Wicker Dale
Part Three
"The Bramble"
“We’ll
have to go look at them (china services) in the store.”
Is
not the way... of where... “my” service(s) “came from”
In
old Wasp... New England... homes.
It
was not just any store selling any china.
And Mother helped
And
help was needed.
“For
that”.
“Dear”
“You
will be living with your china
A
long time” (forever).
“NICE
DISHES” is not used either... to describe the ‘your service’. Perhaps the best appropriate
description of a ‘your service’ is a hand held scrutiny of a single vessel (an
empty soup bowl ‘at your place’ for example) with pinched lips, eyes peering
over nose, a clandestine ‘flip’ to ‘catch’ the maker’s mark and pattern title
on the bottom with these all followed by a reluctant and suppressed sigh and a
lift-head gaze around the room with no communication about anything... of any
of this... to anyone.
The
“your china” just won
A
war?
It
certainly did if the ‘your pattern’ ‘she likes’ is... better than her own. That, of course, is conceded only after
the ‘quality’ and ‘maker’ are ‘past the test’. Thereafter the service ‘stays’ ‘forever’ and becomes a
constant ...familiar.... expected... ‘reminder’ at ‘each visit... as the
decades... pass. Although a few
pieces are broken... due to actual usage... ‘mother’s’... is still
Sixty-five
years later when her granddaughter’s mother says:
“We’ll
have to go look at them (china services) in the store.”
And
that action is... just a formality.
When
I “tighten up” (Part Two at the end) ‘Wicker Dale’... I am speaking of
this. That is where Wicker Dale
is. Grandmother’s house. Over the bridge and through the woods
of old New England etiquette.
Never right in sight. Oh...
okay... the coffee service IS ‘out’ on its tray on the dining room sideboard
top ...where it has always been since ...you were born and ...she (grandmother)
has... now... died. YES I SEE that
all the time when I am “brought in”.
I do not ask “What are you going to do with that?” (your grandmother’s
‘china’). Is that not a delicate
moment
These
days?
The
three plastic (action) figure packet group Nintendo Amiibo ...including the
coveted “Mr. Game and Watch” figure (in the center)... was ‘released’ on
September 25th, 2015 and... is selling out. One can still “find it” in “outer” New
England (the Wal-Mart in Woodville, NH?)... I have been told. Getting yours today?
The
only ‘bridge piece’ that ‘came down’ to her from “My Grandmother’s” ‘whole
service’ was ...what she used as an open topped “dish” to ‘serve’ the “salad
dressing”. It was only after a ‘by
chance’ that I, with my eye, happened upon her ...salad dressing dish... and I
said “That is ‘Wicker Dale’ pattern”... that our business together was
begun. Our business is not just
her ‘old china’. After discovering
“that” she has gone on to desire more ‘corrective surgery’. She did buy the Nintendo Amiibos...
too.
The
lunacy is in the details. Wasp
lunacy... is details... not... ‘you just buy it’.
First
there is the ‘find it’... to ‘buy it’... coming after... ‘knowing about’ and
that one could
Should
Would
“Knowing
about”. It is the same with the
Amiibos; one has to know that the one in the center is why they are ‘selling out’.
In
the ‘salad dressing dish’ there... was... and is... because she ‘uses it’... a
silver soup spoon to ‘serve’ oneself the dressing... from the salad dressing
dish that is ‘passed’ every night around her table. Yes... Grammy’s old dish. And old spoon.
A
silver spoon marked a silver spoon with maker’s mark that’s is “A-O-K” (Tiffany
‘Shell and Thread’ pattern). No
monogram too.
“REALLY?”
Yes,
on a fine silver service like this... it is ‘quite rare’ to NOT find ‘old
initials’. But I do not mention
THAT at first. I am gallant
...about the qualities of the spoon.
“So heavy too”. I say.
How
deep do I go?
Well...
I do tell her that the salad dressing dish was once a sugar bowl with a lid and
that lid... must be... long broken and ...did her grandmother still throw her
broken china over the bank behind their ‘farm’ (Part One, Footnote [1]) as her
New England ancestors did?
“I’ll
have to go look.”
Anyway...
I told her that... and that the lid was ‘probably broken’. Then I was clear that from... reviewing
the maker’s / pattern mark on the bottom... I could assure her that this ‘dish’
was of the earlier (pre-1960’s) ‘Wicker Dale’ because... the pattern number was
hand painted on the bottom as apposed to the later printed pattern number. And then too:
I’ve
already mentioned these (Part One):
The later ‘color’ is less ‘eggnog’ (creamware) and ‘more (“dental”)
white’. “Oh.”
“And
notice...that the molding (mold cast) is weaker on the later sugar bowl. Notice right there with the scallops on
the top rim being both less pronounced and also... ‘smoothed’ (less ‘relief
cast’)... too... to work well in the modern... ‘machine made’ molds. I know... these seem like small
things... until YOU start to notice “that too”. So she’s taken up the hobby of ‘rebuilding’ her
grandmother’s china service... one piece at a time. The hobby will last the rest of her life. I, now, have sipped coffee from her
‘Wicker Dale’. “I am so pleased to
find out I can DO this.” She told
me... a few years ago.
“You
notice the difference don’t you.”
“Yes
I do.”
One
would not expect that the assault upon ‘Wicker Dale’ pattern would come from
within the Copland Spode pattern family.
But it does. ‘Insult’ and
‘injury’? It is if one finds out
‘later’ (after acquisition). ‘Wicker
Dale’ pattern... to the eye... becomes a ...familiar standard... and a high
spot of its time (era) too. The
eye finds... likes... delights... where ever... ever after... when encountered. But there are other patterns too...
that ‘look like that’. No... but
at first they SEEM to... but... but... but... they ‘are not’. “Buttercup”. Yes it is nice... but... a little ‘less free’ and... no
‘bramble’. Its liner decoration is
a ‘touch’ Art Deco too... so a little bit NOT ‘timeless’. One’s eye will ‘get it’ after a
while. That’s called
‘sophistication’ of one’s eye.
Embrace that.
A
second assault? Yes: The “Spode’s Cowslip”. Of course it is (very) “nice” but...
but... again. “Too stiff” with,
again, no ‘bramble’. That is it;
one CAN see it. ‘Wicker Dale’ IS
bramble. With its little flowers
here and there. No ‘stiff’. No.. ‘fill in the colors’ flower
bed. That is what Spode’s Cowslip
has; a flower...bed. ‘Wicker Dale’
has its flowers in the bramble.
And remember that most of New England... is bramble... and always
was. I know; these seem small
points of notice... but they will come to bug your eyes out...: The eyes that YOU train; you
‘sophisticate’.
I
didn’t care about any of that at all.
My poise is ‘sooner or later’ I will ‘see some’ (‘Wicker Dale’). It is around. And can be found.
“Sophisticate” is its setting.
I feel it is actually ‘understated’. Until discovered.
THEN one ‘sophisticates’.
So
I don’t really ever have to do much about this. It just sort of...
Mrs. Breast Cancer and her ‘Wicker Dale’ coffee surface; she died and
‘it’ disappeared ‘in there’ (her home).
I guess it is still ‘in there’.
“Why not”. I don’t go
poking around... even though I’m always... poking around. I do not wish to intrude. OR is it “Why not?”.
So
what is it now... twenty-five years?
Longer than that? I...
don’t care and forget. Forgot. I forgot about my “I care” about her
‘Wicker Dale’ coffee set... that I’ve ...almost... never seen again. I did say “almost” (Part Two, at the
end, twice).
Caroline
Small (“Carol”) manages the bric-brac tables “for the church” at their
“sales”. She, herself, ‘collects’
‘antiques’. She “knows” she will
confide if someone like me pushes her.
“Knows” is relative in the ...fine art and decorative art
...realms. Does that mean she’s
really not much of a problem to a dealer like I (eye)? Pretty much. She has yet to “keep” anything “I’d”... “keep”.
She
calls up? Never. I go ‘before’ (the sale) when I know
she’s there (her car is parked outside... the side door... to the church
basement). “Steady boy” but she
never flips me off. No. I get to look... she makes me tell. And there is never anything ‘good’ so
that works out just fine.
She
says to me... one day... a decade ago... that “a little lot’ of ‘boxes’ from
(the breast cancer and Wicker Dale) family home. They... brought in “nothing”. “You can look if you’d like.” I did like. I
was remembering her (“she died you know”). I didn’t see anything either and it took just the same
amount of time to see nothing as typing this. So... it (that ‘stuff’’) was all together “on that table
over there”. “Ok thanks”. There was nothing. Off to the side were a stacked jumble
of the small boxes the ‘this stuff’ came in next to the ...waste paper basket. I wasn’t drawn to them but went over to
them. I picked up the top box
after looking and looked down in the second box and found...
Sitting
in that box bottom a little piece of a broken ‘Wicker Dale’ plate. I picked that up and Carol was right
there so I just opened my palm in front of her with the piece in my palm middle
and said “I’m taking this”. She
peered and said “Oh. Okay...
sure”. My hand closed and went to
my pocket and ‘dropped’ the piece.
“That was from her dinner china.
I remember it. But you do
too.”
Carol
said.
