The China Aesthetic

What is your first concern is
when you daydream about a new home?
I worry a lot about the china aesthetic:
what sort of china will suit the house?
Plain or coloured, vintage or contemporary.
Who will be using it, what sort of food,
how will it look in the dining room?

I have chosen black and white,
contemporary designs for everyday use
and this vintage Woods tea set for cream teas.
Just look at those rural views!
A church, a cottage and a river bank...
how could you not love them!

I thought my heart would burst
when I stepped back from the dresser
and admired the display for the first time.

I know, I know, be patient with me,
I am still in the early stages of this love affair.

The Bowl from Marvão

in which MrsM demonstrates to MrM
that she was not exaggerating
when she stated that this bowl
would be an essential part
of her batterie de cuisine

lemon storage

peach and tomato salad

smoked mackerel and potato salad
in a horseradish cream dressing

lamb and red pepper casserole

cherry clafoutis

to be honest, after only a week
even MrsM is wondering
how she managed without it

*****

We had such a lovely time in Portugal
and I have some photos to show you.

Same time, same place tomorrow?

Moorish tile love

It is dark and wet outside
and there is evidence that somebody
has been feeling sorry for herself.

Let's change the subject...
what about Spain in January?
Does that sound fun?

The Deputy Exams Officer owes me a drink...
I'm hoping it will be
a tisane in the Moroccan Tea Rooms;

Jenny can entertain me
her mad twitter skillz
from the almond groves

and the Young Academic
is planning a trip to Ronda
with the Professor of whom we spoke
so I will try to hitch a lift.

It's only 81 sleeps until Nerja...
the countdown has started.

*****
tiles : Damascus (1420 - 1450)
images : ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London

time for tea

You know that person who won't drink coffee
because it stops them sleeping?

Thomas Wolfe (1810)

And asks for herbal tea
when you only have PG Tips?

Davenport (1820)

I have become that person overnight
and it is giving me nightmares

Royal Worcester (1931)

I will have to swallow
my harsh words to my sisters
(I am hoping they will not be smug)

Herculaneum Factory (1815)

and start carrying green tea
in a special little case in my bag.

Minton (1897)

This is not my life
as I would like it to be.

My body is letting me down.

*****

all photos © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

I would like to record my gratitude again
to the Victoria and Albert Museum
for their enlightened attitude to image use.

The Cracked Plate

Pattern 31
Hicks & Meigh - active 1806 to 1822

When I worked in the China Shop I was taught to test for imperfections. I would run my finger carefully around the rim to feel for tiny chips and tilt the plate in the light looking for flaws in the glaze. If the plate was not perfect it would be put aside and sold as a second. In those days, when I was young, I would not have dreamed of buying cracked china - only perfect was good enough.

Now I find myself drawn to china that has flaws.

This is a Georgian plate with an uncommon pattern and you can see that the clay separated at some point in the firing process creating a crack under the glaze. Despite this flaw it has been looked after carefully over the past 200 years because the glaze is bright and undamaged and the fluted edge is not rubbed as it would have been if it was kept in a pile of plates. I think that it is the imperfection that makes it interesting and is probably the reason it is in such good condition.

Is there a moral to this story that we should ponder?

Probably...

but I prefer to focus on the facts that I spent twenty entertaining minutes with the wildly eccentric antique shop owner and I only paid £2 for the plate. And I think it is beautiful - even with a crack. No?

A Glimpse of Sunshine

Alton

This is my contribution
to the December issue of
Silverpebble's Splash of Colour.

Crocus

Clarice Cliff...

Blue Daisy

crazy shapes...
crazy colours...

Nasturtium

what's not to like?

Canterbury Bells

I'll have a tisane, Miss Lemon.

Actually, could you make that a Lemsip
because I am feeling feeble
and I must be well for the Christmas Party.

oranges are not the only fruit

...there was this American from the mid West and she was a really nice girl with two young boys - except that they won't be young anymore, they will be 19 and 17. I liked her very much although I didn't know many Americans in those days and so the whole Halloween/Thanksgiving thing was a bit of a mystery to me and when she said she was planning to eat lamb for Christmas I wondered if she was a bit odd. She also did scary, high concept stuff with napkins and when I went for lunch one day the Caesar salad was in individual parmesan cheese baskets and I was knocked back a bit because in those days I thought that taramasalata with pitta bread was quite outré.

Anyways (as MasterM would say) one day she asked me what the small orange fruits in the bowl were and I wondered if she was pulling my leg so I looked at her very, very carefully. She didn't blink so I said didn't they have clementines in America? And she said she had never, ever seen them before. And to this day I don't know if she was teasing me or if there really are no clementines in America and I worry about it quite a lot. Did she think that I thought she was stupid? Or did she just think that I was stupid.

The Garlic Bowl

Sometimes it takes years and years
to discover your purpose in life.
Sometimes it just takes two weeks.

The Celebration Plate

Dear Janet,

Many thanks for the cheque that you sent for our wedding anniversary - it was so kind of you to remember the date. What a lovely idea to suggest that we use the money to buy ourselves a drink! I wanted you to know that after I had agreed a lower price for this plate with Mr Theobald in Gabor Cossas there was just enough left over for MrM to buy a pint of Guinness.

with much love

Alice x

Blue Hibiscus

Wedgwood Hibiscus 1805

This plate was on the floor by the door
and the thought that someone in a rush
could have stepped on it made me feel faint.
I watched like a hawk as the elderly man
wrapped it carelessly in crumpled newspaper
while he talked to his friend on the phone
and then hastily paid the money.
It is a very rare pattern
and now it is safe.

*****

I have loved beautiful china ever since I can remember. I have the same visceral response to china that some people have to fabric or yarn, books or flowers. If I am watching a film I am easily distracted by the china and the perspective of a painting is distorted by a table setting. I can still visualise the patterns of china that were part of my childhood.

It isn't an addiction...it is a lifelong passion.

The Scone Plate

Masons 'Blue Pheasant' c1830

I sat on the filthy carpet of the junk shop
and looked through the pile of china.
This plate was at the bottom,
thickly covered with sticky dust
and waiting patiently
for someone to see the beauty underneath.

Progress Report

Masons pitcher, 1950s, Regency colour

MrsM is taking small, brave steps.

This jug is blue and cream with added colour.

*****

Thank you all for your lovely comments yesterday...
you definitely know how to boost someone's confidence.

(you have NO idea how relieved I was
that bb approved
because she is my fashion guru)

We drove to see MissM
and I was AMAZED what a difference it makes
if you can see the signs on the motorway
before you drive underneath them.

Oh, and MissM approves too
so I am allowed to wear them in public.

*****

I have a busy couple of weeks ahead
so I may be a little slow replying to comments
and I apologise in advance for that.

Tooth Paste and Cold Cream

I'm hopeless in charity shops...
I get disorientated by the muddle of them
and the claustrophobic clothes rails
Antique shops are quite different.
I don't mean smart, expensive galleries
but small, dusty shops with piles of old plates,
faded prints of unknown places
and cardboard boxes of miscellaneous items.

Unfortunately, MrM does not share my passion
and waits impatiently outside the door,
studying the opening times in the window,
and then cunningly suggests that
we could 'come back later'
knowing that the shop closes in half an hour.

Imagine a delicious morning with MissM in Cornwall
when MrM was safely 250 miles away!
We shopped to our hearts' content
and bought all sorts of frivolities
until our arms nearly dropped off
carrying the boxes and bags.

Finally, we went into an Antiques Emporium
and in the last wooden display case,
on the bottom shelf,
was a selection of porcelain jar lids.
I would have bought more
but I also had an armful of china
and MissM had some essential books
and I had NO MORE MONEY.

There is a post script to this story
because Diana lives in Cornwall
and I emailed her to ask
if she would mind going into the antiques shop
and buying any lids that were left.
Imagine! The nerve of it!
(Isn't it wonderful to have Blog Friends!!)
And that is how the Cold Cream lid
with the beautiful Gothic writing
arrived by post on a spring day last year.

This post is for Diana,
because I meant to write it last year
to thank her for her kindness
and for Cathy, who loves fonts.

Blue and White is not the only china...

...that I own
although it has felt like that recently.

I have become stuck in a rut
and I feel as though it is time
to make some changes.

I will need to be brave
and there are sure to be days
when I get
discouraged or distracted.

But I don't want to live
with a restricted palette
when there is a whole rainbow out there.

The Hyacinth Bowl

I have been reading Spitalfields Life almost since it started.

I love the descriptions of the East End of London,
the people, the graffiti,
the pubs, shops and market

but, most of all,
I love the Gentle Author's china collection.
Every now and then a new item is featured
and it is always greatly to be desired.

When I read about the inherited bowl
that is always used for Hyacinths
I knew that I HAD to have one too
and it arrived today, by post,
from my wonderful friends at Blue and White.

I fully intended to plant pearl white Hyacinths
but I got distracted by the Winter Anemone.

I hope that the Gentle Author would approve.

better late than never...

A nest of mixing bowls
given by as part of
a generous wedding present
by MrM's Granny.

You might be surprised to know
how many Coffee and Walnut cakes
have started their lives in these bowls.
A number significantly greater
than the rather pitiful comment yesterday
might have led you to imagine.

A belated contribution to Kitchen Poetry
which was hosted by FancyElastic.

China Galore

I was passing the V&A on Tuesday
and the lure of the new Ceramic Galleries
was irresistible.

Look what I found...

Here is an Iznik tile
with a gillyflower motif:

Here is a William De Morgan tile panel
designed by William Morris:

Here is the copper engraving
for the filigree pattern
on my Croissant Plate:

Here is the stoneware casserole
that my mother has in her kitchen:

Here is the bowl that I stood in front of
for what seemed like hours
and felt quite ill with desire:

In the end, feeling chinaholic desperate,
I asked about the policy on taking photographs
and was told I could take as many as I wanted.
How Wonderful.
How Enlightened.
Thank you V&A.

Sunday Morning

I am going to be straight with you...

This is not a 'Beauty of the Ordinary' picture
it is a 'We don't have a Dishwasher' picture.

This is because I am too precious about my china
but I tell MrM that it is because
I value the opportunity to talk to him
while he dries up.

Which is also true.

A Chinaholic Abroad

Blue and white china
which is fresh and bright
in muted English light
looks harsh and sharp
against plaster walls
and terracotta tiles.

I fall in love yet again
with the milky glaze
and earthen colours
of the local pottery

but know in my heart
that it is a holiday romance
and that the shapes and shades
look best in the Tuscan sunlight

so I spend my money
on an Italian leather handbag instead.