Enchanted with White Ironstone

In my earlier days as a mere newbie blog voyeur, I was visiting Cindy over at My Romantic Home and she was sharing her collection of ironstone on Faded Charms' White Wednesday blog party. So anywho, I was dumbstruck and in awe. At that moment I finally had a name to some of my great-grandmother's china. I just knew that they were white or cream in color and were a bit heavier than some of her other china. Now I had a name to what this type of pottery was called. Then to see how Cindy had it all displayed so fabulously in one place made me, of course, want more. So immediately I started to add on to my great-grandmother Helen's wonderful collection. Let's look at a few of the pieces I have collected and cherished.

During the early 19th century, a new type of stoneware was introduced in England by the Staffordshire potters. These folks were looking for a cheaper way to mass produce pottery that sort of looked like porcelain, but, well, wasn't. What they ended up with was a product that was a durable stoneware. 

Ironstone is also known as stoneware, graniteware, tea leaf and a host of other names. With its clay body, this type of china is generally opaque as opposed to translucent like porcelain. There are several fabulous manufacturers of ironstone such as Mason, Spode, Delph, and few others. My two favorites are Staffordshire (Liberty Blue Ironstone) and Red Cliff. When it comes to white ironstone my favorite is Red Cliff. This beautiful tureen, with embossed grapes is a Red Cliff piece. I really took a fancy to the raised grapes. 

 Look closely and you will see the embossed grapes. 

Red Cliff ironstone china dinnerware adds so much elegance to a table.

 I chose the salad plates with the embossed grapes for the dining room table. 

Speaking of grapes, I placed them inside a two-sided ironstone gravy boat on the dining room table. I get more use out of the piece as a place to hold healthy snacks than as an actual gravy boat. The only time actual gravy goes in this piece is at Thanksgiving time. As they say "A minute on the lips and life time on the hips." 

I had heard of the many adventures of people finding china, especially ironstone, at thrift stores. Much to my surprise, I walked into Goodwill one day and there she was...waiting for me to pick her up and take her home for $2.00. She doesn't have her lid but I use her two ways. Beautiful flowers look so pretty inside at the breakfast table. I don't use her as a coffee pot (since she doesn't have a lid). Instead I use her as a tall teapot. I put hot water inside and serve a mean cup of tea. 

I can't believe someone donated that ironstone coffee pot to the Goodwill. Behind the pot and the chinese tea cup is a rectangular ironstone tray that ways a ton. I love to serve appetizers on that tray.

White ironstone comes in a myriad of shades of creamy white and I love them all. The teacup-for-one is a creamier shade of white than the soup tureen on the right. The small tray holding the rainier cherries is a much whiter white. They look wonderful in front of the Italian clay pottery pieces.

Thank you for taking a sneak peak at a few of my favorite pieces of ironstone! Stick around and I may show you my Staffordshire Liberty Blue ironstone collection one day.

Come back next week for a super cool giveaway of one the porcelain pitchers with raised roses featured on our blog post Ebony and Ivory.  

This week we are partying with the following fabulous folks:

DebbieDoo's Newbie Party @ DebbieDoo's

It's Party Time @ It's So Very Cheri

Amaze Me Monday @ Dittle Dattle

Sunday Blog Love @ Cherished Treasures 

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage
Table Top Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style

Time to Shine @ A Diamond in the Stuff

Inspired by you Wednesdays @ Eisy Morgan

Anything Goes @ Type A

White Wednesday @Faded Charm

Transformation Thursday@The Shabby Creek Cottage

Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage

Pearls and Lace Thursday @ Faith, Grace, & Crafts

Open House Party @ On Sutton Place

Club G.W. @ Charm Bracelet Diva

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday @ Primp

Tea Time Thursdays @ Kreative Korner

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Vintage Inspiration Friday @ Common Ground

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Fridays Unfolded @ Stuff and Nonsense

Farmhouse Friday @ LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Before Blogging Throwback Thursdays @ Sugar & Spice in the land of Balls & Sticks

Cloche Encounters

 This week is all about the cloche! (There’s a big party don’t cha know!) It’s been a blast running around putting everything under glass. 

 I placed a couple of bathing beauties, strings of pearls, seashells, and a whole lotta bling as the base. And what beauty would be caught dead without a mirror?

 Next step, a topper. This is the key and beaded tassel from my secretary, and inside a gorgeous ivory finial from my lamp. (Looks like stalactite dripping from a cave ceiling, right?)

 I’m calling this one the siren's cave. I love how the beads cascading down look like seaweed. Watch out Little Mermaid!

 This little angel is cute as is. I just draped some pearls around him and plopped on the cloche. Cute!

 This is a French cloche called a Globe de Mariée. A bride would have one made upon her marriage. To see others click here. 

 This one includes the original orange blossom headdress.

 I had so much fun making the first cloche that I just had to try my hand at it again. I really wanted to think outside the box on this one. I used an old glass magnifier,

 A lovely pressed glass ashtray,

 Hmm… what to magnify? Why of course! This pretty little Georgian lover’s eye pin! 

 These were jewels that could be worn without revealing the lover’s identity. Romantic, huh? Voilà! I love it! 

 Until next time, I’ve got my eye on you. 

While we’ve got our eyes wide open let’s peek in at Paula’s and see what’s under her cloche.

Patti

First up is my elephant and roses cloche. Cloches, bell jars, and glass domes are a perfect way to highlight an object of your fancy. I just love porcelains. Porcelains with roses are one of my favorites.  

This vintage coffee pot from India is small enough to display in a cloche. I like to rotate my vintage import pieces giving each piece an opportunity to debut.

My favorite type of ironstone is Red Cliff. My favorite of the red cliff are the ones with the little grapes. This little Tureen was a bargain buy without its ladle. 

Have you ever seen these small dessert cloches and wondered "What can I put in there?" Well the answer is pretty much anything small. Patti and I were visiting a local orchid nursery and they were selling this orchid, from Thailand, in a painted wooden container. Can you believe that that orchid is soap? 

Here is another porcelain piece with roses on the front. I can't wait to show you the rest of the porcelain collection. 

 Thank you for joining us for our cloche encounters, we will be linking to the following blogs:

Masterpiece Monday @	Boogie Board Cottage
Amaze Me Monday @	Dittle Dattle
Show Off Your Cottage Monday @	The House in the Roses
Wow Us Wednesday @	Savvy Southern Style
Share the Love Wednesday @	Very Merry Vintage Style
French Inspiration Thursday @	The French Cupboard
Club G.W. @	Charm Bracelet Diva
Thrifty Thursday@	Tales From Bloggeritaville
Open House Party Thursdays @	No Minimalist Here
Pearls and Lace Thursdays @	Faith, Grace, and Crafts
Vintage ThingieThursday @	The Coloradolady
Vintage Inspiration Friday @	Common Ground
Inspiration Friday @	At the Picket Fence
Fridays Unfolded @	Stuff and Nonsense
Feathered Nest Friday @	French Country Cottage
Home Sweet Home @	The Charm of Home
Thrifty Things Friday @	The Thrifty Groove
Show and Tell Friday @	My Romantic Home

 

Patti & Paula

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