All About Ernest

Meet Ernest. My mid-century modern fish. Ernest is at home in the coolio planter/fish tank/lamp combo I found at a yard sale. Too delightful to pass up. I still need to put a plant in the planter side on the left, but it even looks groovy without it. So, Ernest was born. Named after my grandfather on my dad's side, Ernest is a black Molly I believe.

I feel a little guilty having him in such a small, contained area. My ultimate goal will be to complete my pond project so he can be free outdoors in the real wild in the BIG pond!

For now, Ernest is keeping me company beside my computer.

Franciscan Madeira

It started with one cereal bowl at N's house. He bought me the covered casserole for my birthday. Then I won the bid for the plates, and cups, and saucers on ebay. Then came the pitcher, serving bowls, salt and pepper. Franciscan Madeira circa 1970s. My dining al fresco ware. Now I need someone here to cook for and serve it on.

Photography

I love it. I love to take pics. N bought an old square format Roloflex just like the one my dad used to have. I am quite sure I get my artistic photograph eye from my Dad.

Here is Noah using the camera, and Nicholas directing.

All pics using my Canon PowerShot Digital Elph. SD770IS

Russell Wright Easter

I have a lot of catching up to do, because I have a lot of STUFF to share!

This is the Russel Wright Lettuce set I purchased via Nicholas at an estate sale. I used it for Easter. I am not sure which came first, the RW color "lettuce" or my dining room color. Which came first, the chicken or the Cadbury egg?

I Have My Limits

I have set my limits. Well, kind of.

I now own a gorgeous set of Russel Wright Iroquois Casual China. Ahh in Lettuce. ohhhh. Matches my dining room perfectly. I just ate kielbasa off of one of the plates. So purdy...

SO, therefore> IF I see any RW pieces out there in Lettuce, OR ANY OTHER RW PIECES for that matter, I shall get them. Maybe. If the price is right. I saw a mismatched set of RW salt and pepper shakers today at a dinky place in Waynesboro, one was coral, the other gray. They wanted $12.50 for them! HA! Ridiculous. I have my limits you know.

Ok and I now own a Franciscan earthenware pottery Madeira mug. I like it. I use it at Nicholas' house. He has a bowl. It matches. And a creamer. SO IF I see any other Madeira earthenware out there, I will get it. If the price is right. I feel COMPELLED to complete the set now.

And IF I see any other something something designed by Viktor Schreckengost or his brother Don, or Eva Zeisel, oh, or Ben Seibel, or…or any of those Scandinavian designers..well, you get the picture. But I have my limits!

The Innocuous Bowl

I stumbled upon this bowl at the World Market Thrift Shop in Hagerstown one day. AhA! It had the highly desirable Franciscan mark on the bottom. At the time, I did not know much about Franciscan except for that Mr. P continually had plates and various forms of dinnerware for sale made by this 20th century pottery manufacturer. "Desert Rose" and "Apple" were the two favored patterns of collectors. Well, nowadays, just about anything that looks like it has a mark on the bottom that doesn't say "Made in China" is something I have to have and research. Though it was a drab putty gray color, and was rather plain, I purchased it for a whopping $2.00.

I researched all the Franciscan sites I could find, and found out that prior to being called Franciscan, the company was know as Gladding & McBean, and had their start manufacturing various tiles in California in the early part of the 20th century. I was getting somewhere, but still could not identify the bowl. It didn't seem to match any dinnerware pattern that I could see. But I did narrow the mark down to being produced between 1948 and 1952. Well, at least I knew it was somewhat OLD, and not a new bowl.

I joined the GMCB Franciscan collectors board, and they were able to identify it promptly! It was El Patio, matte gray, a design that was produced from the 30s to the 50s. Interesting, but not necessarily a pattern I would pursue collecting. Some of the various shapes of pieces were quite interesting and modern, some not so great. The group members assured me that this pattern had many, many pieces and could readily be found. That in turn meant to me a challenge: WATCH ME FIND THEM ALL! Not that I want a bunch of "el Patio" sitting around, but it is something to keep my eye open for. And the bowl is innocuous enough. It could sit here for a while.

Pride of the Peacock

They haunted me all weekend. The darling little set of dishes at my Goodwill that I saw on Saturday. I called Mr. P from the Goodwill to see if he could find anything out about them. They were labeled Steubenville *Peacock Garden* on the back. I knew they had to be something, Russel Wright designed for Steubenville after all. Nicholas couldn't find anything on Ebay for them, and even www.replacements.com didn't have a picture of them! Hmmm. So tempting. But, after conferring we decided they probably weren't worth anything.

But so cute! So adorable they haunted me all the rest of the day and night. I noticed a woman picker-type looking at them after I did. Surely they were gone by now. Would I have liked them 6 months ago, I pondered. Have I completely lost my mind? Are they just kitschy 50s junk? Or are they really cute?

They now sit on my dining room table, along with the big set of Taylor Thomas & Taylor Cathay dishes, something else I wouldn't have looked twice at 6 months ago. My dining room table has become an Ebay's seller store. The listings should go up within the next few days, and I will have something to watch while I sit in front of my computer and stare at Ebay.