collecting — Page 39

Egg Cups, Part Two (and Mallomars)

March 26, 2015 at 9:52 am by Claudia

Mallomars, our favorite cookie, are seasonal. They’re available only from September through March. In the days when there were no refrigerated trucks, the chocolate would melt, so shipping stopped in March. And for some reason, even though that is no longer an issue, the company continues that tradition.

Mallomars, by the way, are chocolate covered marshmallow cookies, with a little crust on the bottom. They are heavenly.

The other day we were in our local grocery store and, to our dismay, the space normally occupied by Mallomars was empty. We were quickly jolted into the realization that it was March. Oh no! Not deterred by this bit of news, we went on a reconnaissance mission yesterday and found some.

Don grabbed two boxes off the shelf. I quickly urged him to get four.

Here, he scans the immediate area, looking for any nefarious interlopers.

By the way, they were on sale.

On to egg cups:

3-26 egg cups fig wooden

Wooden egg cups, from left to right:

1. Don and Scout bought this for me for my birthday. I’ve tried to track down some information on this one and am still searching. It’s marked Made in Japan and we think it’s from the forties. Edited to add: I just saw one like this on eBay – in its original packaging. Made for Woolworth’s (40s -50s) and it came with an egg warmer that was a white felt sailor cap! Wish I had the cap.

2. A lovely single egg cup with a wood base and porcelain top. A gift from my mom. Stamped on bottom: Japan.

3. A set of two wooden egg cups – a gift from Sandra, a dear reader of this blog. She found them at an estate sale. The eggs are salt and pepper shakers. Adorable.

3-26 egg cups fig 1

1. A bunny rabbit egg cup. This one is a special love of mine because it reminds me of Scout. The look in the eyes, the big pink ears, the adorableness.

2. My very first egg cup. In fact, this egg cup is the one that inspired me to start collecting. It was a gift from my godparents when I was a little girl. Made for the Fannie Farmer chocolate company, this is one in a series of seasonal egg cups that were sold, usually with chocolates, at Easter time. Uh….we won’t say how old this one is. But it’s definitely vintage! And priceless.

3. Two chicks on a seesaw. Marked Made in Japan.

4. A rabbit standing outside his little house, complete with window and door. He’s smoking a pipe. Lustreware. Unmarked.

3-26 egg cups fig 2

1. A dog. Marked Made in Japan. Porcelain. (At any minute, I expect this guy to pull out a cigar to smoke.)

2. A little girl in a bunny costume holding a polka dotted egg cup. Unmarked. Absolutely adorable.

3. A bunny peeking around an egg cup house with window. This window motif shows up in a lot of figural egg cups. Made in Japan.

4. One of my favorites. Two rabbits holding up an egg cup. Made in Japan. I distinctly remember sneaking out of our bedroom to bid on this one in the middle of the night.

Remember this one from yesterday?

3-25 egg cups double

The egg cup that is second from the end on the right – the brown transferware cup marked Mason’s Vista? As I looked at this photo yesterday I was struck by how lopsided it appeared, something I’d never noticed before.

Today I was looking in my egg cup reference book and saw this (in reference to Masons):

Many of their older cups may seem slightly lopsided, thus the old saying “If it rocks, it’s Masons.”

Aha! That explains it! I wasn’t seeing things.

I find this particular collecting passion of mine to be endlessly fascinating!

More tomorrow.

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Scout, The River, Geese & Egg Cups 2015, Part One.

March 25, 2015 at 8:49 am by Claudia

I woke up early this morning. Calculating when Scout will need to be let outside has become a part of the fabric of our days. We keep a chart on the chalkboard, right by the kitchen door. I knew that I had to get out of bed by 6 am at the latest and when I woke at 5:30, I hoped I could go back to sleep for a half an hour. But you know how it goes. Thoughts start to intrude. Will I wake up? Should I go downstairs now? Has an accident occurred? And pretty soon it’s almost 6. So I got up. She was on her perch on the sofa, awake, watching me as I came down the stairs.

Just in time.

She’s such a good girl. Most of the time, the three of us somehow manage to make things run smoothly and Scoutie can rest easy. Sometimes we miss the mark. But it’s a guilt-free zone here at the cottage. We love our girl.

We took a walk the other day, down the road to the river.

3-25 Canada geese

Those are Canada Geese. There are hundreds of them on the river this time of year. All the way down to that bend and up and down the river beyond the range of my iPhone camera. The sheer number of them is astounding. Such beautiful creatures.

It’s time for egg cups!

There are all sorts of egg cups. When I started collecting about fourteen years ago, I was drawn to figural egg cups because of their charming and whimsical designs. They are the bulk of my collection. But I have others, as well. Figural egg cups are getting harder and harder to find. Fourteen years ago, there seemed to be a lot to choose from, especially on eBay. I could be found on our computer, day and night, sneaking in a bid or two. It was a lot of fun, this new collecting obsession of mine. It still is, but finding the sort of detailed figural egg cup I love is much more difficult these days. I’m picky and I like vintage. Newish egg cups aren’t as well made or as inventive. There are exceptions, but not many. So I’m branching out and extending my collection to include other shapes and types of egg cups.

In terms of a basic egg cup, there are two kinds: double and single. A single egg cup has one cup, usually the perfect size to hold a hard-boiled egg – or a soft-boiled egg – right in its shell. The double egg cup has that same sized cup and another larger cup used to eat a soft-boiled egg.

Almost all my figural egg cups are single egg cups, but I will highlight them separately. Here are my basic single egg cups:

3-25 egg cups single

From left to right:

1. One of the very first egg cups I purchased – a lovely lustreware egg cup made in Japan. I love the blue green band on the rim.

2. Don brought this egg cup home to me from Prague. That’s the skyline of Prague, and the word Praha (Prague).

3. Unmarked. A more recent find. It’s very heavy, which makes me think it might be ironstone. The scene depicted is Asian, not sure if it’s Japan or China. I think it’s quite old. I found it last summer in Chautauqua.

4. Another egg cup, this time square in shape, from Prague. Thanks Don!

5. A Delft egg cup from Holland, marked with the number 28. It was a gift from my mom. When Mom heard I was collecting egg cups, she would look for them wherever she went. I have several from her.

3-25 egg cups double

Double egg cups:

1. One of my earliest acquisitions. I call it the Rooster Egg Cup. Marked: Holt Howard 1961. Japan. This egg cup was in pristine condition until I dropped it one day. I wanted to scream. But instead, I glued it back together.

2. Another early acquisition – a basic green and white double egg cup. Unmarked. It probably was part of a set of dinnerware.

3. A red transferware double egg cup. It’s unmarked, but it’s made by Johnson Bros. I love that pattern.

4. Brown transferware double egg cup, made in England. Marked Mason’s Vista. One of my favorites.

5. Flow blue double egg cup. Vintage. (Well I guess most of the egg cups are vintage!) Unmarked.

More tomorrow. If you have any questions, fire away! I love talking about my egg cups. We’ll start on the figural cups tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

What Would You Choose?

March 22, 2015 at 10:00 am by Claudia

3-22 bookshelves

My gaze often lands on these bookshelves.

I love books. I read them in various ways: through the library, via a used bookstore, on my Kindle, through advanced review copies, and in their brand spanking new form via a bookstore. I have hundreds of books (I’m afraid to count them. I might be horrified. Or not.) The bookshelves upstairs in the bedroom are crammed full. They’re the deepish Expedit shelves from IKEA, which allows me to place books two deep on the shelves.

Anyway, back to the bookshelves. It occurs to me that, even though I am being very selective about the books I place on our den shelves, I will run out of room before long.

Then what will I do?

Side note: Did you know I’ve reviewed over 90 books on this blog and the book blog? I have to say I’m impressed!

I donate a lot of books to our local library. They, in turn, sell them to raise money. I never take them to a used bookstore, though I loved used bookstores, only because I feel better about donating to the good cause that is our local library.

But, gosh darn it, most of the books I acquire I want to keep. They are the map of my reading journey. They tell a story about what I’ve read, the reading phases I’ve gone through, the worlds I have visited in my imagination. Some are old friends that I revisit like clockwork. Some are reference books that also require revisiting. All of them are beautiful.

A book is a beautiful thing.

If I had a dream I would like to come true, it would be to have enough space here at the cottage for bookshelves in every room – preferably built-in bookshelves. Alas, we are limited as to wall space here simply because we have so many windows.

But wouldn’t that be scrumptious? Bookshelves in every room?

Let’s play a game. Let’s say that I was ordered to furnish a small home with only two things I love to collect. Only two collections.

I could have a bed, a sofa and a chair or two. Some lamps. The basic necessities. And some device that would let me play music.

Two collections? I would choose my books and my pottery.

That would be enough. (We’re not counting living beings here, of course. Don and Scout are a given.)

If you had to play the same game, what would you choose?

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Egg Cups, Part Two (and Mallomars)

Scout, The River, Geese & Egg Cups 2015, Part One.

What Would You Choose?

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives