Covered vegetable bowl in Lenox Colonial pattern /photo by Scott Simmons

Scott Simmons

By Scott Simmons, columnist

Each Thanksgiving, Grandma would set the table with her Lenox china.

The set had belonged to her mother-in-law, a woman she admired.

And each year, she would sigh and reflect on how she wished we children could have known our great-grandmother.

“You would have loved her,” Grandma said.

She said that when she looked at the china, with its raised enameled flowers and urns in hues of burgundy and blue, she saw my great-grandmother.

And perhaps she saw memories of happier times.

Lion's head bowl /photo courtesy ScottSimmonsAntiques.com

Not merely a plate or bowl

This cherished object, that much-loved recipe are part of what evoke memories of other times. I can’t think of cranberry sauce without picturing Grandma’s lion-head bowl.

I know now that bowl, in the Amazon pattern, was made in the 1890s, and that it probably had a lid at one time.

But who cares?

All I see is a can of fresh Ocean Spray, ready to be sliced and ready to be savored by my 10-year-old self.

Of course, I make my own cranberry sauce, and the bowl is perfect for serving it, or my friend Concetta’s pickled green tomato relish.

And I reflect on Grandma, and the four years that she has been gone.

That, my friends, is the perfect mix.

Bring out the china and silver – and remember those who used them

Grandma’s bowl only would fetch a few dollars at an antiques show. But it’s priceless to me for the memories it evokes.

So, that bowl you received as a wedding present from Grandma? Use it. Unless it’s a museum piece, it needs to be used and enjoyed. Those fine scratches and nicks form the patina of an object well used.

And, hopefully, memories to savor.

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Scott Simmons is a South Florida writer whose passion is antique china and glassware. He has written about collectibles for more than 10 years as The Palm Beach Post’s “Look What We Found” columnist. His Kitchen Kollectibles column highlights food and dining ephemera. Write him at scott.simmons.writer@gmail.com, and visit his website, ScottSimmonsAntiques.com

Scott Simmons

My great-grandmother, Lilla Chason Griffin, was a practical woman.

Granny, born in 1888, made her own mops from cornhusks, and brooms from the broomstraw that grew along the roadsides. She matched her feed and flour sacks to fabric she already had to make dresses, aprons and such.

Lilla Chason Griffin (left) and Lizzie Chason Thompson as teenagers

It wasn’t easy living on the farm in south Georgia. She might’ve already collected eggs and milked a cow or two before breakfast. Evenings would find her sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of her dogtrot farmhouse shelling butter beans or field peas, all the while gossiping with her twin sister, Lizzie, who lived just up the road.

And if her hands weren’t busy doing that, they would have been holding a jar of cream.

Homemade butter churn

Granny didn’t have a churn. Instead, she rocked back and forth, gently shaking a Mason or Ball jar full of cream until it turned to butter.

Once the cream had thickened, she would have salted the butter and spooned it into this mold, patented in 1950 by T.R. Hall of Burlington, N.C.:

The company’s claim to fame: The wing handle made it easy to turn the butter from the mold, and the striped pattern on the inside of the plunger kept the butter from sticking to the plunger.

Vintage – not antique

Chason twins on their 87th birthday

I always had imagined the mold hailed from the early days of aluminum kitchenware, in the 1920s and ’30s, so I was surprised when I learned it was made after 1950.

Granny’s daughter, my grandmother Dorothy, always had the mold proudly displayed on a bookcase, as though it were some treasured artifact. Internet searches find them priced around $20.

It’s not ancient, but what a treasure it is! One look at the mold, and I hear the creak of a rocker and get a hankering for cornbread slathered with homemade butter.

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Scott Simmons is a South Florida writer whose passion is antique china and glassware. He has written about collectibles for more than 10 years as The Palm Beach Post’s “Look What We Found” columnist. His Kitchen Kollectibles column highlights food and dining ephemera. Write him at scott.simmons.writer@gmail.com.

Seneca ruby pilsners

By Scott Simmons, columnist

I love glassware

What is it about beautiful hand-wrought pieces that whets my appetite for more?

I’m not sure, but my appetite was stirred when I saw this beautiful set of Seneca glass “Slim Jim” pilsner glasses.

Scott Simmons

The 16-ounce tall tumblers were made in the 1930s in West Virginia by Seneca, a company that was known for its exquisite quality — just look at the crystal clarity of that ruby glass.

Just about any beer would taste better in a vessel like this. I also think they’d be great for serving parfaits.

The fun thing with elegant glass like this is mixing it. I also have Slim Jims in clear and teal — think of the possibilities for Christmas.

Or, I can use this simply elegant set of pilsners as a foil to glassware with a more elaborate design.

The glasses were a bargain, too. I paid $35 for a set of eight. One was chipped, but they still were an exceptional buy — they might have cost me $30 apiece at a Depression glass show.

A thrift store with a cause

And buying them helped a good cause. I found them at The Lord’s Place’s One More Time Thrift Shop & Coffee Bar. The store benefits the The Lord’s Place, which helps the homeless.

Stop in, buy a cup of coffee, nibble some baked goods, and shop for clothing and accessories in one of the brightest, cleanest thrift stores I’ve seen anywhere.

On the trail to Scott’s finds:

• The Lord’s Place One More Time Thrift Shop and Coffee Bar
• 7600 S. Dixie Highway (a half-mile south of Forest Hill Boulevard)
• West Palm Beach, FL
• Phone: (561) 494-0125, ext. 4412

Scott Simmons is a South Florida writer whose passion is antique china and glassware. He has written about collectibles for more than 10 years as The Palm Beach Post’s “Look What We Found” columnist. His Kitchen Kollectibles column highlights food and dining ephemera. Have questions about your own vintage treasures? Email him at scott.simmons.writer@gmail.com.

Victorian whimsy and practicality in one

By Scott Simmons, columnist

Times were tough in olden days – even for rich folks.
Homes were drafty, water supplies were sketchy – and sanitation? Well, forget about it – even Queen Victoria was not amused that a toilet drained onto the roof outside her Buckingham Palace dressing room.
The risk of fire from wood stoves was great. One spark, and the house was gone.

Foods had to travel

Scott Simmons

To reduce that risk, the kitchens of homes large and small often were in separate buildings, which meant food had to be carried great distances from hearth to table.
Cooks used covered tureens, spoon warmers and such items as this domed pancake server to keep the food warm.
The cover of this porcelain server kept the cold air out, and the perforations in the dome allowed the steam to vent, so the pancakes didn’t become soggy.
This server, marked GDA Limoges – for Gerard, DuFraiss & Abot – was made around the turn of the 20th century.
It’s a practical piece, but its design is pure Victorian whimsy. The roses are trimmed in gold, and the gilded ribbon handle may remind you of the bows Haviland – another great porcelain house from the French city of Limoges – used on its wares. It’s about 9 -1/4 inches in diameter.
I flipped at the price – $35 – and bought. A simliar piece would cost $75 or more, making mine a bargain, any way you stack it.

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Scott Simmons is a South Florida writer whose passion is antique china and glassware. He has written about collectibles for more than 10 years as The Palm Beach Post’s “Look What We Found” columnist. His Kitchen Kollectibles column highlights food and dining ephemera. Write him at scott.simmons.writer@gmail.com.