My great loves…

Some things just catch your eye and you fall instantly in love with them.  You know how it goes…you may be scanning through Pinterest and of all of the thousands of pins you have the ones that you are drawn to…the ones that you have to definitely repin.  These are the pins that you just know that everyone else will repin…you know the ones!!

So this week I am going to share my great loves.   Here we go…

White Ironstone Creamers

My collection of white ironstone started about ten years ago. I am in l-o-v-e with the creamers but I also have a few large pitchers. Recently I have been looking for plates and platters to do a collage on my dining room wall.

This search is not going so well...South Dakota has its fair share of antique stores however, most are more like a clearing house for all of the things that people can't sell at their garage sales. :( 

I also believe that in this part of the country if people were able to acquire a piece of Ironstone the probability of it enduring the prairie lifestyle was unlikely.  We were the cowboy, indian, and wagon train kind of folks,  making Ironstone even less common here today. 

These cabinets that I had built into my dining room were built to accomodate my collection and because I also love windowseats and books...I am totally in love!

(my new plates will be where the picture on the wall is)

**I think that there is a fine line when having a collection…sometimes you have too many of one thing and it gets to looking gaudy.  You know what i mean?  I try to only pick the Ironstone that I truly love in hopes that it never gets to that point.**

Here's a little history on White Ironstone from the White Ironstone Association...yes, it has it's own association!

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	The Beginning of White Ironstone
	Ironstone china as we know it was first patented in 1813 by Charles James Mason in Staffordshire, England. It was an improved china harder than earthenware and stronger than porcelain. Mason's patent lasted only fourteen years, and by 1827 a number of other potters had already experimented with his formulas. All of these wares were decorated with transfer patterns or brush-stroke designs. Occasionally an undecorated piece would find its way out of the factory, possibly because it was flawed in some way.
	Ironstone Goes West
	In the 1840's, England began exporting the undecorated wares to the American and Canadian markets. The English potters discovered that the "Colonies" preferred the unfussy plain and durable china. Specifically, it was 1842 when James Edwards marketed the first white ironstone china in America. Late in the 1850's and into the 1860's huge quantities of china were sold to the agricultural communities and called "thrashers' ware." These dinner, tea and chamber sets were embossed with wheat, prairie flowers and corn in order to appeal to the farmers, who had to feed all the people that helped with the harvest. Thanks for letting me share with you!  More loves to come later this week!!

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