the pieces were perfect.  The smaller of the two oval serving bowls, along with the round bowl, had a repaired crack.
Quimper oval serving bowl repaired crack
Quimper round serving bowl repaired crack
That wasn't all that was purchased on this trip.  On the way to Alexandria, we stopped at two places, one in West Virginia and another in Maryland.  Some of the treasures I brought back with me from those stops included a brown English transferware plate (F. Winkle & Co, "Devon"), and a majolica butter or cheese keeper with a nicely detailed cow on the lid.
English transferware and Majolica butter/cheese keeper
Keeping with the farm animal and pottery theme, I was drawn also to the pairing below (though purchased separately). The egg cup is marked Western Germany. The butter keeper is an inexpensive one, but I liked the cute calf on the lid.
Egg cup and butter/cheese keeper
I also picked up a couple of ironstone pieces, the most unique being an invalid feeder, but didn't photograph it. In trying to convince my sister J that she should have a vintage medical collection (she's a retired RN), I seemed to be the one more active on that front.  While working through my basement purge I seem to have organized an entire tub devoted to vintage medical paraphernalia. Just another unintentional collection, I suppose......

Finally, if you are a new follower or reader of my blog, you may not be aware that my other obsession (besides dishes) is purses - mostly vintage mesh and beaded examples from the late 19th to early 20th century.  To that end, I couldn't pass when I spotted this leather and beaded wallet in Maryland (below).
The antique wallet is small, about 3.5" x 5.5", leather, with a beaded lily of the valley insert on the front, two interior flap pockets, and gold embossed initials (RR) on the back side. It probably dates from the mid to last quarter of the 19th century. Although there is some bead loss, it is a very nice example of the period.  If you'd like to see more of my purse collection, you can view this post. A few clicks on that post will take you to a full screen view of the Shutterfly book I created of my purse collection.  You can also see many of those purses on my Pinterest page under separate categories of "Antique Beaded Purses", "Antique & Vintage Mesh Purses", "Vintage Children's Purses" and "Other Antique & Vintage Purses, Vanities".  Most, but not all, of those pins are from my collection.

That's it for the shopping portion of my trip to Alexandria.  I hope you enjoyed my spree.  The Quimper has its own Rubbermaid storage tub (for now), while I finish the never-ending purge/reorganization in the basement. So far, I have logged 58.5 hours on this project (yes, I'm OCD like that in keeping tabs on the hours).  You can bet there'll be a post when that job is finished!

I'll be writing at least one more post of the historical adventures of our trip to Alexandria, also. Love that place and all the history in the region!

Sharing with any given number of these fine hosts and their parties: 

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