A Happy New Year Wish From South Coast Antiques

A Happy New Year wish from 

South Coast Antiques, 

at Centuries Antique Mall

 in D'Iberville, Mississippi

.

South Coast Antiques Wishes All a Very Merry Christmas

Wishing all the friends of South Coast Antiques a very merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season to all!

 

The Myth of Antique Celery Vases and a Happy Thanksgiving to All

Wishing Everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday!

The Myth of Antique Celery Vases

As I was preparing this Thanksgiving e-card I went through a number of pre 1910 postcards looking for ones that caught my eye. I took note of something that made me pause for a moment and take a second look at some of them. I found that in the ones that showed a nicely set table there was something present that was a bit of a surprise to me. I have read on a couple of different forums over the last few years and had a number of discussions in the shop with people that did not believe that people actually used celery vases.  Yes, celery vases! It seems that some people seem to think that they were just called a celery vase and that it was just a type of flower vase that one got that matched their glassware pattern. Some people can not give credence to the fact that celery could have been that important!

 

Celery is rather difficult to grow. As referenced in the PDF e-booklet from Cornell University,
"GROWING CELERY. Perhaps the most difficult vegetable to grow in many areas.

"

 Because of advances in hybridization in this last century, celery plants are way more hardy and have been breed to be easier to grow now. Even so it is still considered a difficult plant to grow conveniently at home.

Because of the rather difficult nature of growing celery and it not being available in many areas, it became a great luxury for the wealthy and every one wanted to show off that they to could afford this delicious and great looking plant. What a better way to serve it than in a vase of water(to keep it fresh and crisp)and let your guests see it on your table in all of it's expensive glory! Also in a sparkling glass container that's in the same pattern as the rest of your glassware.

Almost every late 19th century and early 20th century American glass pattern included a celery vase in their offerings. The popularity of the celery vase is shown by the many patterns they occur. Being that most of them are not very rare today, seems to lead many into thinking that people did not use them.  The truth of the matter is, they were cherished and taken very good care of because they were considered a necessity to any meal where one wanted to let their company know how much they cared. Many of them are so common that they really have little value, given their age, especially some of the clear glass ones.

I was so surprised to find among my collection of pre-1910 postal cards that some of them actually showed celery vases in use! The one I chose of Uncle Sam and his Thanksgiving Meal shows that even Uncle Sam himself considered the celery vase a table necessity!  These cards were printed in the hundred of thousands and clearly show that the celery vase was a common feature of the dinning table for millions of average American households.  The fact that celery vases are still commonly found after all this time and that they show up in so many of these antique post cards seems to indicate that celery vases were ubiquitously used by the masses.

One of my favorite websites for Celery Vases is The Celery Vase Store at patternglass.com

The Move is Complete. For South Coast Antiques and the Ceramic Art Pottery of Michael W. Moses.

I am pleased to announce that South Coast Antiques' move is absolutely complete.  We moved the majority of the shop over to Centuries Antique Mall in D'Iberville a while back and now my pottery has a home as well.  It will be hosted at Antiques Plus at 10340 D'Iberville Blvd Ste D,D'Iberville MS..  Joan Skinner has been a collector of my pottery for a number of years now and she offered to host my pottery at her shop, making her the sole source for my pottery here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

A number of my piece have been displayed in a high-profile mirrored case right inside the main entrance.  The hours for Antiques Plus are 10 to 5 Monday through Saturday, which means all of you out-of-towners who need something to do on a Monday, can go over to her shop and look at my pottery, and of course her antiques.  Joan is enthusiastic about being my sole source here on the Gulf Coast and you can ask her any time to open the case to have a better look, or to touch my ceramic art pottery.  Antiques Plus telephone number: (228) 396-2005.

South Coast Antiques has Chicken Fried Steak on OLD STRASBOURG Pattern Plates.

Chicken Fried Steak on OLD STRASBOURG plate

One of the most common things that we hear at South Coast Antiques is people saying that they would love to have antique china, but that they just would not want to waste the money on something that they can not use.  I always ask them what would prevent them from using antique china? I usually get things like it's just to expensive, it's to fragile ,or I might Break a piece. Well, in many cases antique china can be way less expensive than new china. Antique china is no more or no less fragile than modern china, and lastly both old and new break the same.

OLD STRASBOURG pattern by K&G, Lunéville

 

Keller & Guérin Lunéville, France

I have a set of OLD STRASBOURG pattern by K&G (Keller & Guérin)Lunéville, France. My set dates from 1888. It has 88 on the back stamp and I am safe in my belief that this is the date. The back mark is from that time period.

I use my set almost every day. Using nice hand painted china like this makes a good meal just a little bit better. This evening I used them to serve homemade chicken fried steak with mushroom sauce, sesame oil fried green beans, and Greek style roasted baby Yukon gold potatoes.

I always wash them by hand and never use anything abrasive on them as the colors are hand applied over glazed enamel. I treat them the same way that I would treat anything good, but I use and enjoy them as often as I can. There is really not much point in having things like this and just putting them back for others to have later. My plates have been around for about 124 years and I am sure barring a major calamity they will possibly be around for a lot longer.

The good thing about breaking a piece today is that one can usually find a replacement online at a moderately reasonable price if one shops around.

Wallace Silverplate flatware

I use a circa 1930 Wallace Silver plate set for my everyday flatware. now with flatware the date on the back is usually the date the company was founded(as in this case 1835), not when it was manufactured. Vintage and even antique silver plate flatware sets can be found for way less than many of the new stainless steel sets.

Wallace Silverplate flatware back mark

Collecting Naval Hat Tallies

An interesting bit of nautical collecting is something called a navy hat tally.  They were ribbons with ship’s names and were worn on both the cloth wheel cap and the tarred straw hats starting around the time of the Civil War, in the U.S. navy.  Some countries also used them on tropical pith helmets.  Wealthy owners of private yachts also had their sailors wear hat tallies with the name of the yacht on the ribbon.  Prestigious steamship lines had their sailors wear hat tallies, often with the steamship line flag embroidered on the ribbon as well.

Circa. 1900 British Bosun's Mate with Hat Tally.

The U.S. Navy 1897 regulation prescribed tallies to be made from navy colored silk ribbon and were one and a half inch wide with the letters of the name of the ship in half inch block letters woven from fine gilt thread or stenciled with gold paint.  The lengths of unissued or unused hat tallies varied from 33 inches to 37 inches.  As a side note, the large diameter cracker jack hat had that had been standard from just after the Civil War was reduced in size by regulation after WWI.

Hat tallies were issued as extremely long ribbons, sometimes as long as 38 inches.  When the hat tally was tied to the hat, a bow was made and the extra long tails were often cut short and neat.  Unissued hat tallies will generally be quite long and tied, issued hat tallies when dismounted from the hat will be considerably shorter.  Retired navy men saved their hat tallies and sometimes cut them down to the legend only for display so expect to see a variety of lengths.

Most major navies had hat tallies and it’s not uncommon to find South American and Italian hat tallies on the market because they are still being used today or were made obsolete only recently.  Hat tallies were not just named ships, but naval duty stations and reserve status might be indicated on a hat tally.

American hat tallies with ship names ended in August 1941, just before America’s entrance into WWII, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor due to security reasons.  Wartime and later hat tallies just said U.S. Navy.  The cracker jack hat went away by the mid 1960s, being a piece of basic issue to new recruits, but seldom worn.

Hat Tally USS Lancaster  1858-1915

Hat Tally USS Machias 1891 to 1919

Be careful of buying hat tallies over the internet.  There are increasing numbers of reproductions being sold as original.  The most common are U.S. Navy hat tallies with the name of famous ships from the civil war to WWII as well as German WWII hat tallies of battleships.

The most common original hat tally is the standard “U.S. Navy” which is worth from $5 to $10 depending on condition.  The post-WWI small navy hat with a common “U.S. Navy” legend sells from $25 to $50, although there are considerable variables in condition.  A named hat from a good ship will bring more and a hat with a pre-war named ship hat tally can be expensive, just be careful of reproductions.

Hat Tally USS Mohican 1883-1921

Hat Tally USS Topeka 1898-1929

This is an rare example of a cross over hat tally. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (Kaiser Wilhelm der Große) started out as a civilian luxury liner and was converted into a light cruiser during WWI and was sunk in the battle of Rio de Oro in 1914.

Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse  Luxary Liner-Commerce raider

Norddeutsche Lloyd (NDL) (North German Lloyd) was a Germanshipping company 

Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse   1897-1914 

Norddeutsche Lloyd (NDL) (North German Lloyd) Logo

Please note that all actual hat tallies featured in the above images are original and from our collection and are available for purchase. Prices upon request.

For further information go to the following web sites:

Early Hat Tallies
Canadian Hat Tallies  
Sailor Caps
Navy Uniform History
Soar Valley Weaving, Home of Cap Tallies

Two Sailors from the USS St. Louis Note Hat Tally on Right.

Last Day for South Coast Antiques & Gallery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi!

Today was a sad and wonderful day for me.  At 4:30PM we locked the door at South Coast Antiques & Gallery on Government Street in down town Ocean Springs, Mississippi and it was over.  After a little more than five years we closed our door to the public forever at this location.


It was and is so sad for me.  No matter how much I complained and jumped up and down an yelled at tractor trailers parking in front of my shop to make deliveries to the bars and restaurants, when I was the only shop open on Mondays on that part of Government, I will still miss it so very, very much.


It is wonderful in that this will be leading to a new and different future that I surly believe will be every bit as exciting as the last five years.  We will be reopening South Coast Antiques on approximately 2 April at Centuries Antique Mall over in the neighboring town of D'Iberville.  It is located at 4030 Suzanne Dr, DIberville, MS 39540