COLLECTING - A SPECIAL MEMORY Let TLC Antiques help you make collecting a special memory for the entire family. Get the kids involved to spark their interest and we can show you how!
My obsession with glass began at the age of 16 with a pink Cherry Blossom Cup & Saucer that I purchased for $ .25! Over the years as I began a family & it grew, so did my collection! My husband, who I met when I was 17 jumped right in too! His philosophy has always been if you like it, buy it! Ladies you can’t find one better than that.
One of my early goals was to have at least one piece from every pattern which I quickly began. As my family grew I decided I wanted to bring them into the appreciation of this glass I loved. I began putting a complete set together for each of them and picked my favorite patterns so that I could share my love with them. Each special occasion, family dinner or birthday the collections came out and we used them!
In the beginning the children didn’t understand, all they knew was the pink dishes with the cherries on them belonged to the oldest, the green ones that looked the same were for my daughter and the baby got the pink dishes with the holes in the edges! For years that is what my prized pieces were referred to! For those that can’t guess the patterns from their expert naming; in order we have Pink & Green Cherry Blossom and Pink Open Lace, also called Lace Edge or Old Colony! As they got older, the name changed just to “the dishes we can’t put in the dishwasher!” But whenever we walked through an antique store, or went to a flea market they would run around and look for a piece then run back to find out if we needed that. The game they would start to play was run back and announces “I found a piece for my sister’s pattern but I’m not going to tell where it is!” Then she would beg and plead; when the tears were about to begin he’d tell her. Of course she did her share of getting even with him. The younger one just ran after them both. Every Christmas when they found a piece with their father they could hardly sit still until I opened the box. Most years my daughter couldn’t hold it in and would say Papa didn’t know if you needed this or not but he said we can always use an extra! (Husband is from Italy so kids always call him Papa just to be clear it isn’t Grandpa!)
When we set the table we would alternate colors, green dinner plate, pink salad plate, green sherbet plate and finally pink sherbet dish on top. Then the next place setting would be the reverse. This not only looked beautiful, we used everyone’s dishes and it also kept the kids busy for hours trying to get the setting correct while I did the cooking with no one under foot! (See I had ulterior motives!) Also I understand I’m ahead of my time as
