Inheriting my mother's china...deep sigh!
I convinced her to list some on kijiji, and a few went, but it doesn't appear too many are into china these days. I've taken her assorted collection of Somerset home (it's the least girlyfroufroufeminine pattern, and I am the least girlyfroufroufeminine woman on the planet). But, I'm feeling this huge guilt that I won't take the rest. Apparently I'm letting down generations of the women in my family. I should also say that I have 20 place settings of my everyday dishes already (black, twelve years old, and bought from Ikea AND dirt cheap)! I've broken exactly one bowl, and still love these dishes. These things are amazing, and I never want to part with them. (I bought so many initially so that over time I'd still have a reasonable number allowing for breakage...they just don't seem to break.) Also, we bought 24 place settings of Christmas dishes years ago (equally cheap). We host a huge family Christmas Eve once every six years. When my father's mother passed away she had lived a very spartan life, and her one treasure was a dessert set of Blossom Time, which I've had, displayed, and never used even once for 20+ years. How many dishes can one household contain without exploding??????? And, what on earth could I do with all these pieces? Perhaps invite everyone from oes.org for dinner at the same time....lol. If the planet begins to slip off its axis, it's just the extra weight of all the dishes at my house. No need to worry. Just needed to share... |
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oh my  I'm in the same part of the world, so I'll be tipping your way......  Good luck with this. Are there no other family members to take some? Sons have wives and daughters....maybe they are feeling slighted?? |
| Nope. I'm an only child. It all funnels to me. Deeper sigh. |
| Oh my...you poor thing! Id be horrified as well! My dish inheritance wasn't as huge as yours, but it was fairly god-awful. My grandmother collected "Franciscan" Apple patterned china. Boxes, upon boxes of the stuff! I stored away most of it (I very rarely entertain, and besides which I collect hand thrown pottery and mostly prefer those for daily use), but kept a few pieces out to just remind me of Grandma, who I adored. Years later, I was delighted when one of my nieces commented that she LOVED my apple dishes, and that they reminded her of the years she spent living with my husband and I. Woo Hoo! Guess what she got for Christmas that year?!  |
Oh dear, how funny.  |
| Well, I have my china, Christmas dishes, everyday pottery that went with our house in another state (but I love it) and plain white corelle. In the attic is a set of china from my grandmother. My mom has the same pattern and it will all go to my daughter. What about seling it to replacements.com? It's a wonderful place to be able to find broken pieces, so you would be making others happy. And they let their employees bring their dogs to work - has to be a good place, right? |
| As was mentioned on another post of mine regarding a dumped cat. One man's trash is another man's treasure.  Good luck, it sounds like storage is your best option at this point. |
I feel for you. I have a Ukrainian mother, so she started collecting dishes (and towels, and sheets, and blankets, and cutlery, and cross-stitch patterns, and buttons, and scraps of fabric for that quilt I will never ever make, and about 5 million cook books) before she came out of the womb. David and I don't have kids, so I have been able to tell my mother to give things to my 3 sisters and 2 brothers who have kids, so that they can stay in the family. My siblings hate me now!  Since you are an only child, is there a way that you can take them, display one or two and then store the rest? I have rubbermade bins in the basement full of someone else's treasures. |
| Family guilt is a horrible thing, until you realize that nobody will die if you don't take the china. Or nobody will die if you take the china, keep it in your garage for a few months, then sell it or give it away or throw it away. I'm sure there are collectors of these patterns, but it takes time and effort to find them. And you are not a bad person to tell your mother "I don't want 9,000 pieces of china." |
| I often laugh at the amount of china I have all from inheritance as well. Like you, I have only ever purchased a Christmas set. I have: My great-aunt's wedding china. My grandmother's wedding china. My mother's (adopted) wedding china. My birth mother's wedding china. MY wedding and Christmas china. Not to mention crystal...no, let us NOT mention crystal. I display my mom's in my china cabinet and mine is in a glass cabinet in my kitchen, and I have a tea-set accompaniment of my great-aunt's on my dining room buffet. The rest is stored in cabinets and boxes and I never touch it other than the Christmas set which gets unpacked and repacked over the holidays. I keep it because I have three children and I WILL parse it out to them when they have their own homes.  Someone has to carry on the tradition of family-guilt, right?  Have you checked ebay to see what the pieces go for there? I think that would be a much better avenue than kijiji. |
| Noritake Somerset? I have my aunt's! I love it but don't use it. I should dig it out of the boxes and see what I need. I also have her French stuff, name escapes me. She used both as her everyday stuff so dishwasher did a number on the gold edges. She never figured anyone would want them. I don't use them, like you I felt guilty about not taking them as I am the only girl. Petit Point and Old Rose have never done a thing for me....... I finally threw away my original everyday set as it was not microwave safe. The current set is 35 year old Noritake. |
| My mom had 3 sets of dishes - I chose the Redwing Fiesta ware Left the 2 china's for my sisters. And I have no china, so I won't be burdening my kids with any. I have everyday corelle (ivy pattern) and got rid of the stoneware years ago at a garage sale. I do have the luncheon sets (glass trays w/ little cups), but I like them! |
| The Somerset is not by Noritake. It's Somerset by Foley. I've googled it, and there seems to be a place in the UK that sells pieces, but I'm not really interested in trying to get all the pieces to an even number. (I think it would cost a fortune.) I stayed up late last night, rearranging my china cabinet. It's quite the mishmash now. But I got all my Mom's Somerset pattern in two full shelves. I uploaded a picture of the pattern, and I'll post it when it's approved. I completely understand that she doesn't want her things to be sold or given away to others, but my house is about to collapse under the weight of this stuff. She also wants me to take her dining room set (five chairs, table, and cabinet). It's all lovely, and was her mother's. The problem is that I've already got my own table, cabinet, and eight chairs. She says I could have both in the room. It is a big room (used to be the living room) and I probably could squeeze both sets in, but why would I do that? I know this is really hard on her, and want to help, but I have to be reasonable about it. My hubby's no help. He totally caves and agrees to take it all. |
| You probably don't want to hear this.. I have yet to fully forgive my mother for getting rid of my grandma's harvest milk glass dishes. They were in storage for many years, and when I got my first home, I asked mom for them. She had sold them on a sale some time or another. She didn't like them and got tired of storing them. I have spent the past several years going to garage sales, ebay, etc. slowly trying to piece back together the set dishes I always had my heart set on. So even if you have extended family, you might want to check with them if they want anything. |
So this is the Somerset pattern by Foley... I know it's floral, but it's not that flowery in a frou frou sort of way...my hubby (who is always so supportive) says I like it (well, dislike it less) because it's the closest thing to dandelions you'll find on "fine china." And, alas, I'm an only child who married an only child, and my parents have two sibs between them, and only one had children (and those children would never touch anything that was gasp  old, and I only see them once every twenty five years, so I'm not due for another fifteen or so...whew), so really and truly, there's only me.One day I'll tell you all about the bedspread debacle. I'll save it though. I don't want to sound like all I do is complain. |
| Use'em as your every day dishes. |
With as many settings as you have (not to mention the extra table/chairs ) maybe you should consider starting a catering business Or perhaps just rent out the china for weddings!  |
| FWIW - when you give someone something you cannot put conditions on it. You have every right to say no, and not feel bad about it. I inherited many things when my mother died. Byers' Carolers was one collection I got that I really HATE. I think they are horribly ugly, which is why she left them to me. She figured I'd have the least difficulty dividing them between my siblings I guess. However I have had no takers. So now I'm stuck with these things. I'd love to sell them but I have no idea how or where to start. And just for the record - I have no guilt over this. Yea me! I say keep it for a while and then part ways with it if you really don't want it all. If it is yours, you get to decide what to do with it. If it was really that important to your mother she would have kept it - space or not! Shellie |
| Dandelions on dishes, LOL. No, I'll stay with the Noritake pattern. Well, you can always get rid of them after she passes on. I never thought I'd want my mother's dining set until it went away. I was appalled it was gone and quickly rescued it. I use the buffet in the dining room w/ a small table we purchased after we got married. The matchin 48"48" table is my kitchen table. I've refinised the table (before I knew you weren't suppose to do that) and only 2 chairs.......out of 12 (and about that many extra leaves) I got tired of refinishing real quick. The rest are in the garage, under cover probably brittle now in this dry climate. I love the big table, I love the buffet, but the chairs do nothing for me. In fact we've switched them out to high back office chairs as our kitchen chairs! Very comfortable and roll easy around the dogs. May not make fashion page, but we are happy. |
| My Mom, bless her soul, was not a saver. Won't mention that we never had enough money to buy stuff to save. My in-law's are another story. When my FIL sold us his house, he wondered what to do with all the "stuff".....read packrat...that he had. Me, with my kind soul told him to take what he wanted and we would have a rummage sale for the rest.My dh is also a packrat and had a hard time with some of the stuff in the rummage. I packed up a "frufru" dinner set(for 12) that I had NO INTENTION of keeping and put one piece out so it could be seen at the rummage. Its in the SAME box I packed it in in the back bedroom seven years later because dh could not bear to let it go. In the front closet, stacked on a shelf are pictures...of people that his parents knew. I asked dh if he knew them and he did not but "they were important to his parents". The world will start to tip back this way....there are things in this house that are older then old and dh will not part with. |
Shellie wrote: If it is yours, you get to decide what to do with it. If it was really that important to your mother she would have kept it - space or not! I totally agree. If she wants it so bad let her keep it. Simon's Mom wrote: My dh is also a packrat ......... stacked on a shelf are pictures...of people that his parents knew. I asked dh if he knew them and he did not but "they were important to his parents". Pam that is sooo funny. If only you didn't have to put up with Randy's inability to let go of things that were important to other people and the resulting clutter. |
SheepieMommy wrote: Shellie wrote: If it is yours, you get to decide what to do with it. If it was really that important to your mother she would have kept it - space or not! I totally agree. If she wants it so bad let her keep it. Simon's Mom wrote: My dh is also a packrat ......... stacked on a shelf are pictures...of people that his parents knew. I asked dh if he knew them and he did not but "they were important to his parents". Pam that is sooo funny. If only you didn't have to put up with Randy's inability to let go of things that were important to other people and the resulting clutter. and for some reason that brings to mind the old "you can't take it with you"..... and if they can't, you shouldn't need to be saving it either! |
| I'm sure you could leave them out in not-the-safest-place... and eventually Rudy will take care of them. Problem solved. |
| One of the Women's Clubs in Dallas owns an old late 1800th century mansion. They are restoring it, room by room. They are always looking for china, crystal and such. Is there aything nearby you could check out? Your mother's name could be liste as a donor... |
| I'm the oldest mother thought her China would be safe with me I have them on a bookcase in my front room don't have money for china cabinet but I plan to store in boxes I need the bookcase for my hundreds of family photos think I'll make a photo album of her China I have the pattern name somewhere |
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