This porcelain teacup and saucer set was used at my Great Grandmother Leona’s first of four weddings. The entire set was handed down from Leona to my grandfather and then to my parents. Now my parents keep the set safe in our buffet cupboards. There’s a design of a rose on them, so I think that maybe roses symbolized or meant something to the bride and groom. They were married in Portland, Oregon in 1932.
I hope that one day I will get a chance to use the set. It might even be the china for my wedding!
A small, dirty-blonde vase decorated with flowers and designs. The vase is from Helen who was the only Holocaust survivor in her family (she was very lucky). Helen was taken away to a Nazi concentration camp. Before she was taken to the camp, she lived in Poland. When she was twenty-one, the Nazis came and took her captive. The people she knew in Poland did not like the Jews, and Helen thought that the concentration camp actually treated her better than her neighbors. When she was freed, Helen did not want to talk about her experience with the Nazis, so no one in my family was able to get much information about her horrible experience. She died at about the age of ninety in Toronto, Canada.
The bowl belonged to my great grandmother, Pearl. She might have gotten the bowl in Seattle when she moved there in 1962. She liked collecting china and pretty dishes. She invited her husband’s family over for brunch every Sunday and used the bowl.
Pearl was born in Chicago in 1901. She married Henry, and had one child, Jay. Henry fought in World War I and was never well after that. He died young, just before Rachel’s Grandpa Jay and Grandma Lois were married in 1953. Pearl remarried in 1962 to Harry and moved to Seattle. Rachel’s father, Howard, flew by himself to Seattle in 1968 when he was eleven. His Grandma Pearl and Harry lived in an old “beach shack” on Alki Point, across from the coast guard light house.
The bowl is “hard porcelain” and is marked with a rectangle around “T&V,” which is the mark of the manufacturer Tresseman and Vogt. The bowl was made between 1892 and 1917.
A wooden bowl used for making charoset on Pesach. Good condition, pleasant design.
The bowl started with Fannie S., who made the bowl. She passed the bowl onto Estelle K., and then passed the bowl down to Diana, who passed it down to my mom and me (Melissa and Emma.) Fannie used the bowl on Pesach to make charoset. Charoset is a mixture of chopped nuts, wine, cinnamon, and apples. Sometimes, dates are used instead of apples, or just added in with everything else.
Passover is the Jewish holiday celebrating the exile of the Jews from Egypt with Moses leading the way to a land flowing with milk and honey; Israel. The bowl can tell many stories, and I hope to pass this bowl down to my children, and they will pass it on to theirs, and so on.
My Great Aunt Gisha, who died at the end of 2003, handed down a collection of tea cups to my mom. This cup, which was made in England, was bought in Canada by one of my great great aunts for my Aunt Gisha. It’s made out of porcelain and gold paint. We have these cups as heirlooms to remember Aunt Gisha and her aunts, who bought them for her.
This is made out of brass, and it looks as if it were made of gold. It is sort of heavy when you pick it up. It looks like a vase with two handles, one on each side with a wide top. It was used instead of a mixer on Purim. It belonged to my great, great, great grandmother.