OK, So I Collect A Lot of Things . . .
[Beware. This is a grown-up version of "Show and Tell." So if you're easily bored with vacation photos, better skip this page. Uh . . . come to think of it, this is a lot more interesting than those old vacation shots, so why don't you stick around?]
What do I collect, you say? Well, when I was a kid, I collected china horses, Barbie dolls, and trolls. Pretty typical stuff. I'd go on "flea market" trips with my Mom and Dad and pick out old books, but I wouldn't say I actually "collected" them. (Reading is an obsession, not a collection.) You could say that I got launched as an adult collector when my Mom gave me her small set of Fostoria "Romance" stemware (otherwise known as "those dusty old glasses on the top shelf") as a wedding present, back in 1980.
So, it's 1980, I'm married, I'm 28 years old, and I've just gotten this glassware. Did the collecting bug bite me then? No. That was a few years off (about 10 years -- and that's good, because I couldn't have afforded it!). Back then, I didn't know that you could actually replace broken items, and actually expand a collection, all by visiting antique stores (I think antique malls were in their infancy then). I thought antique stores were musty old places with nothing but old furniture. It wasn't until I started getting interested in glass beads (no, that's not a collection -- that's another obsession) that I started going to antique malls, looking for old beads, and found out that hey! I can really buy more of this Fostoria stuff! (I also found out that antique shops are still sometimes musty old places! But fun!)
Anyway, I got interested in adding to my Fostoria collection -- which initially consisted of about 8 plates, a handled server, and about two dozen stems. Now I have a lot, but not all, of the pieces available in my pattern. Bowls, more stems, servers, cups and saucers . . . everything but the really expensive, hard-to-find pieces (like the $400 pitcher). Here's a (really bad, unfortunately) scan of one of my smaller serving pieces, so that you can get some idea of what it looks like. It's etched in a really pretty flowers 'n ribbons pattern:
Do I use these pieces? Yep. I like to use what I collect, so I started getting interested in other "service" type pieces. My Mom also had given me her silverplate service for 6 (Holmes and Edwards "Youth"), and so I got interested in collecting more silverplate (mainly because I could never set a complete table with the stainless I had -- my husband was constantly taking knives, forks and spoons to work and leaving them behind!) I added to the "Youth" collection, and soon fell in love with another pattern -- Wm. A. Rogers "Meadowbrook" (aka "Heather"). Now I have two sets of silverplate service. Silverplate service soon led to silverplate serving pieces (including some in "Meadowbrook"). I now have a handy collection of these -- bowls, trays, candlesticks.
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