A Message from Ruth at Antiques And Teacups

Welcome to the blog of Antiques And Teacups! Let's share a cup of tea and talk about the things we love...like teacups, antiques, collectibles, visiting England, antiquing and learning about victoriana and quirky gadgets. Fun!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Tuesday Cuppa Tea -Saint David's Day for Wales

Hello and welcome to our first Tuesday Cuppa Tea for March. I am celebrating the Welsh National holiday...Saint David's Day, which is the first of March.


The reason I wanted to share a teacup with a Daffodil is because the Daffodil is a national symbol of Wales, and of March 1st which is the Welsh holiday St. David's Day, the patron saint of Wales....so I looked, and found a perfect teacup from the 1930s in a pattern called Daffodil...




The bone china teacup was made by Victoria China, a trademark of Cartwright and Edwards, who existed into the 1960s era of closures and consolidations after being acquired by Alfred Clough Ltd. in 1955, then closed.




The spring floral is hand colored on transfer and has the hand applied raised red enamel  accents, which really makes the pattern pop! If you have visited this blog, you know I love these 1930s hand colored on transfer teacups! The mark dates the manufacture from 1929 to 1942. For more info on the teacup at Antiques And Teacups, click on the photos...


St David's Day is celebrated all over the United Kingdom, especially in Wales... and other parts of the world...for those of the Welsh heritage. That includes members who are considered Welsh, not by birth but of having been by grafted in or adopted, like the Prince Of Wales and William Wales better known as Prince William. That's why he visited Wales with his bride to be Catherine, just before the wedding, and I expect them to be celebrating this year as well..


Daily Express photo from 2012

 
Saint David, or Dewi Sant, as he is known in the the Welsh language or Dayffd, is the patron saint of Wales. He was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop, who lived in the sixth century. During his life, he was the archbishop of Wales, and he was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain. The day is celebrated with Welsh national dress, an Eisteddfod...which is a competitive singing, dancing and reciting festival in the Welsh language, of course, and daffodils everywhere. Leek soup is a favorite dish and it is a day for all ages.





I found this interesting website with more information:

http://sucs.org/~rhys/stdavid.html





The national flower of Wales is the Daffodil which is often paired with the leek, the national symbol of Wales with the red dragon. St. David's Day, or Dayffd's Day is celebrated with all of these symbols...but I can't say I've seen a teacup with leeks on it! 




St. David was born in the 6th century and was a hero during wars with the Normans and was canonized and became the patron saint of the Welsh. St David's Day is celebrated with traditional clothing, parades and lots of red Welsh dragons.



It is definitely celebrated at the schools, just like we play pilgrims before Thanksgiving...the photo above is children in Welsh National dress....




The dragon is the symbol of Wales...

I found these graphics on Google images, and they didn't have attributions. Neat aren't they?

I found this great list of facts about St. David, or Dayffyd's day on the Daily Mirror site...

1. St David’s Day falls every year on March 1. This was the date patron saint of Wales, St. David died in 589.
2. It wasn’t until the 18th century, though, that St David’s Day was declared a national day of celebration in Wales.
3. Saint David is typically depicted holding a dove, and often standing on a hillock. His symbol is the leek.
4. In 2007 Tony Blair rejected calls for St. David’s Day to become a Welsh national holiday, despite a poll saying that 87% of Welsh people wanted a March 1 holiday.
5. A Welsh stew, named Cawl and containing lamb and leeks, is traditionally consumed on St. David’s Day.
6. Across Wales on Mar 1 St. David’s Day parades take place, and in bigger cities food festivals, concerts and street parties also occur.
7. 2009 saw the inaugural St. David’s Week festival in Swansea, a week-long event featuring music, sporting and cultural events.
8. Bizarrely, Disney's Mickey and Minnie were turned Welsh last year for the Disneyland Paris St David's Welsh Festival.
9. St David's Day in Welsh is Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant.
10. Despite the fact that Saint David abstained from drinking and advised others to do the same, a number of Welsh breweries make special St. David’s Day ales.

Wales has always been a part pf our family's travels...it's close to the Cotswolds and Midlands in England where we and our families' are from. Often a place for a short break when we used to do annually to visit for a month...





Wales is a favorite place of ours in the UK...we have spent time in Aberysthwyth above and Abersoch below where my Honey's family often holidayed as he was growing up...




on one trip we stayed at the small Craig-y-Glyn hotel with our niece for 3 days...laughing ourselves silly on the trip trying to pronounce Welsh place names...and talking about her new found faith in Christ...my husband had just led her to the Lord a few days before...she was 24 then...she is now married to a pastor and her daughter has married another pastor and they are sharing the ministry in the town of Morecombe in the north of England...Lovely memories!






A traditional food for St. David's Day, which you can make easily...or in England find at the food halls year round of Aldi, Sainsbury's or Marks and Spencer's (lovingly known as Marks and Sparks)  is the Welsh Cake which I love. They are a great item with a cup of tea at teatime!





Welsh Cakes
from BBC Food but adapted by me

Ingredients
8 of self rising flour…preferably sifted
4oz salted butter
1 egg
Handful of sultanas
Milk, if needed
3 oz granulated sugar
Extra butter for greasing
Extra sugar for garnish
Preparation
1.      Rub the butter into the sifted flour until like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, sultanas and then egg. Mix to combine, then form into a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
2.       2. Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick and cut into rounds with a 3 o4 4 inch cutter, preferably fluted.
3.        Grease a bakestone, griddle or heavy skillet with butter and wipe away excess. When heated, place the cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need 2-3 mutes per side…or until each side is caramel brown.
4.       Remove from pan and dust with granulated sugar while still warm.  Can be eaten split like scones as well, with butter and jam, or buttered as is.

   Well thanks for joining me for tea! I hope you have a wonderful week. I am currently on a cruise ship in Mexico...so will check in when possible. It is for our 42nd anniversary celebration, and they upgraded us to a suite to our surprise! Couldn't believe it! Amazing! Never thought we'd be in a suite....lots of tea as well as the ship has a tea parlor with tea sommelier....cool!



Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit! Thanks so much for joining me for tea!





Sunday, February 21, 2016

Tuesday Cuppa Tea, New Green Tea, February Stuff

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea! We are on the our vacation/family visit...having taken the Bainbridge Island Ferry to Seattle, spending the night and flying to San Francisco, but here is my weekly tea party linky Tuesday Cuppa Tea...



I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day...and we celebrated our 42nd anniversary with lunch...it gets too packed at dinner sometimes...at our favorite restaurant Alder Wood Bistro...with a gift reservation from our son and daughter in law...so sweet! And a wonderful organic,  farm fresh locavore slow food meal was wonderful!  But...of course, we were so busy talking about our trip...forgot to take a photo with my phone of the caught-that-morning Halibut with red pepper remoulade and garlic aioli panini, pomme frites and coleslaw...that was positively brilliant! Or the creme brulee for dessert...sigh....


I have a simple tea this week...from a teatime in the sunroom on a break from packing for our trip....with a vintage hand embroidered runner with a crocheted shell edging on my William Morris print table cloth, and a blue transferware teacup trio....



The ironstone blue transferware teacup trio is in a  popular pattern called Royal Homes Of Britain by Enoch Wedgwood, a Wedgwood family member, from the 1950s...


The pattern is a landscape design, and Balmoral Castle in Scotland with a floral border...



I love transferware and landscape designs....




The mark on the pattern has a unicorn, which was their trademark for years, because the name of the actual pottery in Tunstall, an area of Stoke-on-Trent, was called the Unicorn Pottery. Love it!  E Wedgwood merged with Wedgwood, then Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton and now is owned by Fiskars, although the name stopped being used in the 1970s....but Fiskars now owns the pattern books. For more info on the teacup trio at Antiques And Teacups, click on the photos.



And what's a tea party without treats...these are my husband's favorites...Nonni's Biscotti...he likes the double chocolate. We don't get them often, but I got them for him for a Valentine's treat, and these are the last...



And for tea...this is my newest...Harney & Sons Green Tea With Covonut. Angela, at Tea With Friends shared her take on a sample of Bangkok Green tea she received, and when I went to the website...as I am always looking for tasty green teas...they said it was this tea...whole leaf green tea with coconut, ginger and vanilla in silken bags. It lived up to expectations, and the ginger makes it a bit spicy....a pale straw color, as you can see in the photo below...



I don't know if you noticed the lavender rose decorated sugar cubes in the photos of me tea at the top, but they were a gift from Joy Devivre from attending the virtual book launch of her ebook One Lump Or Two?



More about that in a moment...





The ...sweet...little gift arrived from the maker Cuberiffic prettily packed with a lavender ribbon and a hand made not from Joy.  

The book is the first of her Tea Cozy Mysteries, and  loved that it combined an antiques shop with a tea room...something I did for years...her character's shop name is Antiquiteas, mine was Teatiques!  Anyway, set in the scenic area of Pacific Grove in the 1920s...we honeymooned in Carmel,  just a few miles away...it was a lovely blend of transitional eras, enjoyable characters and a mystery to be solved involved with antiques and tea...what more could a tea lover want?! I got mine at Amazon.



Tea by James Tissot...1836-1902

So thanks for joining me for tea...we will be with family, and on a Mexico cruise for our anniversary enjoying a bit of warmth. I will be checking in when I can, replying etc, and will talk to you soon! Please visit:





Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit! Thanks so much for joining me for tea!







Sunday, February 14, 2016

Tuesday Cuppa Tea - Sweethearts Tea Filled With Love


And a Happy Valentine's Day to you all! A day for love...for anyone and everybody! We can all love and share love...hence joy! And welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea!



I know I did a Valentine's Tea last week, but as the heart wreath is still up in the sunroom, and we have another reason or occasion to celebrate this week, I have done a second this week, as February 16th is our 42nd anniversary...



So it's a special week for us!




And if you have followed this blog for long, you know I LOVE Shelley China! Recently I found a lot of Shelley in the Queen Anne shape...so art deco!!!! And the coral red enamel daisies seemed perfect for my sunroom Sweethearts tea!



I love the angles of the pieces, and the swoop handles...and the saucers and plates are square...





The hand applied daisies are done in raised enamel paint, hand applied.  I added a few shortbreads I made in a heart shape with red and pink sugar sprinkles...they are my husband's favorite! I am still having back problems, so didn't do a lot this week...but I definitely had to make him shortbread!




The marks are interesting...the pattern is 11497, and the Rd. mark...or Registry mark...means the design was registered as Daisy in 1926. But, with a lot of china sets during the war and post war periods, many of the pieces have the top Shelley mark, whic was only used from 1925-1940, but the teapot stand or trivet, has a mark that was only used between 1930-1932, and mostly only on Queen Anne pieces...so...Sherlock has deduced...that the set was made/assembled between 1926 and 1932. Pretty cool! I love how well Shelley identified and marked their things! Some of the items I got will be for Antiques And Teacups, but some I will keep as well.



I also used 3 of the collection of antique postcards I have...I do love them! I think the comic one on the left is so fun!



I wanted you to know, what with my back, anniversary etc, I will be slow responding this week...and then we are visiting with our out of state daughter, son in law and youngest grandson...he's 21....which we are so excited about! We are meeting in San Francisco where they have to be for a family do on our son in law's side. We can't visit them, because they live in Utah, and since the onset of my husband's Parkinson's Disease he has altitude sickness and most of Utah is 4,300 and above where they are. They come here, but we thought it would be fun to go south and visit there.




This is a photo I took of our 2 kid and spouses on an Alaska cruise we did a year ago together...soo....excited!   Hope you have had a lovely Valentine's Day, have a wonderful President's Day holiday too! 







Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit! Thanks so much for joining me for tea!

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