My Love Affair with Blue Willow China didn't happen all at once.Has this ever happened to you ?
You're not overly fond of something or someone and then you have more activity with them and realize, that it or them is growing on you?
We ate at a Abilene, Kansas Restaurant that serves it's Family Style meals on these dishes. The restaurant's atmosphere is stellar with their delicious food being served on and in these dishes. Why even the coffee tasted better in this charming environment.
After reading about the love story behind the design, the design starting growing on me. If you look at a Blue Willow plate, you'll see the elements of the story: the mandarin's palace, the bridge, the lovers running across to safety, the distant isle on which they settled, and two love doves flying free in the sky.
There are some variations on the story.
Here's one version:
Chinese legend has it as a romance between Koong-se/Knoon-shee, a beautiful daughter of a wealthy mandarin, and Chang, his lowly secretary/accountant. Koong-se's father had promised her in marriage to a powerful and noble Duke. To keep Koong-se and Chang a part, the father erected a fence so they couldn't see each other.
As a wedding dowry for Koong-se, the Duke brought a box of jewels. A disguised Chang crept into the palace during the wedding banquet and eloped with Koong-se carrying the jewels across the bridge. The lovers found a hideout on a distant island.
Time didn't stop the Duke and the mandarin's search for the lovers. According to the legend the lovers were killed while sleeping in a little house that was burned down. God was so touched by their love that he immortilized Chang and Koong-se as two flying doves.
In 1780 Englishman Thomas Minton engraved the design and sold it to the manager of Shropshire Pottery, Thomas Turner, where it was mass-produced and eventually became the most popular china pattern in the world.
Blue Willow has been imitated by Spode, Royal Worcester, Wedgewood, Davenport, and Leeds and Swansea. For two centuries the Blue Willow pattern has been in the repertoire of nearly every British china and porcelain maker.
My treasured Blue Willow dishes with the cobalt blue design were purchased at the recent City Wide Garage Sale and I was treated to these two pieces for $5.00. I like them alot! Such fun to find these dishes to place in my haven.
More information can be gathered about the legend of the Blue Willow China. I collected mine from Wikipedia, http://www.thepotteries.org/, also Louis and Billie Van Dyke's The Blue Willow Inn COOKBOOK.
Do you have a favorite dish pattern? I'd like to hear about it.
God's richest Blessings to you this week.
~Deanna~
10 comments:
Hi, Deanna! Oh, I have your passion for Blue Willow myself. I have a set by Johnson Brothers and just adore it. I've picked up a few more pieces as time as gone on! There's just something about this pattern that makes my heart say - aw!
Be a sweetie,
Shelia :)
Deanna, Thanks for sharing your passion for the Blue Willow Dishes. It is always fun to see what other people collect, and what they love.
I have my mama's dishes and they are Desert Bloom by Vernon Kilns/California. I haven't used them in 2 years since we moved into our new house, but I do like them. Just looking at them makes me think of my mom.
Love, Linda @ Truthful Tidbits
Hey D! Wonderful post! I love going to the antique/junk stores and garage sales with you. You seem to always find a treasure, and I like seeing the joy it brings you.
Can't wait to see how the Reed & Barton Silverplate piece you found this weekend "cleans up".
Keep on junkin' and bloggin'!
Love you, Rg
I love Blue Willow dishes. They are so calming to my eye.
I'm a Blue Willow addict..hmm collector.
Always loved it, even as a child, and now I think I could serve a banquet at Buckingham Palace, and have enough dishes to go around :)
One of the pieces I treasure is the Buffalo Blue Willow, milk pitcher. It's one hundred years old this year, and I did a little posting on my blog to tell about it.
I also love white ironstone, Old Country Rose Royal Albert, for fine china.
Hello again Deanna, I wanted to say that I went to your other blog and read your list. I thought some of them were funny. ((smile))
The molasses tea sounds interesting. I could use some more energy.
Don't tell everything you know,...I wish I could do that! ha!
My life is an open book!
Love ya,
Linda
Great info! I had no idea the story behind the dishes-thanks for sharing. My problem is that I love lots of china patterns. I guess my favorites are patterns with roses and most everything by Haviland:)
Blessings,
Kim
Dear Ones,
I sure enjoy reading your comments!
I love dishes alot. Think I inherited this from my mom.
Thank you for sharing.
Linda, so glad you checked out my other blog. Enjoy blogging so much thought I'd do two of them with the one dedicated to healthy ideas to help this ole lady while she's singing!
I have always loved the look of Blue Willow but never thought I could ever afford it. I am now inspired to look at thrift shops and antique stores and garage sales. Who knows what might turn up? :)
I appreciate you sharing the story behind the design. It is something i have always wondered about but never knew. How beautiful and touching!
I received some Blue Willow dishes when my great uncle passed away. When I cleaned out some of the house I found the cups in the flour and meal! It was just dishes to them.I love them but I had no idea they held such history!
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