Cereal Bowls-- an Unexpected Blessing

Today, I stopped by TJ Maxx in search of a new journal. As I neared the first of the clearance displays on the back aisle (my favorite aisle in the store...) I met with the most unexpected and wonderful surprise!

 

Not only was there an abundance of Blue Italian, there was also a rack full of the Ascot cereal bowls I had been searching for!

When I first began collecting Spode, I was disappointed that there were no bowls to go with the plates I so loved. I must admit that it was not till last winter that I actually looked online to see if there were any Spode bowls in existence. That was when I first typed in "Blue Spode" to the Amazon.com search bar and was delighted to find that there was ever so much more Spode than I had realized.

I had bought a set of wide-rimmed soup bowls, but I soon decided that they would not work as well for cereal. Some time mid-January, I found a lovely "Camilla" patterned Ascot- style cereal bowl. It was deeply discounted because it had been cracked and repaired. With the discount, I was happy to purchase it regardless of condition, because I had been wondering how much cereal one of these bowls would hold, since they looked a bit small in the pictures.

When I checked, I found that the cereal bowl held at least one serving of cereal (according to the serving size on the box), plus just the right amount of milk. I wanted to order more cereal bowls, but they were sold out on Amazon (as they had been for months), and a visit to the Spode website yielded the same results.

A couple months later, I found a set of two similar bowls in the "Blue Italian" pattern on eBay, but I had to pay shipping and, although I got a good deal, they were still pretty expensive. When I found the cache of Spode at the store tonight, my first thought was "I don't have to pay shipping!" Then I turned one over and found that they were $8 each, which is much less than they would be individually on Amazon! $16 each, and still a few dollars less than they would be if bought as a set of four.

Now, you might be wondering about the practicality of having a separate bowls just for cereal, but they also work well for ice cream (if you like a little more than the little dessert bowls hold), and a single-serve yogurt fits nicely in the small bowls. There's just something satisfying about having a dish that holds one serving of food, instead of feeling like your one serving is tiny because it's sitting in a too-large dish. --Think of it as beautiful portion control!

There were also several spice jars on clearance, including the Basil jar which I had been wanting, for only $6, as well as lots of dinner and salad plates. I exercised my self-control, however, and only purchased this much:

The Lucano Pattern

       One of my most treasured finds from that very first trip down the Spode aisle at Tuesday Morning is some lovely plates of the Lucano pattern. Honestly, as I dug through the stacks of Blue Room Collection plates, I saw one with this pattern and immediately put several in my tiny stack of plates. I was so excited to show my family the plates I had found that had “a castle” on them! Since then I have also found a small open vegetable dish and a mug (which came in a matching tin on clearance from Spode.com!)

      

      The pattern itself is based on an aquatint engraving which was originally published in 1798, which features in the foreground the Bridge of Lucano, (Ponte Lucano) a first-century Roman bridge which is a historic site still recognizable today!

Original Aquatint by James Merigo from artisopusgallery.com 

          In his book, Antique Blue and White Spode, Sydney B. Williams gives a good summary of the history and significance of this beautiful place:

          “This bridge, sixteen miles distant from Rome, derives its name from a victory obtained by the Romans over the Lucanians. It was rebuilt by Tiberias Plautius, who possessed a villa adjoining to it. His magnificent family tomb stood in the same neighborhood. This ancient tomb, round in form, and much resembling that of Caecilia Metella, was repaired by the Goths and converted by them into a fortress.

           The bridge has become well known from engravings and also from the beautiful picture by G. Poussin in the Doria Palace. [see here.] It has been crossed by many warriors of the past, heavily-armed against all foes except deadly malaria, which has played a commanding role in the politics of the Eternal City of Rome." (p.116)

For more on the history of Lucano, you can visit its World Monument Foundation page by clicking here.