1940s China

M's Grandmother has been on a getting rid of stuff binge. She got rid of her china cabinet that was in the "fancy" dining room that M was never aloud in as a kid.  

We have it. 

In our tiny condo.

Yeah.

  It is totally awesome.

  Since she is down a china cabinet she is also getting rid of it's contents.  She gave M's parents a set, is keeping two (this is in addition to her everyday set y'all) And had this one set that she was thinking about, all over the dining room table. She told me she was thinking about selling it on ebay, or through an antique dealer, but would need to clean and photograph everything. Pain in the butt right? Word of advice.... don't ever tell me cool old stuff is up for grabs. 

Bam! Hellz to the yeah!

So now I have this awesome vintage set of china.  It was the wedding china of M's great aunt Beck, who like my great aunt Buzzy married late in life and had no kids to take awesome stuff like this off her hands. The insane thing is.... There is more of this stuff. She gave us a set of 8, and had almost another complete set leftover that she is planning on selling. 

Q if you are reading this, I have 2 extra cups and saucers that I need to give back to you.

 Naturally I got interested. There are all kinds of stamps on the back of these, (which I did not photograph) so I looked up the maker and pattern.

That tiny little saucer with a lip up top? A fruit bowel. It goes with the brunch plate.

 These were made by Theodore Haviland, a french company. The interesting thing is that the Haviland China Co. was founded by David Haviland, a New York importer of British china.  He went to France after being asked by a costumer to find a replacement of a french teacup.  He was so impressed by the quality that he decided to begin importing french china. But the styles of the french were not popular in the USA, so he moved to France and started his own company. This was all in 1839.

 My Pattern is called Ganga and I am finding some conflicting info about how old it is. One person selling it says it is from between 1903-1925 Just going by back marks it could either be from 1920-36 or 1925. I know M's aunt got married in the early 40s, so who is to really say.

The cool thing is these are in INSANE good condition. And they have that see-through quality when you hold them up to the light that bone china gets. My research says this is not bone china but a very rare pure white clay called Kaolin that is used in french china.

 Those divots in the platters are for pooling meat juice. I guess that is something that never took off.

<-------Someone online is trying to sell this covered bowel on ebay for $280. Good lord. now I feel bad for accepting these.

Well I hope my excitement has rubbed off on you. I'm glad my china researching skills I acquired while registering for the wedding has been put to good use. Who knew plates could be so cool.