Second Hand shop purchases

I wandered through a scond hand shop yesterday - mostly kitsch junky items of bric-a-bac but I did find a couple of good purchases.

Six bread and butter plates of the Meakin Works 'Sunshine' stock made as a part of a 'collectable set' that you could purchase pieces at a time to build the whole set. These were available in Australia post-war, imported from England. They were in good condition, no chips or crazing cracks.

From the Meakin Pottery works, they were mass produced for export where the prudent wife could buy her plates, soup and sweet coupes, cups and saucers separately as she could afford them to garner the ful set for her 'Hope Chest'. I remember my mother had a set of a similar design. The beauty of them was that if they were broken as a result of 'rough treatment' - and in our household of 4 children that was always possible - replacements were readilly available at the department store.

I also picked up half a dozen sweet dishes and a large sweets bowl that were of much higher quality - I'm sure that the dealer did not know the true value of this set. Royal Staffordshire AJ Wilkinson Works also from the UK

The serving bowl was a larger version of the sweets bowls. All-in-all a quite pleasing purchase, especially getting a full serving set in good condition. I'll save them for 'special occassions' in summer - Fresh baked peach slices with  crème fraîche or mascarpone and topped with fresh strawberries and a little mint.