Thursday, August 13, 2009

Lini Grol and Pyrex Double Feature

Some of you may recall how I purchased a set of beautiful scissor-cut silhouettes recently at a garage sale. When I got home, I Googled the artist's name - Lini Grol - and found my way to White Mountain Publications which distributes numerous books illustrated by Lini. I emailed White Mountain to see if I could get in touch with Lini. They forwarded my email to her, and the next thing I knew, there was an email reply from Lini in my In Box. To cut a long story short, I'll be calling her later today to see if I can visit her next week to look at her work and discuss her art. It's all very exciting stuff. I'm hoping I can write a feature story for The Star. The moral of the story... don't ever let anyone tell you that having an obsession with yard sales and thrift sales is a fruitless enterprise.
Here's a reminder of Lini's work. I'll be ordering several of the books she illustrated.
Yesterday, we celebrated my mother's birthday with a picnic at Port Dalhousie, which is part of the greater St. Catharines area. On the grounds, they have a carousel that is 140 years old. The best part is that it only costs five cents a ride.
The carousel has been lovingly maintained over the years. Paintings of animals circle the top.
Here's a look at the carousel after everyone got off.
The head of Duncan's horse. Feel free to insert your Godfather joke here.
Duncan with daddy-o in the background.
Vintage family serving dish on the left, shiny rummage sale serving dish on the right.

Before we left, I told my mom to be on the lookout for Pyrex at rummage sales. She matter-of-factly told me that she had an old serving dish in the cupboard that was gathering dust. My dad gave it to her for Christmas in 1958 - a year after they wed. It turns out that I bought the exact same one at a rummage sale last fall for $5.00. My mother's dish is a little more worn, but I like that there's a family story attached to it.
Mom's old dish is still in pretty good shape, a fact she attributes to lack of use.
I don't see how this dish could have been used at all. I wonder when they stopped making this pattern. Is it called starburst?
Clean handle and worn handle.

6 comments:

  1. Are you surprised that I wanted to add my 2 cents?

    As per the Pyrex files site, the name is constallation and it came out in 1962 (Houston we have a problem!) The Pyrex by Corning book doesn't have a pattern name, but there is a pic of a dealer guide and it was a 1959 promo piece. And I have the same, exact one, bought in december 08 about 45 min west of Ottawa in a big barn by the side of the road (antrim flea market) :)

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  2. Hey, Vonlipi,
    I love that you have a book on these matters. I'll double check with mom about the date, but for some reason she was pretty sure she was a new bride when she got it, but I don't doubt what you're saying. Memories become foggy after a few decades. I have trouble remembering what I did they day before! My folks spent many years moving back and forth between Canada and Australia. I'm assuming they were living here (Canada) when Pops gave it to her: "Merry Christmas dear. Now cook!"

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  3. I am really started to love pyrex...and that is dangerous because that means Im going to start looking for and buy it! Oh well! The carousel looked like tons of fun!

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  4. 5 cents a ride! I could stick my kid on that for the entire day :-) Love the pyrex dishes, I have a couple of the divided serving dishes but no heater to go under them, you're lucky to have a matching pair!

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About Me

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I'm a slightly off-beat Toronto-area teacher who enjoys writing and photography. I come from a family of collectors and now I'm dragging my own family around to yard sales. It's just a bit of fun. Enjoy the scenes.