Why is "The Old Dark Blue the "Old Dark Blue" In Old New England - Part Three - "Furtive"

Why is "The Old Dark Blue"

The "Old Dark Blue"

In Old New England

Part Three

"Furtive"

            Picking up and summarizing the critical points from Part Two... in order to ‘go back’ and ‘expand’ on them as I said was needed... I repeat:

            I established four ‘sugar bowl points’:  ‘Found it (the sugar bowl) in there’ (old estate). ‘It is a sugar bowl.’ ‘It is broken’.  And:  It is the ‘only piece (of the Old Dark Blue) in there’.

            Then I said these points were hard to notice (furtive) and took me “YEARS” to have that happen; notice the furtive of ... The Old Dark Blue... “sugar”.  But I have.

            Then I went on to suggest that some ‘know’ this better than I and, by example, I said that the older veteran women in church/hospital thrift shops are an example of this.

            And that... all of this becomes a ‘taste’ issue too; the ‘good taste’ ‘bad taste’ of  Old New England.  Too.

            And more... alluded to in Part Two such as other old china... ‘is phony’ and those thrift shop ladies know that... and

            All of this learning curve took ME decades... to get to a write this down... and return to my beginnings to do that and that... beginning being...

I found an old dark blue busted sugar bowl....

            “In there”.

            Okay... so I found one and for forty years I keep on finding them and still do right now these days TOO but... ah... “I know better now”.  This is a “telling” thing (Part Two) and it is a ...furtive thing.

            “Girls?”

            I go into an old New England village in ...Maine.  “Camden” let I call it.  Why would I go there.  Because Camden has old New England good taste all over the place there and shows it (flaunts it?) and has the thrift stores AND the thrift store ladies who

            “KNOW”

            Old New England village

            Old New England HOME

            OLD NEW ENGLAND HOUSE so...

            Old New England ‘stuff’ and

            Old New England “GOOD” so

            The

            Old Dark Blue.

            BECAUSE THEY HAVE ...LIVED THIS; all of it including their ...great, great, greater-great grandmother’s broken Old Dark Blue sugar bowl.  Too.

            “PROVE IT” you say?

            Sure:  THIS DAY the thrift store does not have an ‘the old dark blue’ busted sugar bowl... but does have a ‘good enough’.  THIS DAY they have for sale a circa 1825 “Spatterware” sugar with brilliant sponge decorated red and blue strips...  It is too... old oven browned (usage; they put the lid lost bowl in the woodstove oven), cracked, a few chips, lid perished, an old estate sticker on its bottom and...

            MY HAND REACHES OUT INSTANTLY for it to be ‘all mine’ only to be crushed by the

            SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR ($75.00) price tag (that includes an identification of what the ‘thing’ is (as IF YOUR TASTE is ‘so bad’ that you NEED help with that.)

            OKAY so it is obviously the ‘best’ thing in the thrift store and they know it and it sits in there on a shelf surrounded by

            CRAP

            JUNK

            “YUCK”

            AND....:

            Equally bad HUMANS shopping ...TOO.

            They know; the thrift shop ladies know.  (They know I know too but that’s a different story).  They know they have an “OLD NEW ENGLAND Home FOUND... ‘in there... sugar bowl... that is broken and IT IS

            THE ONLY ‘PIECE’

            “IN THERE” (the old Camden house from whence it came AND the thrift shop).

            Meanwhile you walked by all of this and looked at (more) shoes.  The ladies know that and expect that because ‘you have bad taste’ “anyway”. (reminder; thrift shops specialize in selling bad taste objects.  THAT IS WHY THE bad taste objects ‘went there’ to begin with; to ‘get rid of’... “donate” away... bad taste).

            Most important to I.. here... is for you to get an inkling of this FURTIVE example of what I am writing about AND denote that these ladies know ‘about ALL of this’.  And so do others with... knowing (good) taste.  These ‘they’ quietly tolerate the ‘unwashed in shoes’ unless, of course, they ‘know’ a ‘you know’ that happens by

            Like I.

            Then they might (one or two of the thrift shop ladies might) poke ‘a little fun’.  You’d never catch them at their critical appraisal of the ... “your taste”.  Your not that good

            At this.

            But the shoes fit... literally and figuratively.  RIGHT

            REMEMBER:  THEY GREW UP ‘in this’ ‘that way’.  So did I.

            I want to append the Spatterware quickly.  Spatterware is NOT an “The Old Dark Blue” grade Old New England ‘old china’.  To the “US” of Old New England it is “Middle Atlantic... Pennsylvania... CLASSIC ‘old dark blue’ grade EQUAL ‘old china’.  It is just not pervasively furtively “FOUND” in the old New England home the “WAY” the old dark blue “IS”.  So... there nothing wrong with it (good taste) except ... not... it is... The Old Dark Blue.

            It is a busted sugar bowl.  It is ‘the only one in there’.  It is an “I found” (rescued) and it is ‘knowing good taste’.  It is ‘just not’ a The OLD Dark Blue

            SUGAR BOWL.

            The form; it is a (single broken) form of ‘old china’ ‘in there’ “FOUND”.  I need to impart on this ‘that”.

            I found and find the damn sugar bowls all the time.  WHY?  There is a reason.  The reason is... is that... these... the old dark blue busted sugar bowl... was... of its day (1800-1825) often times the “ONLY” ‘piece of china’ “IN THERE” (the 1820 household).  WHAT?  Why?

            They did not have china in the house ‘at first’ because there was NO CHINA to HAVE.  The old dark blue... is, in fact, one of the “FIRST” pieces of china to be found in an ...old New England home.  NO CHINA BEFORE... and a horror show of crummy china ever after.  But at first... it was the first... china ‘in there’.  And it was ‘a sugar bowl’ too.

            “What?  WHY?”

            The old dark blue came from England on a boat.  When it got off the boat it was, as intended, an affordable ‘first’ ‘middleclass’ “china” to be a ‘here’ (in New England) ‘for sale’.  HOW DID THEY DO THAT (sale)?  Peddlers loaded carts with... what?  SUGAR BOWLS.  IF... you-the-farmer’s wife... in settler New England... never had china before... you’s ah not gonna buy a fifty piece place setting set.  NO.  AND you don’t have the money to do that either.  No you don’t.  SOOO... the crafty peddler brought you what he had that you didn’t have and would “LIKE” and WANT and was easy to haul a lot of and was ‘affordable’ but also just dazzled the farm girl’s eye with “THAT BLUE”...  Got it... don’t you.  NOT HARD to understand how.... the old sugar bowl ‘got there’ and is the ‘first’ piece of old china ‘in there’ and... everybody knew it (the sugar bowl) and HAS ALWAYS KNOWN THAT EVER SINCE with me being sure to emphatically emphasize the mother to daughter to grand daughter PASSAGE of the ... ever more chipped, cracked and broken “THAT IS GREAT GRANDMOTHER’S SUGAR BOWL”

            NOW WE UNDERSTAND

            “Girls”?

            So... that is why I ... rescued... a ‘sugar bowl’ when I crawled through the dog’s door (Part One).  That is why I rescued a ‘sugar bowl’ in my ‘first estate’.  That is why I rescued them for forty years including right now and rescuing them right now in thrift shops.  That is why...

            I now have to look at the actual object and ‘how and why’ the it is made... to wrap this Old New England thing further in its furtive... halo... of  “The Old Dark Blue”.  But first a moment more with the ‘clutching these’ aspect of the single survival / rescue/ preservation of these “these” (old broken single specimen ‘found’ old dark blue sugar bowls).

            One now may envision that “yes she kept it next to her bed it was there after she died”... and et al... ?  Better be:  It is the hard truth of why they are always ‘still in there’.  They were clutched and protected ‘in there’... pretty much until the ‘died off’ (Part One) and I’

            And those

Of ‘The Old Dark Blue’... ‘rescue’.  It is intentional that these old broken sugar bowls are ‘in there’.  They are from the settlement of Old New England and...

            THE PASSAGE OF THAT “down” TO TODAY.

            Yes:  The good taste of that.  And the ‘in the bones’ of that good taste.  What is it then that brings this old broken sugar bowl the strength to do this job; to be the highborn of old New England ‘old china’?  There are two further furtive points:  Actual usage history in the home AT the period (1820) and... the ‘made in England’ “how was it made”... further furtive... points.  I will mention here too... that after I pass the secrets of ‘the using’ and ‘the making’ of the china... that... this old china... was too... ‘collected’ (looked out for) by ...1850.  By 1880... the old dark blue was “serious” Old New England (furtive) good taste.

            It was ‘good taste’ and had a halo.  But it was... and is... always “Great, Great, Grandmother’s”

            Sugar bowl

            Too.