Silver Things, Limit $5

Because the best things in life are silver-plated, we bring you this week’s challenge. May it bring a sparkle to your day–if not your kitchens cupboards…

Item 1: Silver-plated serving tools, cream and sugar (made in Italy)

• Denise’s Price: $5
• Retail Price: $55
• Source: Como Lake United Church

 

 

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Denise’s Story:

In my imaginary life, the one where Jeffery Dean Morgan is my husband and we live in Vermont, these silver serving utensils would be used when he served me breakfast in bed which would be every day of course. Instead, I came home to discover my daughter had used the tongs to feed a thawed mouse to her snake.

Sigh.

Item 2: WM A Rogers Silver Nursery Rhyme Cup

• Jackie’s Price: $2
• Retail Price: $30
• Source: St. Stephens Church

 

 

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Jackie’s Story:

We all have fantasies. For some of us, they involve B actors with excessive amounts of facial hair, and for others, it is children with perfectly starched shirts that say “please” and “thank-you” and think hashtag is some kind of delightful breakfast food.

I admit it, part of me can’t help but harken back to the gold old days of parenting, when women were free to live in leather foot ware and give their kids beef-water for dinner if that’s what they felt they needed to do to keep them in line.

Which is why I was immediately drawn to this silver cup, which is engraved with two lines from the British nursery rhyme, There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe:  “She gave them broth without any bread, She gave them a whipping and sent them to bed.”

Dating from the 1940s,* this baby cup was made in England by William Hazen Rogers & and his son William Henry Rogers. It is made of silver-plated brass, as evident in the oxidization blotches.

It may not bring me as much joy as well-behaved children, but I’d say it’s a close second (and at least it won’t scratch up my chin when it kisses me).

*Note: I originally dated this piece in the late 1800s but was later schooled by Reddit that it is actually from the 1940s.