Boxes of joy

My mom has discovered the fun of ebay :-) And because of this, I unknowingly (until yesterday) have reaped some of the benefits! 

Meet my china...it's called Autumn, by Lenox. 

I loved this pattern even as a young girl, before there was a groom, before there was even a high school graduation or college.   So when I became engaged, picking out china for me was a no brainer.  Which is funny because I'm not typically a blue person, but I love the small fruit and flowers on the plates.  It just all works very well and elegantly together in my opinion.

As with most china, it spends much of it's time in a pretty cabinet (antique, of course!). But with encouragement from my friend Jan, I have been seriously pondering actually taking it OUT of the cabinet for some daily use. Well, not the Holiday pattern, but I do use that one during Christmas. 

I have also been encouraged to use it more now that I have discovered this pattern is one of the earliest created by Lenox back in 1919.  It was also used by Richard Nixon in the White House.  Ok that one might not make you all run out and buy it but still an interesting fact.


So as you might have guessed...the benefits I reaped yesterday from mom's ebaying?  Two boxes of fragile china...A place setting of my china AND a place setting of the Holiday china!  

Want to know something even cooler?  This Autumn place setting (except for the tea cup) is from the pre-gold stamp era in Lenox china, it has the black backstamp.  Yep, that means it was made between 1918 and 1960.  This makes sense because the yellow and the blue on these plates is more vibrant than my others.  Because it doesn't say "Made in USA" which wasn't stamped on their china until 1930 (although Lenox has always been made in the USA), it could possibly be these plates are at least 85 years old!  For an antique, sentimental (and very spoiled apparently) girl like me, that's an unexpected joy :-)

Thank you mom :-)