Somethings Old, New, Green, Redo!: 2016-10-23

Monday, October 24, 2016

Fall Transferware Buffet

I'm finally able to put a few Fall items out as the house morphs back to some sort of normal.

We had company last week. So after I found the top of the buffet, I tried to make it Fall.

I still haven't found my Fall totes of goodies in the basement or the garage.

After cleaning and digging in a closet, I pulled out these OLD transfer ware pieces I honestly haven't seen in maybe ten years.

Because of using antiques on the tiled buffet, I started with an OLD vintage Quaker Lace tablecloth from the 1940's. This makes a great safe base to keep my antiques on a soft surface.

This transferware is multi-colored and from the Aesthetic period, 1870-1900 had Oriental influences as well as sliding into the Arts and Crafts Movement at the turn of the 19th century.

The entire premise of this period was to live a beautiful life with hand-crafted and man-made items.

Of course items made by hand during the new Industrial age were expensive.

I purchased the pitcher, bowl and waste jar...maybe thirty years ago for $45.00.

Like many of these sets, they were used everyday and sometimes multiple times each day. I love the Oriental influences apparent in the Aesthetic transfers, The sides are glazed in a rich blue, and trimmed with gold. This set was expensive in it's time and very heavy and large. All the pieces have dings, and cracks and crazing, evidence of their hard use.

I had a washstand in my bedroom for years with the Pitcher and Bowl displayed on it. Here you can see the lovely coloring of the flowers and the grasses. The transfer itself was actually in mulberry tones, and the detail colors were added after the transfer was fired into place. The color would have been added much like porcelain painting during a final firing with the gold details.

The waste jar, or slop jar, held the used water which was taken away. Before indoor plumbing the maids would be busy running hot water up the stairs and these waste jars, down the stairs.

A complete bedroom set would often be ten or twelve pieces, including a hair receiver, a smaller pitcher for drinking water, cups, glasses, soap dish, powder dish, bottles, and the under the bed 'thunder mug' or porta-potty. The small doll-head is of a composite clay casting by an artist in this century, but she easily could have been made in the 1890's.

I believe this set to be American because of the barn motif which is mulberry/red.

This is the mark on all three pieces. I have never been able to find exactly by whom or where it was made. Best guess is somewhere in the Ohio Valley. The clay body is grayish but very close to stoneware. It's a heavy dense body, and the glaze is very solid white, with the blue on the sides.

I have only found one piece similar, a slop jar, from the same mold with the same blue glaze and gold, but with an entirely different scene on it.

I did a REDO of the cut-glass bowl with some Fall scented pods and a cute little owl. I thought the setting needed some extra light, so I put an old pumpkin bottom light in the bowl with the mesmerized owl.

So many bowls were passed down through my family. These bowls held many a fancy pudding or trifle made by my grandmother. I think this is a later piece, but heavy crystal and reflects the light.

What's more Fall then a pumpkin? I placed a large pumpkin on a 2" thick square of floral foam and then encircled the focal point with 2 large apple/berry picks, some leaf branches., and some artificial grasses, which echoed the patter win the transfer ware.

My lady bust quietly admires the Fall leaves.

I let the grasses and vine tendrils do their own thing...

sometimes you can 'over arrange' an arrangement.

My mom's favorite rocker received new OLD cushions last fall from a thrift store. I was going to buy them just for the foam, the set was $4.00, but when I got home the colors worked so well, I just laundered and they fit the chair perfectly.

I actually used brass and silver candlesticks, because that is all I could find until I get into the storage room downstairs and locate my extra metals tote, and the Fall totes.

The silver candlesticks are vintage from 1953, they were my grandparents'. The brass here is reproduction from the 1950's. The brass one on the other side along with the grater are from the late 1700's and have been passed down. Denmark artisans were strictly regulated and everything was hallmarked, which makes it easy to date most items and where they were made.

My mom would like sitting here, surrounded by some her familys' treasures and mine, too.

Happy Fall from my house to yours.

Thanks always for visiting.

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle