..........a blog about food, travel, gardening, and living the good life in Arizona.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I love blue and white...


...in flow blue china and blue willow plates and toille and decorative tiles and Monet dinnerware (they all remind me of France). So when I saw these blue and white carpet balls at the auction, I knew they had to be mine. Lucky for me no one else was loving blue and white that day so I bought the entire dozen for $2.00. This winter I'll display them in a white lotus-leaf bowl or maybe this orange basket. In the Spring, I'll add some fresh lemons... love blue, white and yellow together, a sweet mix.

As to what they really are... I had no idea beyond a faded memory of seeing them in decorating magazines nestled in baskets and bowls, just for nice. It was only after researching them that I learned they actually had a purpose way back when. In the Victorian parlor, refined ladies and gentlemen would arrange the balls like pins across the carpet for indoor bowling.... thus, carpet balls came to be. Actually sounds more like indoor bocce ball, but hey, I don't argue with experts. Mine are ceramic reproductions, of course... the original ones were made of glazed hard-fired clay decorated in a variety of colors, often in plaids and stripes (not the chintz patterns like mine). So just in case you ever run across one or two at a thrift shop or auction, snap them up, they're worth around $100.00 a piece in good condition. And if you find a blue and white one, let me know.

3 comments:

  1. you are a wealth of knowledge! that is fun to know...because, well, i didn't know it before.

    and this: "just for nice."...mmmmmhummm, (nodding head) that's nice.

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  2. Hi! I found you through Leah via facebook. Welcome to the blogging world. Am jealous of your blingy Christmas gift!

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  3. Hmmm, hope the two I bought for fifty cents are just reproductions, since they've been out in my garden for a couple of years!

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