Antique Plates

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

My luckiest find at the thrift store recently was something I collect anyway-- turn-of-the-century decorative plates. I went out on my lunch break to the Salvation Army one day, and stuck among their usual dinnerware was a collection of six Victorian cabinet plates with transferware portraits on them. They were in perfect shape!

And where these things can run at least $20 a plate in an antique mall/store, these were marked at $5 a piece-- pricey by thrifting standards, but not when you consider the plates are 100+ years old, and totally undamaged.

I bought every one they had.

I was happy all day!

--Jenn T.

[alexandra]

Ooooh great find!!!  I collect old plates and bowls too.  I use the bowls to hold the baubles I make and buy and I hang plates on the wall a lot.  I have a friend who collects teacups and saucers -- which I pick up and stash away so that I always have a cache -- there''s never a shortage of birthday or christmas presents for her.

I like depression glass.  I picked up a set of six Imperial Grape glasses. I just love them and am always looking for more.  The thing is, I got them for .99 cents a piece at a thirft store.  Now I am seeing them at fleas and marts for ten times as much.

We have a camp on Lake Ontario in an area were there are a number of antique stores.  Since the area is rural, the prices aren''t too bad, so I have made some good purchases.  However, I determine whether there are bargains or not based on what the same item might go for in a thrift store.

For our camp, we use Corel -- it''s very hard to break, it doesn''t take up much room, and it can go in the oven or microwave.  No, it''s not really pretty, but it works.  If I can pick up pieces for a quarter a piece at a thrift store, I think it''s worth it too!

Thriftily,
Alexandra
www.livingwithoutmoney.blogspot.com

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Wow!-- I''m totally with you about the plates hanging on the walls; they''re inexpensive but if they''re in complimentary colors/time period/styles they can make your wall look like a million bucks. And as for Depression Glass, like you I''m a little surprised I can even find Depression Glass pieces at the thrift store, which I do find fairly often-- considering the stuff is often so darned expensive in the antique stores.

.99 cents was a great deal. Way to go!

I got a pink depression glass butter dish last week-- I think it was $1.99-- at the Goodwill. I typically collect the green depression (I have apple green retro small appliances in my kitchen, so the green looks sharp). But the butter dish was too fun to pass up. And again, it was $1.99. Ya can''t really go wrong.

Happy future thrifting to you,
Jenn T.
www.thriftshopromantic.com

[Good Buddy]

My grandmother on my mother''s side would tell me stories of how she and her two brothers would go to the movies twice to get a complete 6 piece set of dishes. I guess they''d give out a different piece to a set of dishes each week. They amassed 3 complete sets of dishes, two green and one pink set, complete with butter dish.
In the movie ''It Runs in the Family'', which is another book by the author of ''A Christmas Story'' complete with Ralphie and the Bumpus Hounds, they show all the mothers at the movies expecting to get the next dish they need to complete their set, but instead getting the same dish they''d gotten for weeks prior. In their frustration, they begin dishing (stoning) the theater manager with all their free dishes.
The movie is not at all up to par with ''A Christmas Story'', but it does show the movie theater dish ritual.
Below I''m including a link to the imdb.com movie site. (Internet Movie Data Base) Look any movie or actor, quite a fun site..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110168/

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Would you believe I just saw this film for the first time about three weeks ago-- have always loved the Jean Shepherd short stories and only found out about the movie recently. No, not as good as A Christmas Story, but the top-spinning contest between Ralphie and the current bully was priceless.

I didn''t realize Depression Glass was used as a giveaway item the same way lusterware was. Interesting. I do know a few people who lived during that era who detest it, simply because of the memories associated with that time period.

Me, I like it-- so I will refrain from lobbing my butter dish. :-)
--Jenn

www.thriftshopromantic.com

[eddieb]

HA!! i collect plates and cups too!

i like funky 70's plates with funky prints, i don't buy sets but rather if a plate just sticks out at me, i'm more apt to buy it...

i also somehow developed this fascination with cups.. but certain ones... kinda wide, almost like soup cups... some of them don't have a conventional "handle" per se, be rather a nub of sorts that sticks out... makes the ergonomics really interesting on those pieces....