A Sweet Story of Silverware

I hope you don't mind me repeating a post from October, but this is my favorite post and will be new to most of you!  I hope you enjoy.

He asked her to marry him in 1937 despite being in the middle of the Great Depression. It was a sad year.  On March 17 there was the worst school disaster in American history in terms of lives lost.  The New London School in New London, Texas experienced a natural gas explosion, killing more than 295 students and teachers.  May 6th brought the Hindenburg Disaster. As of May 7th, there were more than 7 million people unemployed in this country.  On July 2, Amelia Earhart disappeared.

There were some happier events that year.  The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien was published and on December 21, Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature length animated cartoon with sound, opened and became a smash hit. 

Despite it all, they were very much in love and wanted to be together as husband and wife.  Like most Americans at the time, money was tight.  They were  able to pick out only some modest items to set up their household.  Solid, sterling silverware was out of the question for them.  That year, Holmes and Edwards produced silver plated flatware at an affordable price.  She wanted to share everything with him and asked his opinion on which pattern to pick.  She showed him several choices and hoped he would like the one that she desired.  After pretending more interest than he actually had, he asked her the name of the pattern of her favorite.  She answered "Lovely Lady".  He said "Then that's the one because you are my Lovely Lady and always will be."

They married that year and lived a long, happy life, raising four children.  They always used their silverware, even though it required occasional polishing.  She secretly enjoyed the process, remembering the love she felt being his Lovely Lady.  Eventually, they retired and moved to Florida and lived well into their 80's.  They died within days of each other.

It was an overcast day in Southwest Florida.  A perfect day to visit a few thrift stores to hunt for treasures.  She stopped at the Goodwill that was on the way to the beach.  She walked through the store slowly and studied the dishes and glassware with future tablescapes in mind.  As she was often known to do, she did a second walk through and that's when she spotted the plastic bag with tarnished silverware in it.  The bag was sealed but she could tell there were quite a few pieces in there and the bag was heavy.  The price tag read $5.99.  Almost sight unseen she took a chance and brought it home.  Even with her limited knowledge, she knew it was silver plate, not sterling silver,  but there was a full set of 8 dinner forks, 8 salad forks, 8 knives, 8 soup spoons, 16 teaspoons and 3 other pieces.  She grabbed the most tarnished knife, rubbed a little silver polish on it and it came up gleaming.  This set was obviously, lovingly used and the pattern was so pretty, with the piercings and the little flowers.  She read the mark on the back of each piece and researched it online.She found that it was made by Holmes and Edwards in 1937 and the pattern was called  "Lovely Lady".

I hope you enjoyed my story of the "Lovely Lady" silverware by Holmes and Edwards.  Of course, I am the woman who finds this treasure in the Goodwill store.  The couple who first owned this set?  A product of my imagination although the events of 1937 are true.  Do you ever imagine the life your vintage finds had before you found them?  Obviously, I do!  Please view my tablescape this week when my silverware makes a rather unusual debut at a Halloween Dinner Table!

I am joining the party at Wow Us Wednesday/http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/
and also Rustic Restorations Weedend Party at Homespun Happenings