Great Grandmother and Pansies.

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Early Spring makes me think of my IMMIGRANT

Great Grandmother Anna, who adored everything Pansy.

(Expanded moldy-oldy post)

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My great grand parents, Anna and Niels's wedding picture 1895 in Denmark. Her dress, while not white was perfect for the cold wind on the west coast of Northern Denmark or 

Nordjylland. 

Niels was a fisherman and might have wooed my great grandmother with Pansies, she was 19 here.

Source: The Graphics Fairy

I wonder if she had beautiful prints of pansies, such as this one from the era.

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In 1911 Anna and Niels and family had enlarged to three girls and one boy, my grandfather.

My great aunt who passed my mother the pansy items, is the baby girl. She lived to be 100.

This was a photo taken before their immigration to the United States that same year.

The Graphics Fairy

I collect many Victorian cards and graphics including Pansies.
The Victorian meaning for Pansy was "to think," or "thoughts," about love.  So to give a pansy was to say, "I'm thinking about you," fondly we would hope.
The pansy was considered a bad-luck gift to give to a man.

Violets or Violas, the smaller pansies meant modesty, where 'shrinking violet' came from. The colors also added to the message.

Blue pansies meant, "I'll always be true, faithful and watchful,"
while white pansies meant "let's take a chance.

A wonderful site about flowers is The Plant Farm blog.

One of Anna'sOld Plates Plates
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I have two OLD Alumina plates which were everyday wares produced at the turn of the century

by Royal Copenhagen Potteries.  Produced with a thicker/ironstone tan clay body this line of pieces were underglazed with white and then a design was stenciled or hand painted on top and then clear glazed.

Sturdy and utilitarian, they made many pieces for the home and kitchen,.

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This thick porcelain thunder mug or porcelain potty had a gorgeous top, 

which bit the dust a long time ago. 

I have used it for a planter, table decoration, and held my curlers for awhile. The piece moves about the house seasonally. It is beautiful and weighs a ton made of heavy white stoneware.

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Pansy thunder-mug, Anchor mark on the bottom circa 1906 or there about. 

Anchor Pottery Company in Trenton NJ, produced this piece probably in the early 1900's. 

Perhaps it was the first item Anna purchased when coming to the USA.

Wikipedia tells us that “the pansy is a group of large-flowered hybrid plants cultivated as garden flowers. Pansies are derived from viola species Viola tricolor, hybridized with other viola species. 

These hybrids are referred to as Viola. The common words “pansy” and “violet” are often used interchangeably. When a distinction is made, plants considered to be pansies have four petals pointing upwards, and only one pointing down. Violets have three petals pointing up and two pointing down.”

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I have a few items from Great Grandmother Anna since my grandfather was the only son. The daughters most often inherited all their mother's pretty items. These pieces were passed down  

to my mother through my great aunt, the baby in the second picture.

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In America, Great Grandfather and the now grown Grandfather (left) opened a fish market in 1922, their specialty was smoking Great Lakes' chubs, as well as imported foods from the old countries that they supplied by making a weekly trip to Chicago, for fish as well as canned goods and imported cheeses.

I have many advertising odds and ends from old Chicago companies, some of which are on my pegboard wall.

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I have the OLD original tools from the fish market, cleavers, sharpeners, a scaling knife, the notes hook which was in the small office where all the books were kept. 

On the right is a picture of a woman serving fish, which I had always thought was Great Grandma Anna, but wasn't as it was a generic print that an advertising calendar was made from. 

The year is 1923 and was printed for my family's fish market, probably the first Christmas/New Years present for customers. I found enough of these in my parent's things to have them all framed as gifts for the family.

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The major piece I have from her is this lovely teapot. The mark on the bottom is 

 Plant Tuscan China made in England 1936 or later. She passed in 1938. 

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What is unusual is how beloved this pot was, as it is smashed into at least 20 pieces and was lovingly glued back together. Anna had eight-grand children by then, and was Aunt to another dozen. 

Somehow this precious teapot was broken and then repaired. 

I handle it very gingerly and it is on display in a locked china cabinet most days.

This is what I call a monumental REDO.

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I can imagine Anna's garden was filled with pansies, Forget-me-knots, and other lush flowers that liked the chill of the North Sea or Lake Michigan.

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Another piece I know very little about is a a silver plated brass tray with matching lid, 

holding an enamel glazed milk-glass bowl. 

My guess it is very early 20th century and the milk glass has that 

tint of green so desirable in old milk glass.

 I don't have a black light, but I imagine it would glow green. Nothing was marked on this piece,

 despite how beautiful the enamel glazed decorations still are on this. 

Those are Mom's antique books, the dish sits on.

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So with "Pansy Thoughts" of  Great-Grandmother,  Mom, and great Aunt...I post a Spring gift of Pansies for you, remember I'm thinking about you

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, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

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Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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Sandi