Playthings of long ago. Do you still have any?

[Maywalk]

Having just read the replies to my Christmas poem and seeing Deja's post saying that she still had her Kaleidoscope made me curious as to what others had salvaged from their childhood days.
As you all know I went through the London Blitz and was bombed out twice but my teaset is still being displayed in my lovely d-l-ls glass cabinet.

My family have said that this tea-set below will stay in the family for as long as there is someone who wants it. I know my granddaughter wants to keep it so I am hoping it will be passed on to any children she may have in years to come.
My eldest brother who was about 10 at the time I was born in 1930 bought it for me out of the pennies he earned while doing odd jobs for folk. It was purchased the week I was born from East Lane market in London for 3d or threepence as it was known then. Equivalent to just over 2 and a half pence in today’s currency.
I never played with it for nearly 7 years while I was in the Sisters of Mercy home.
My parents were TOO poor to pay for the doctor because I caught double pneumonia at the age of six months so I was put in the home for that reason.
These so called Sisters of Mercy were anything but merciful I am afraid and I was mentally and physically abused while with them . NOT sexually abused Thank God but it was bad enough to make me despise all those who wear a nuns habit.
I made up for it though when I finally went home in 1937.
I played with the tea-set every day and it even went all through the London Blitz. Plus it was taken down tube shelters or in the Anderson and wonder of wonders it just had the teapot spout broken plus a cup.
The cup was repaired with glue.

Ironic and extremely sad that it should still be here when you think of all the lives lost at that time.
During the Blitz, over 2 million houses (60% of which were in London ) were destroyed and 60,000 civilians were killed with 87,000 seriously injured. Of those killed the majority lived in London .
Until halfway through the war more women and children in Britain had been killed than soldiers.

The teaset now has pride of place in my daughter-in-laws glass unit and she brought it out to take a photograph of it on my 78th birthday for my album.
It is now well over 80 years of age.

[Corrie]

A lovely teaset it is too Maisie and how wonderful its life has been, all that history behind it and I hope a lovely future ahead of it. I have my gold locket around my neck I was given for my 15th birthday, also the Parker pen in its case which was bought for me when I passed my exams at school. I also have my 4 school certificates gained from those exams.

[Maywalk]

Well look after them Corrie because they can be passed on to the family with the history of how you gained them.

It would be lovely to see some photos of things that we have kept over the years.

[Rowan]

I have nothing from when I was a child - all gone, passed on to other children.

[Maywalk]

Let us hope they have been looked after then Eve.

[Dragon Lady]

I have nothing from my childhood but I do have my mother's dolls tea set. White bone china with paintings of old steam ships (very Turneresque) in shades of brown on them. My Mum was born in 1905. Unfortunately they are very scuffed from washing up I guess, so not worth a lot.

I also have a full 1928 dinner service and some cut glass very fine wineglasses which she bought for 6d each in Woolworths in the 1920s when she was compiling a "bottom drawer". I also have a few other pieces, my paternal grandmother's milk jug and some more cut glass.

[Maywalk]

They sound super DL.

I bet the dinner service is nice. Is it any particular make?

[Lacemaker]

I still have my baby doll from when I was about 7 or 8 years old, dressed in clothes made for both my sister and myself when we were babies, and also a knife fork and spoon set given to me on my christening ..... and talking of christenings I have my christening gown of hand made limerick lace which has also been worn by my sister, my two daughters and my niece's baby girl. For some reason my sister didn't ask for it when her daughters were christened.

[Maywalk]

Oh Hazel, I would love to see them.
Any chance of getting a photo on here of them please.

[Dragon Lady]

Maisie, it is MINTONE (not to be confused with Minton). The hallmark is a globe with a crown on top and underneath it says "Established in 1793" and "England" below it. I can only find one reference to it on the internet but nobody seems to know anything about it.

It is decorated with a small pattern of a dark blue ring and gold.

[Maywalk]

I think it could be Minton DL.
Sometimes over the years they changed the spelling of the name slightly.
I have looked on this site and it could very well be the same company because the dates match.
There is also a blue and gold vase as you scroll down the page.
Are the colours similar to yours? Have you ever thought about getting an online valuation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mintons