I've been away for quite awhile, and have certainly missed it here. I am very happy to be back, and it's been fun browsing through the new pictures and topics here.
I have spent a lot of time over the last few years working at completing one of my collections - a set of dishes that I inherited from my Mother when she passed. It's a fairly rare Johnson Bros. pattern, and a few pieces had gotten broken over the years. I managed to find everything except for one small fruit nappy. I had gotten to the point where I resigned myself to the idea that I may not come across one. A few weeks ago, my sister and I were going grocery shopping, and she asked if I wanted to stop at one of our local thrift stores. We had not been there for quite some time, and although I didn't really feel like going, I decided to head over there. I've picked up pieces for my Corning Ware collection there, and I have also started a collection of old wine glasses, due entirely to finding some wonderful ones in that store. So I thought it would be nice to see if there were any new-to-me items to add to my collections.
I also look through the dishes there each time we visit. They tend to have Johnson Bros. dishes quite often, although they have never had anything in my pattern. However, I always feel it's worth checking, just in case. This time, I was very shocked, and absolutely thrilled, to find that they had quite a few dishes in my pattern there. I crossed my fingers, raced over to take a look, and was ecstatic to see that they had several of the little fruit nappies! I ended up buying all of the dishes they had. They were being sold at a very low price, and as I told my sister, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have extra pieces, in case any others were broken over the years.
So I am very happy to have finally completed the set! The set is not totally completed, as there are still some serving pieces that I would love to get my hands on. Mom did not have them originally, so I was not aware they existed until I started hunting for the missing pieces from her original set. So while my main goal is completed, I still have a few more things to hunt for. I did find and win a beautiful covered serving bowl awhile back. I hadn't seen that particular piece before or since, so I'm glad I came across it. Most of the pieces I obtained through eBay. I did come across an auction a few years back for a teapot, coffeepot, covered sugar bowl, creamer, and a couple of other small pieces, but I stupidly passed on that one, as I felt it was a bit expensive at the time. Having done more research over the years, I am still kicking myself for not having gone for it. The price was really quite reasonable, I discovered, and of course I have not come across any of the items since then. So I keep hoping that I will find them eventually. Mom's set came with a meat platter, but I also discovered that there is a larger meat platter available, so of course I'm on the hunt for that as well.
All in all though, I am happy to have completed the original setting, and I will be satisfied if that is all that I manage to collect. I just wanted to share the good news!
