Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Spring, Easter, Shelley Joys

Hello my friends and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea for the last week in March. Where did the month go????

Although this is an English Robin on a flowering branch, this is the source of the fleeing month for me...pollen allergies cause days to pass or be endured.
But it's still spring, and I love spring with it's new growth, beginnings and burgeoning life and warmth!

Tea in the sunroom is anticipation of Easter Sunday, the highlight of the Christian year, on April 1st this year.

This cross usually lives on the mantle, but I brought it into the sunroom for our tea today. I love the re-phrasing of Colossians 2:7 this time of year...sort of a gardening for the spirit quote:

Let you roots

grow down

into Him

and let your lives

be built on Him.

I was also enjoying looking through some Victoria magazines. I tend to reread them seasonally. These are from 1994 and 1995 March/April and feature England...so of course, are favorites...

For our tea time, I have a tall Shelley Dainty shape pot...originally a coffee pot, but a tall teapot for me.  And lots of folks use them for tea...I'm not the only one! This is the biggest of their coffee pot sizes.

The pattern is un-numbered and un-named as far as I have been able to find out. It looks like a Camellia to me with Forget-Me-Nots. The mark is the simple 1940-1966 mark, and I have never been able to find it in either Shelley guides, the pattern books or online.

I have had it for years....and this happens to china dealers...it was damaged...a chip on the top rim...at our bricks-and-mortar antiques and tea shop years ago...long since closed to go exclusively online in 2002...when a snow plow rumbled by too close to the building and dislodged a picture from the wall and broke or damaged a number of things...this included.
But I loved it, so rather than discard it, I use it!

I have 2 teacups to choose from today for a tea for two...you and me...

This first is an always favorite Dainty shape Rosebud pattern, number 13426.

Dainty is one of the shapes Shelley is famous for, and rightly so. So delicate!

The pattern was first registered in 1896, as shown by the Rd. number...or British Registry number on this teacup. But that was just when the design was first registered, not when this one was made. The Shelley mark here was used 1940-1966, but the Rd. numbers were dropped in the early 1950s on most items do it dates to the earlier period.

My other Shelley teacup is a variation of the Hulme's Rose design on a Ludlow shape. I love the soft blue, and Ludlows aren't seen to often, although I love the lobed shape myself. 

The number os 0321 with the color number after the slash mark. I have had it in pink before, and it was possibly made in other colors as well, although that isn't in the pattern books. It was made between 1962 and 1966 when the pottery closed.

One of the Victoria magazines has the cover title The Luxury Of Little things...and that made me think of the antique ephemera I love. I have been sharing antique Easter postcards daily on my Facebook page...you can find me HERE or on the sidebar of the blog...
So are here are 2 Easter cards from the 1920s. The first above, with a bouquet of spring flowers says:

A Pleasant Easter
May Easter find you
in happy array,And everything
That suits the spring 
Fillup your Easter day!

This metallic gold pink cottage card says

Wishing Easter Joy
Earth it's fresh life renews,
Smiles the sky with warmer hues,
Hearts are glad and may you share
All the joy that's everywhere!

I didn't make our treat for tea this week...but our local grocery store stocks Seattle organic bakery items, and this week had traditional Hot Cross buns, which we love, and with tendonitis can't do kneaded yeast breads, so we always buy them this time of year. 

They are made with raisins, orange peel and a baked indented...or in this case frosted cross, to remind one of the cross of Christ.
Perfect for this time of year.

Thanks so much for joining me for tea! I hope you have a lovely Easter, and see the cross beyond the bunnies and eggs, which I love too. 

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
Colossians 3:15 New Living Translation

I am joining this week:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

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Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up