Corelle, Pottery and Enamelware from Grandpa's Trading Company

The rest of the story... 

The rocking chair and high chair for their first son's birth was Daddy's from his baby days in the 1940's. You can see the direction this is going..right? The newly weds became the recipients of all the "saving" and "putting away for a rainy day" that had occurred SINCE the great depression! The tradition was too ingrained not to be continued! That highchair was put away and saved for their first granddaughter, Brittany, when she came along and then passed down from grandchild to grandchild. The table and chairs from their first days of housekeeping are now in the attic with the highchair waiting for the next generation. 

Grandpa's parents purchased a set of the newly introduced Fiesta Ware in 1937 at the five and dime store for THEIR parents in those bright and eye-catching colors. (When we tell this story, our grandchildren ask us, "WHAT is a five and dime"?). It was a full service for 12 with all the serving pieces at the mighty cost of approximately $39.00. The majority of the set endured and was passed down and was still in use in their home when the newlyweds were married. The newlyweds loved the bright colors as did their sons when they came along. The young family enjoyed mixing & matching Fiesta colors for their place settings. Much attention was paid to the eleven original Fiesta colors at the table and who was getting which color. Of course, some of the colorful Fiesta dishes broke with use and at that time in the mid 1960's, replacement cups and plates could be purchased at the local hardware store. It seems that medium green cups were all that was left in stock and having to pay the outrageous price of 85 cents a cup was the talk at the dinner table!

The collecting "bug" really bit the young couple when Grandpa's parents decided to get rid of their Fiesta Ware and acquire those wonderful new, unbreakable CORELLE dishes that everyone was raving about! Corelle was advertised as nearly indestructible, light weight, stackable and sparkling dishes that could be used in the new microwave ovens that were coming to the marketplace. Corelle and Corning were marvelous and innovative; and could even go from oven to table to freezer without breaking or cracking. The young couple, now with two sons, decided they would like to have the Fiesta dishes they were so fond of and instead of them going to the Salvation Army, as was the original plan, the couple purchased a set of new Corelle and traded for the Fiestaware. This was the light bulb moment when the true collecting "bug" bit them and they began seeking replacement pieces for the Fiestaware that was broken and damaged over the years. There were quite a few wonderful casseroles and serving pieces that fell into THIS category as they had been well used and so the search began.

The collecting and treasure hunting for cobalt, chartreuse and rose colors was the talk of dinner conversation. Scouting flea markets and "junk" stores (as we used to call them) looking for the matching colors was a weekend pastime. Turquoise and yellow were easy to find! Forest green and uranium red, NOT so easy. Ivory was a good color to mix and match with gray and light green. Those were the "good old days". When a bargain stack or box of those "old" dishes could be found in the back room of a thrift shop for $20. What fun!

As we learned more about Fiesta and the Homer Laughlin Company, we turned up interesting finds such as Harlequin, Epicure, Riviera and Century. The patterned dishes followed with Virginia Rose, Kitchen Kraft, Oven Serve and more.... You can see where this is going, of course,. Somewhere along the way those young and innocent newlyweds became true collectors and began filling every nook and cranny with vintage dishes and china.

They purchased Woodland Brown Corelle in their trade for the Fiesta and picked up some knowledge of Corelle along the way. The other set of parents saw the Woodland Brown and liked the style and durability of the Corelleware and so they purchased a set of Wildflower for THEIR everyday dishes to replace the Stangl Pottery they had eaten with for many, many years. Being from Trenton, New Jersey where Stangl was produced, they were fans of each and every Stangl dinnerware pattern~from the Fruit, Thistle, Blueberry and Town and Country, down to the Art Pottery and Kiddieware.

So, the young couple became not only Fiesta collectors, but Stangl fans as well. They acquired a love of old furniture and began collecting it. Of course, if you obtain enough old furniture, you will have to repair, strip & refinish pieces somewhere along the way. They took classes, read and studied the techniques. Many of the chairs had rush and cane seats that needed to be repaired, so this skill had to be acquired as well. Eventually the old furniture took over their living room and garage. The attractive grains and woods of the older furniture were so appealing and exciting that they began taking on antique furniture from family and friends to repair, restore, refinish and return to them. At this point in the early 1970's they left the corporate world behind to open a furniture restoration and refinishing business which was appropriately named, "The Furniture Spa". Rehabilitating forgotten, dilapidated, vintage furniture and restoring it's patina and luster for a new life was their mission. They found there were many collectors who wanted the option of doing this themselves, so they taught classes in furniture stripping, refinishing, restoration, chair caning and rush and rope seating. After a dozen years in this arena of the antiques world, they spotted a charming 1920's Florida style home that "spoke to them" and was just begging to be restored and converted to an antiques shop! After many months of restoration and hard labor.. mission accomplished!

But before opening the doors to the new antiques shop, a road trip was in order! Nine weeks were spent traveling the USA visiting every important venue on their long list! Antiques shows, flea markets, thrift stores, auctions, swap meets. From Florida, to the Canadian border and in between. > From the beautiful, hilly Amish country of Shipshewanna, Indiana to the Blenko Glass Factory off the beaten path in West Virginia. Traveled the back roads of the mid section of our fine country to meet the people in the small towns, on the farms and in the shops. Such nice people they were, too! One elderly lady in a rural section of Kentucky where we stopped at her barn sale, drove us over the mountain in her pick up truck to introduce us to a farmer who had a Hoosier kitchen cupboard for sale, which we purchased, she loaded it in her truck & then she invited us in for lunch in her home, where she served us tuna salad sandwiches & proudly immersed us in the history of her breathtaking collection of old crocks and jugs. (Grandpa does not ever LIKE tunaf fish, but he was so in awe of her crocks and hospitality, that he ate it anyway..... the last tuna sandwich he has eaten too). We wanted to gain an understanding of what inspired other collectors and felt delving into their world was one way to gain this understanding. But, the main focus of the trip was visiting the factories, showrooms, museums and towns where glass and pottery were produced. WHAT an education it was! Learning the trade inside and out was important and the knowledge obtained from this amazing trip provided a backstage understanding of collectors, pottery & glass that could not have been gained otherwise. Sort of looked like an antique version of the Beverly Hillbillies as the trip progressed, in their conversion van, antiques of every shape and size were purchased along the way overtaking the interior and exterior. Sleeping at night was a source of exercise when many, many pieces of furniture & boxes had to be off loaded to uncover the bed inside. An old wooden washstand was secured on to the ladder at the back of the van, with a roof rack full of tubs, baskets, furniture and other oddities acquired during the trip. After touring Fenton, Pilgrim, Blenko, Homer Laughlin, Hall China & many others inbetween, the final stop on this long journey was the Blue Ridge Pottery Show in the small, mountainous town Erwin, Tennessee, where Southern Potteries had been located. After acquiring a few boxes of Southern Pottery, the trip home began, driving all night through small, curving mountain roads, freezing sleet was coming down outside with a leaking, nonfunctioning heater leaking water on their feet inside. Oh, the joy of returning home! 

A new granddaughter had arrived about this time and when brainstorming a name for the new business venture, "Grandpa's Trading Company" was chosen. It proved a proliferative name, as five more wonderful grandchildren followed. Although "grandpas" were not traded, many antiques and collectibles were over the 20+ years the shop existed. Sitting in the shop all day proved to be a bit confining so antiques shows were added to the venue at Grandpas, hiring employees to run the shop, while 45 antiques shows a year were added to the schedule.. All around the eastern portion of the United States. It became a traveling antiques road show for more than twelve years. Buying and selling antiques around the country was hard work, yet most exciting! Meeting new people, making life-long friendships with other antique dealers and customers, that exist still, to this day, was very fulfilling. Along the way, branched out into malls along the interstate, as far away as Atlanta.

Somewhere in our frequent travels, we began hearing the word "ebay". This was in the late 1990's and decided to check it out! You can probably write the rest of the story from here! After purchasing a computer, went on line and the "web" version of Grandpa's Trading Company was born.

At the urging of our sons and grandchildren, we later sold our antiques shop property, after nearly 25 years in our bricks and mortar location. But, of course, we could not part with our merchandise, so built a two-story warehouse which is where our antique inventory is now housed. Our antiques are like old friends, they just become more precious as time goes on. But, now at the even more insistent urging of those same sons and grandchildren, we are slowly selling our inventory too. Our sons have told us THEY don't want to have to deal with all this "stuff". The grandchildren say they WON'T deal with all this old stuff! As ebay is now our main selling "channel" the buyers on ebay will be the beneficiaries of our many years of collecting. We do have some fine antiques & collectibles located in the Magnolia Antiques Mall in Ellenton, Florida. If you are ever in the area, please stop by!  My ebay auction sales will continue to include the items you've come to expect with vintage furniture, Stangl Pottery, Fiesta, Harlequin, mid-century dishware, cookie jars, snowmen, anodized aluminum, enamelware, depression glass, kitchen glassware, Pyrex, Corning, Corelle and lots of great & unique stuff from the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's too. Grandpa is now an eBay Trading Assistant and a eBay-trained Education Specialist as well. Our first, lovely granddaughter, Brittany, who was featured as a baby in the newspaper article about the opening of our antiques shop, from the 1980's, has graduated from college and the five other grandchildren have followed are growing up SO quickly! The youngest is now 13! . We are extremely proud of our two sons and all of our wonderful grandchildren and they are growing SO quickly into fine young people! 

Fortunately, the grandchildren all live close by and enjoy visiting, in what they call the "Cracker Barrel" house, so-named because of the HUGE front porch filled with comfortable rocking chairs surrounded by mature oak trees, blooming plants and lush shrubs. What spare time is available is spent cultivating the acre our home sits on and our Florida-Friendly yard full of native, drought-tolerant landscape and enhancing our butterfly garden, which also attracts humming birds and other wildlife. As with any master gardeners, yard work is an enjoyable endeavor. Looking out the windows at the orchids that hang under the cedar trees or the vines on the trellis where the hummingbirds congregate is a source of daily wonder. Grandpa is a new ebay Education Specialist, trained by ebay. So, if you are in our area, and would like to learn ebaying, please sign up for one of his classes here....offering both classes and private consulting & training.PowerU Education Specialist page Otherwise, please stop by our porch and sit and visit for a spell.

Appreciate your visiting Grandpa's Trading Company's Squidoo lens!