Family dishes?

Question

Not terribly related to genealogy, since it doesn't go back very many generations, but it's still family-related, and I hadn't thought of it in relation to my family tree until this morning.

Not really a question, either, but just some ruminations...

I suspect that many people, like me, have the remnants of a set of dishes that have been passed down through the family, maybe from your parents, maybe from grandparents, or some people may actually still have something used by your great grandparents or even earlier generations.

I'm kind of a completist, and I have the remnants of a dinner set that my parents picked up while my dad was exchange teaching in England. The pattern went out of production before I was born, almost nobody in North America ever owned any of it, the cost of shipping from the UK is invariably more than the cost of the pieces, and it seems to have caught on with collectors, because you can by new dishes for less.

Even so, partly because of the family ties, and partly because it's one of only four dish patterns that I've ever liked in my life, I'm bound and determined to find more pieces and build it back up into a complete set, if I can.

So that got me thinking, how many other WikiTreers go into thrift shops and head straight for the china section, in the (almost invariably vain) hope that they'll actually have a piece in the pattern you're trying to complete?

Answer 1

Although I don’t search for matching pieces, I do have most of two sets of Syracuse China, now out of business.

Genealogy related I have 6 silver forks engraved with my great grandmother’s maiden name. These are my source for her name, and for my grandfather’s middle name.

Comments

Oh, wow. Bonus!

Answer 2

My grandmother used the edge of a small plate to pound meat. It was hotel china made by Syracuse China. I looked about 10 years ago Syracuse China was bought up by Libby glassware, they were still making hotel china then. My daughter and I took a detour to go to the Libby's remainders warehouse, where I purchased several Syracuse China plates. I even use one to pound meat.

Comments

Syracuse made fine china, everyday ware, and restaurant ware. They had a factory outlet store - oh what fun!!! My mother bought a set of 'best seconds' fine china and everyday ware in the 60s. My aunt, who was born in 1902, furnished the camp by picking through the seconds lot for the best restaurant ware she could find. I still think of those dishes when I get one of those small heavy coffee cups in Dunkin Donuts. We had one of those cups shatter a sink cover in our RV. Those plates would have been good for pounding meat.

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These are my dishes.  I worked in an old country club in the 1970's and from the closed-down restaurant there were hundreds if not thousands of dishes, bowls, cups of all types and sizes.  The owner let me take what I wanted and originally I had ten of everything.  Now I have six of this and seven of that, etc.  They were old when I acquired them 40 years ago and today they're just like they were the day I got 'em.  :)

On the bottom is: Wellsville China, U.S.A. 

Sometimes they bounce off my stone floors, unfortunately not always.  :D

 

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A good solid reliable dish. :)

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That reminds of when we drove across Canada in the summer of 1973. My mom had a much-beloved mixing bowl (probably inherited from her mother, or even grandmother) made by Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, Alberta. So, of course, we had to stop by the factory to see if she could get another one, because hers had been through the wars. (Alas, they had stopped making mixing bowls, so she had to content herself with a dutch oven and a crock.)

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Sounds to me like your Mom and I could be great friends.