Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Old dishes

When my mom's sister, my Aunt Ruby, passed Grandma's music box along to me, she also gave me a set of dishes... ice cream dishes, she called them.


"These were my grandmother's," she told me. "She had them when she set up housekeeping."

The dishes were in a bread sack, and this tape was on the outside of it in Aunt Ruby's handwriting:


Now, my own grandma was born in 1888, so that means these dishes are older than that. Yesterday when I took the picture, by the way, I noticed for the first time that one of the dishes is different. Which makes me realize what a shame it is that I've kept these treasures in a drawer all this time. I need to find someplace to put them where I'll see them often!

I've asked my cousin Carolyn (that's us in the picture) some questions about all these things because her family lived right up the road from Grandma. They were the ones who took Grandma to town to do her "trading", or to visit the doctor, or to Church. In later years when she needed help with things, it was Uncle Leo's family who did whatever was needed. Carolyn is eighteen months older than I, so I imagine she remembers things I've forgotten.

In an email, Carolyn told me that she seemed to recall our grandmother mentioning that she only got two or three things from her parents' estate. Those dishes, then, would be one of those things.

Carolyn said her mother has a cup and saucer than may have been our great-grandparents', as well.

Family heirlooms.

13 comments:

  1. When you have such info, those dishes become so very precious. Display them is a great idea to honor their memory. Awesome.

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  2. It's not the value as in antiques.. but having something that was in the family long ago..it's especially hard to have breakables !

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  3. Those are beautiful. A keepsake to keep and display for sure. I love them. Helen

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  4. They are really pretty and I too love having heirlooms passed down. They always have such great stories.

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  5. What beautiful dishes, they appear to be rimmed with gold. What a pleasure to have something like that passed down!

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  6. What a wonderful thing to still have around. :) Love that last picture of you two.

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  7. Wow...it's so amazing that not only are they not broken, but you know where they came from and around how old theyare... that is precious! ANd definitely put them on display!

    Love, Jess

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  8. Yeah.. definitely put them out. They are super pretty.

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  9. yes do that but use them once in awhile too. How fun to eat off your grandmothers dishes.... when you have ice cream would be good!!!!
    Sandra

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  10. You really do have a treasure of the heart there. I sadly have little that was my grandmothers, but I do have some of her quilt tops...she'd pieced them and I was to quilt them. I'm still working on that one. 'On Ya'-ma

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  11. Those are way too pretty to keep hidden. I hope you figure out where to put them where you can enjoy them.

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  12. How nice to have something from your grandmother. My Granny gave a spoon holder. I left it at her house. When she passed on my mother told my uncle that there was only one thing that belonged to me... the spoon holder. That was the only thing that he took??:( He was killed in a car wreck 2 months after my Granny passed away. His wife has my Granny's spoon dish. lol I have never asked for it. Best to leave things alone. Have a blessed day and thank you for sharing. They are beautiful dishes and nice to know how old they are. Blessings, Janie

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  13. We inherited Dear Hubby's grandmother's collection of delicate tea cup and saucer sets. I never use them because I'm scared to death of breaking any. They're BEAUTIFUL! But they look lovely displayed in my china closet. I love the photo of you and your cousin. I never grew up with any cousins but Dear Hubby has over 60 first cousins. He comes from big families!! His mom was one of 14 kids, his dad one of 7.

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