My Grandma Mayer had a piece or two of Royal Albert’s Old Country Roses. I always thought it was a lovely pattern, and longed to add some pieces to my collection.
In 2014, I attended the annual Montana History Conference in Helena. I had a Macy’s gift card that I thought I would spend, so I drove to Macy’s and looked at jewelry, pocketbooks, and clothes. None struck my fancy. Then I spied the homewares section and knew I’d find something there! I can always find something in any home goods section.
I looked at appliances and some dishes and came across the clearance table. On the floor was a boxed 12 piece set of Old Country Roses-4 each of dinner plates, tea cups and saucers. As I was inspecting the set, dreaming of tea parties and Sunday dinners served on such fine china, the homewares sales lady approached me and asked if I needed any help? I said I was kind of looking at this set, but in my mind I’m thinking that I could hardly afford it even at the clearance price. She then piped up that there was an extra discount on all clearance items that weekend, plus I could save even more if I got a Macy’s card. So, after signing up for another card I probably wouldn’t use much and finding out that my gift card was $25 and not the $10 I originally thought it was, I made out like a masked bandit with a set of china I’d always wanted.
Later, I wished I had purchased the other set that was there, but no worries! Black Friday deals on Macy’s website that Thanksgiving weekend completed a set of 8, plus a tea set (tea pot, sugar and milk jug) PLUS a free oval vegetable bowl for orders over a certain amount. I cheated and split my order into two orders so I got two of the bowls.
I used this set for Easter dinner 2015 and paired it with some amber Madrid bread and butter plates (Missouri River Chronicles Antiques in Helena, now out of business). I wanted to highlight the pink, so I used pink chargers found at Michael’s crafts store. Reed and Barton’s Elegant Bead flatware was used, and yes, there are two knives-one butter knife and one meat knife (QVC). Stemware was Longchamp from Cris d’Arques (thrift store). White “laurel” napkins found at K-mart were used at each place setting. The simple centerpiece consisted of pink roses in a crystal ice bucket (thrift store) on a mirrored centerpiece (Miles Kimball) flanked by silver plated Gorham candlestick holders with roses on them, a perfect compliment to the china (thrift store).
