Hello ~

Welcome back! How was your summer? While I am sad summer break is over, I am looking forward to seeing everyone again. Fall is the season to catch up, reconnect, and make new friends. If you are in the DC area, please visit us at the shop!

Over the summer, I attended a few antiques shows – always fun and interesting! I already have quite a number of antique pottery pieces, and was lucky to find new additions to my collection of leaf dishes. The leaf form dish is very popular, and can be found in all categories of ceramics – from creamware to ironstone to majolica. They were originally made for serving hors d’oeuvres, olives, relishes, sauces, sweet meat, and bon-bons. However, I enjoy finding new ways to use these naturalistic pieces. Let me show you my collection.

While visiting a friend in the Shenandoah Valley, I found this smear-glaze leaf dish at a bric-a-brac shop nearby. It’s charming as a soap dish in my bathroom. The bud vase was a gift from a client – thank you, Anne!
Notice the little feet. BTW, I love the soaps from Santa Maria Novella. This one is their Sapone Alla Menta.
Below is another smear-glaze leaf dish from my collection. I wrote about smear-glaze pottery here.
On my Swedish Gustavian bedside table is a pair of green Majolica dishes – perfect for pocket change, etc. I found the oil portrait at an antiques shop in Switzerland 15 years ago. The oval tub is a creamware footbath from Wedgwood. The headboard is upholstered in Peter Fasano’s Laundered Linen, and the 16″ x 36″ pillow is covered in Raoul Textile’s Victoria. I like to jazz up the headboard from time to time, and here it is draped with a cashmere throw.

Do you remember these creamware leaf plates I featured last year? They are actually from a set of 10. Yes! 10 fabulous leaf dishes in perfect condition 🙂

The little ones make great dipping dishes. That’s olive oil with a sprig of rosemary – so good!

All together now! Just for fun, I gathered everyone in the dining room. The “real” foliage is scented geraniums.

Over Labor Day weekend I picked up this little Majolica leaf dish. The colors are so lively and beautiful against the Robin’s Egg Blue of the Swedish secretary at our shop. Can you picture the dish holding paper clips, thumb tacks, etc?

Also at our shop is this Ca. 1860s white ironstone relish dish in the form of an acanthus leaf. The lipped-top tea table and bergere are both Swedish.

And that’s my foliage display. I love this time of year, and can’t wait for the real show of fall foliage.
Bye for now!
Loi