Ironstone & Lu Ray at Goodwill?....

Yesterday I ventured out to the next town over in search of a couple of large garden pots to replace two that didn't fair so well over the winter.  But before I reached that destination I got a little side tracked and stopped at Goodwill.  I never know what treasure I'll find. 

 Lately I've been on the lookout for Ironstone and yesterday was my lucky day.  I found this perfectly pitted oval platter and grabbed it right up.  It's a generous 16 inches across and has some weight to it. By the time I got to checkout with my goodies, my arm was numb from carrying this.  Ha, ha

 A few dings and dark marks didn't scare me....

 I knew it was "As Is"

When I got home I looked up Meakin Bros & Co and according to what I found this platter was made in the 1865 to 1873 period.  So yes, it's going to have a few imperfections.  I'll just have to deal with it.

 The site I looked at also said that:

  The name appears as printed or impressed mark (sometimes as both) sometimes the town name "BURSLEM" is included. 

as you can see this platter has both.  Very cool!

 It cleaned up pretty well I think.

 The other thing I found was this cute little pale yellow creamer.  I seem to have a thing for creamers lately too.  Not just cow creamers, ha ha, I have several plain white creamers also.

 I turned it over and saw this mark.  I wasn't totally sure about this, I'm not a "collector", but I thought I would Google it real quick and see what popped up.  Do you ever Google stuff while your at Goodwill or someplace before you buy it?  Well, it popped up on Ebay for $8.00 and on Replacements site for $15.99.  It is (obviously) Lu Ray (although the R looks like a P) Taylor, Smith & T manufactured between 1938-1960.  It's a delicate 7 ounces and the softest of yellows. My little point and shoot doesn't show the color very well. :(

 But I picked it for a whopping $1.49

 I got this Ironstone bowl last week at a local Thrift type store.  It was down in the basement under something and very dirty.  I like the pattern/shape around the bowl.

 It too has it's share of pits, but it cleaned up really nice.

It's a generous 9 1/2 in diameter.  So it may have been used as 

say a vegetable bowl or something.  Who knows!

 This is the Royal Coat of Arms marking on the bottom.  All I can make out is the word WARRANTED.  If you know about Ironstone more then I obviously do, I would love to hear what you may know about this.  I have looked on google and there are tons of markings, but I haven't found this one yet.  Looks like it had been used alot though.  I wonder what story it has to tell!

Thank you for stopping by.  I'd love it if you would share what you know about my finds.  I am just starting this collection.  We have been slowly changing our everyday dishes to all white and have alot of newer things as well.  But, it's been fun adding in a bit of these older pieces.  I'll be back another time with a few more of my white collection.  Have a delightful day!