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I love looking at all the beautiful dish patterns available, and I have always liked Johnson Brothers dishes. Most of the patterns mentioned here are from that company.
We inherited a set of Friendly Village from my dad when we moved into this house. They probably look busy to someone not used to them.
The first dishes I bought for myself back in 1970 or so was a Johnson Brothers pattern called Patio, white with blue speckles, it reminded me of old-fashioned graniteware. I only had a the four place setting starter set of those, and filled in with blue/white serving pieces from Pier One.
Many years later, after I was married, I bought Petite Fleur Blue, and liked it a lot. It was designed by Laura Ashley.
I had it over in the Brown Palace for the renters to use, but was worried they would break some of the pieces so I put it in the attic and now they have Corelle that I got at an auction.
Out in Las Vegas my dishes are Springfield pattern with blue flowers. For some reason they have two completely different patterns with that name. One is green and has plants on it, and the one I have is white with blue flowers.
There is a design molded into the white part and the flowers are additional decoration, like back in the 1800s. I think it is sweet and old-fashioned looking. I got a large set of these dishes on ebay, and have 12 place settings.
Sometimes I think about switching out the Friendly Village for one of the blue patterns to use here at the house, but I'm sentimental about it, so I will keep using it. My parents didn't buy it in the first place, it came from my Aunt Eleanor, my father's oldest sister, who never got married. I'm not sure why she picked that pattern since her taste ran to the very gaudy.
And then my folks added to it somewhat. When my dad married Phyllis, that pattern had found a new popularity and new pieces became available, so they bought water glasses, a cookie jar, casserole dishes, and other pieces that are in the pattern, but I don't think they pick up the spirit of the original design, and I have them stored away. People can sometimes get carried away with all this matchy-matchy.
Today while I was browsing around for pictures of my dishes, I came across this Haviland pattern called Dammouse (seriously), and I really like it. At first I thought it was over-the-top busy, but then I decided it's got a lot of character. I don't like it enough to buy it, and it's too fancy for every day. It's probably old and not readily available. I found it on Replacements.com, and the cup and saucer is $120. They don't even have dinner plates available. I'll save the pictures in my computer file called "My Catalog of Things" so I can enjoy looking at it in the future.
This is the gravy boat - very cute!
For awhile I was keeping my roll of trash bags in it, but I was the only one who could remember they were there.