Last Weekend in Coxsackie

There are two fairly sizable indoor Antique malls in Coxsackie, the kind with booths rented by different sellers, sort of like a high end Flea Market  but definitely not a high end antique shop, if you know what I mean.  Mostly they stock collectibles like silver, silver plate, estate jewelery, china, ceramics, books, depression glass, basketry, bric-a-brac and some furniture.  I love browsing in such places.  I tend to look for depression glass in ruby red, cobalt blue and celadon, for tea ware, and for sewing and stitching accessories.  It's a great way to find unusual and impressive birthday and Christmas gifts, as well.

I hit pay dirt:

Some ruby red pieces that I will be giving to my sister-in-law for her August birthday and for Christmas.

The first is a nine inch bowl with the thumb print pattern.  My sister-in-law has a set of four dessert glasses in this pattern and the bowl will make a nice companion piece.  I can just see her using it for her mother's classic Thanksgiving dessert: cranberry mousse.

And the second photo is of a very simple sugar and creamer set.  I think she may already have this.  I shall have to check discreetly on my next visit.  If she does, I'll keep it to go with my ruby red luncheon set.

And I found some celadon pieces for myself: two star burst pattern luncheon plates.  I enjoy mixing and matching  my depression glass tableware when I serve tea or lunch, especially when I have guests, but just for my husband and I as well.  I have some amber pieces, some emerald pieces and even some medium blue pieces that will pair well with this pale green.

This Art Deco tea room creamer is a real charmer.  Now all I have to do is find the sugar bowl to match.  But most of the joy is in the hunt.  I will be making a day trip to another big antique mall cum flea market in a few weeks.  This one in Ulster County rather than Greene County.  I will be on the look out for the companion piece.

The tea strainer is an addition to my collection of teaware.  And I found myself drawn to a number of interesting silver plate spoons, especially the sugar shells.  The large bowled shell spoon is a bit large for any of my silver sugar bowls but it is a nice size for the sugar bowl from my mother-in-law's wedding silver coffee and tea set which I have already passed on to my daughter-in-law.  I plan to send the spoon to her as one of her Christmas gifts.  The smaller bowled shell spoon is too long for my sugar bowls but too short for an iced tea spoon.  However, it is the perfect size for my Waterford honey pots which I can now use as jam jars when serving scones with tea!  And the little fruit spoon with the Bakelite handle just appealed to me for reasons I can't explain.  It has some very delicate engraving on the bowl of ribbons.

But the find that has me really curious is this little cup which I assume was a presentation gift for an infant.  I have started to polish it up but it is so black, I'll need to spend the better part of a Saturday morning to bring it up to a proper shine.  What polishing I have done though has revealed the initials A. F. in the medallion on one side of the cup and the date Dec. 1907 in the opposite medallion.  The mark on the bottom has a 4 within a diamond surrounded by the words Quadruple Plate which in turn are surrounded by the words Fairpoint Mfg. Co. New Bedford , Mass.  As you can see, I still have a great deal of polishing left to do.

I picked up the cup simply because I liked the floral motif that wraps around it and I thought it would be fun to use it when my granddaughter visits.  She is the girliest of girly girls and loves all things fancy and fussy.  Even at the tender age of 5 she has made it very clear that the way to her heart is with lace, crinoline, flounces, frills and pink, pink, pink!  So I think a little silver cup bedecked with flowers would please her no end.