Basket, front view with handle down, and two candlesticks.Basket, on side showing inside with handle up, and two candlesticks.Small candy/nut dish.Pineapple candy/nut dish.Tazza on side.
Tazza, top view.Tizzy, side view.Pitcher, left side view.Pitcher, front view.Pitcher, right side view.
Pix one and two: the candlesticks (I think they are silver) were given to John’s mother Elsie when she retired as a teacher in the Little Falls School system. She taught elementary and special needs kids. Loved small children. After her retirement from the public school, she taught for a few years in the church school at the First Baptist Church.
The basket is the oldest bit of history we own. It was a wedding gift, given to my Grandmother Edith Rigsby Alcock’s mother, Cynthia Pettit, by her sister Sarah, on the occasion of her marriage to the Rev. Walter Rigsby. (I’m not sure about the first names. There’s an inscription in the bottom of the bowl that would tell you.)–So, it’s Dan’s great great great grandmother’s cake basket. –“Cake” is from the English usage, meaning cookies or bars. All this took place in Canada, probably London, Ontario.
I always thought this was silver, probably because it was an object of reverence in my family. I was going at it one day with the silver polish when the inside of the bowl began showing red, under the silver; so I quit. It may well be what the 19th century called “French silver,” which was a form of silver plate.
Picture three: I believe this silver nut dish was another retirement gift for John’s Mom, and that it pairs with the candlesticks in pix one and two.
Picture four: somebody, maybe one of our children, gave us this. I otherwise don’t know a thing about it. Your guess is as good as mine.
Pix five, six, seven: those pedestal-style dishes are called “tazzas,” or “tizzies”? Thanks for a new term to put in the word horde. I’m pretty sure this was Elsie’s. Otherwise, no data.
Pix eight, nine, ten: Pitcher. –When I was a child, this was Grandma Edith’s teapot. She used a tea ball full of Lipton’s black tea. Another object of reverence. I always assumed it was silver, and as you can see, at times I made a stab at polishing it. Then our friend Sid Parham saw it and told us it was pewter, and should never be polished. So I really do not know. –I discuss Grandma’s teapot at some length in my memoir. I think it may be a remaining piece of what was once a large and fairly grand dinner service. I have a single demi-tasse spoon with a broken handle remaining of that service. I believe the spoon is in the left-hand box on the top of the kitchen wall bedroom dresser.
The dent came much later. My Mom passed the teapot on to me, but before that, it was in a full cupboard. Door wouldn’t close. Mom solved that problem by kicking the door, which had the teapot behind it. This was long after both Grandma and my Dad had died.–I think my mother got rather fed up with all the family reverence about the Alcocks and the Rigsbys. I don’t think she meant to damage it, but on the other hand, she wasn’t treating it with particular care. Was glad to pass it on to me.
Pix one and two: the candlesticks (I think they are silver) were given to John’s mother Elsie when she retired as a teacher in the Little Falls School system. She taught elementary and special needs kids. Loved small children. After her retirement from the public school, she taught for a few years in the church school at the First Baptist Church.
The basket is the oldest bit of history we own. It was a wedding gift, given to my Grandmother Edith Rigsby Alcock’s mother, Cynthia Pettit, by her sister Sarah, on the occasion of her marriage to the Rev. Walter Rigsby. (I’m not sure about the first names. There’s an inscription in the bottom of the bowl that would tell you.)–So, it’s Dan’s great great great grandmother’s cake basket. –“Cake” is from the English usage, meaning cookies or bars. All this took place in Canada, probably London, Ontario.
I always thought this was silver, probably because it was an object of reverence in my family. I was going at it one day with the silver polish when the inside of the bowl began showing red, under the silver; so I quit. It may well be what the 19th century called “French silver,” which was a form of silver plate.
Picture three: I believe this silver nut dish was another retirement gift for John’s Mom, and that it pairs with the candlesticks in pix one and two.
Picture four: somebody, maybe one of our children, gave us this. I otherwise don’t know a thing about it. Your guess is as good as mine.
Pix five, six, seven: those pedestal-style dishes are called “tazzas,” or “tizzies”? Thanks for a new term to put in the word horde. I’m pretty sure this was Elsie’s. Otherwise, no data.
Pix eight, nine, ten: Pitcher. –When I was a child, this was Grandma Edith’s teapot. She used a tea ball full of Lipton’s black tea. Another object of reverence. I always assumed it was silver, and as you can see, at times I made a stab at polishing it. Then our friend Sid Parham saw it and told us it was pewter, and should never be polished. So I really do not know. –I discuss Grandma’s teapot at some length in my memoir. I think it may be a remaining piece of what was once a large and fairly grand dinner service. I have a single demi-tasse spoon with a broken handle remaining of that service. I believe the spoon is in the left-hand box on the top of the kitchen wall bedroom dresser.
The dent came much later. My Mom passed the teapot on to me, but before that, it was in a full cupboard. Door wouldn’t close. Mom solved that problem by kicking the door, which had the teapot behind it. This was long after both Grandma and my Dad had died.–I think my mother got rather fed up with all the family reverence about the Alcocks and the Rigsbys. I don’t think she meant to damage it, but on the other hand, she wasn’t treating it with particular care. Was glad to pass it on to me.