I see sun.
I also hear a lot of wind, but I’m not going to be too picky.
Sunshine is good.
I’ve said it before and you know I’m going to say it again. And again. I am blessed with the loveliest readers; scratch readers…friends. One of those friends is Barb, who lives in Canada. She sent me a package and it just arrived yesterday.
I unwrapped these beautiful wooden egg cups.
I really love them. Let’s get a closeup of that wood grain:
Beautiful.
Also included in this lovely package was this guy:
A little spooky in the most wonderful way. Something about the style of this one struck of chord in the recesses of my memory. I’d seen egg cups that were done in this same style.
When I flipped him over, the stamped maker’s mark was so faint that I could only make out two words:
“Royal” and “Made.”
Don joined in and eventually we found we could barely make out “…ong” and C in the center.
Okay, I thought. There’s a challenge. And you know I love mysteries and crossword puzzles and solving things.
So, I started searching egg cups online. Using the words ‘egg cup’ and ‘royal’ narrowed it down a bit. However, there are lots of pottery makers that use the word ‘royal’ in their trademark. Finally, I saw a blue egg cup in the shape of a dog that was very much like this one. Then I saw another. And finally, after looking at even more egg cups, I was able to see a listing that also showed the stamped mark on the bottom.
Bingo.
Royal Art Pottery
Longton
C
Made in England
Aha!
Don was great, by the way, looking at the mark, examining it closely, suggesting what search words to use. We were like the Hardy Boys, except we were the Hardy Boy and Girl.
Barb, thank you, thank you! My collection has grown quite a bit in the last week or so. I have two more finds I’ll share with you soon and even better, the story of an amazing score on eBay. The kind of score that happens very rarely and which sent my adrenaline levels through the roof as I watched the clock count down on the auction yesterday.
It took me a while to recover.
But that will have to wait until it arrives in my mailbox. I can’t wait.
Happy Saturday.