#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 8 Heirloom: Grandma’s Heirloom China

My mother had several sets of fine china which she kept in a glass-fronted cabinet.  On special occasions or big holidays (Christmas, Easter) when lots of family came to the house, we would use my mother's wedding china, the beautiful Minton "Ancestral" pattern. 

Well, the adults would use it.  The children, of course, used the everyday dishes or paper plates depending on the size of the crowd and the ages of the children.  Being able to use the "good" china was a mark of singular privilege and a rite of passage into adulthood. 

As the years went by, Mom no longer hosted big family events at her home.  We shifted over to my brother's home which was large enough and had enough younger folks around to accommodate the big family crowd. So Mom's china sat unused in her cabinet. We persuaded her to pass along the "Ancestral" china to the next generation, and held a grand dinner to celebrate the transition and remember all the wonderful occasions when it had played a part. We were very fortunate that my brother and sister-in-law could accommodate the gift and keep it in the family for future celebrations. You can see some of the china in use in the picture from that dinner, below.

Dama

However, there was another set of china that rarely got used. It belonged to my great-grandmother, Theresa Evalina Wallis Sasscer, or Dama Sasscer, as we knew her.  (I have written about her elsewhere.) My mother was her oldest grandchild, and she inherited a tea service from Dama, cake plates, cups and saucers, a dozen or so of each, plus a lovely set of demitasse cups, which always fascinated me as a child with their tiny beauty.  Periodically, Mom would pull these out of the china cabinet to wash them, but they hardly ever got used. 

As a child, I paid little attention to such domestic concerns.  As an adult, however, I loved the fact that these cups had been in the family for such a long time, a real family heirloom. 

When my mom died, she still had that set of her grandmother's china.  We wanted it to stay in the family, but none of us really had space to keep it or use it.  So, we decided we would give it to all the women and girls, her daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters. (I know, very sexist, right? But Mom had nearly 70 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and there were only so many pieces to go around. We made sure the boys got a suitable remembrance too.) We decided to hold a tea party where we could use the china and gift each of the young girls with a cup and saucer and/or a cake plate or one of Dama's demitasse cups as a special remembrance of their grandmothers, who had lovingly preserved this tea service for so many years.

Dama's china was Minton's "Princess" pattern created in England in 1924 according to the markings on the back. Minton is still considered a premier china house to this day. It has a delicate, hand-painted floral design and an unusual triangular handle on the cups. I think that the red marking indicates the painter. I do not know how Dama acquired this tea service.  By the time I thought to ask that question, no one was left alive who might know the answer. But she surely must have treasured it; otherwise, it would never have survived in her farmhouse for so many years.  

I hope the young women who inherited these pieces treasure them too.