
Variations of the patterns exist, and some collectors focus on one variation or another, while others will collect any pieces at all, so long as the Blue Willow pattern is present - and in some cases, it doesn't matter if the colour is actually blue. Rarer colours are pink, brown or black, and although these are less popular colours, they are rarer, and collectors of the pattern will buy them up in a hurry. On a personal level, what I liked about it was the blue, and less so the pattern as I have other blue and white ware too.
The pattern appears not only on dinnerware like plates, bowls and cups but on other objects, like candlesticks (even candles), salt and pepper sets, egg cups, toasters, kettles, thimbles (more modern product), serving platters and candy dishes. In fact, I have a candy dish which (if I'm remembering the time period correctly) was a gift I had purchased for an aunt one year at Christmas when I was about 8 (making the year c.1968) and a wooden salad fork and spoon set with china handles and matching salt & pepper (bottom half wood, top half blue willow), imprinted with the blue willow pattern for my mother a couple of years later (c. 1971).

Anyway, not long after I got married, mom passed the tureen along to me, and that started my collection. Had my mother not bought me a set of blue and white "good" china (a gorgeous pattern with scenes from Charles Dickens books on each piece, c. 1974) as part of my wedding gift, I probably wouldn't have gone on to collect any more blue and white. My aunt (my mom's sister) was already a huge lover of all things blue and white, but her collecting bug began with the Dutch Delft blue and white. In her house in the city, her kitchen floor was tiled in very expensive imported blue and white Delft floor tiles, and she had many accessories with the familiar blue windmill from Holland. Most of her early pieces (1950s and 1960s) were ordered from a manufacturer in Holland, although a few were found in antique shops.
The problem is 38 years later with grown kids and a smaller, down-sized home and (now) tiny kitchen and dining area, I haven't room to keep everything I've accumulated. I've kept my "wedding set", and Blue Willow pieces that have come from the family but need to part with much of the rest. If it hadn't been for the fact that my aunt (my mom's sister) passed along her complete china set to me (a Royal Doulton pattern called Millefleur, as well as all her other blue and white pieces), I'd probably have kept all the willow but sometimes one has to be a little practical. My aunt's china was what we ate off every year at Christmas from as far back as I can remember, so it evokes a lot of memories of my childhood, while the Blue Willow pieces I purchased myself are just "pretty china", with no emotional attachment.

UPDATE: After a year of trying to sell the individual pieces (in total, along with plates and accessories there were probably 50 to 60 pieces of blue willow, and several sets of Dutch collectors plates, small pieces, jugs and vases) I ended up offering it all "en masse" as it were to a local antique dealer for $100.
Phew ... at least it isn't taking up space waiting for my kids to get rid of after I'm gone. It felt a little like a weight lifting off me. There is still some left, but not even a tenth of what I had. My girls don't really have any interest in old china, and neither of them wanted any of it. I would like to think someone in the family (if not my girls, one or both of my granddaughters, or my nieces) would at least hang onto the dog candy dish and the soup tureen, since those are the two pieces I have left with the most history (family-wise). It's hard to say what might happen in the future, and of course, when I'm gone ... I don't imagine I'll actually care what they do with the stuff that's left behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment