Cups and Saucers

Cups-and-Saucers are much on our mind at the minute. Like the ones above, because you wonder how many stories they could tell. Which is why knowing the provenance/story of an item is so important. We don't know a lot of history for this set - they were found in the kitchen cupboard at the museum (which before us was a Senior Citizens, and before that a Church - which would they have originated from?).

The important thing for these was that older members recognised them for what they were - the only type of crockery you could get during World War II - there was a distinct shortage of china, but you could get glassware, so that is what household crockery came in. 

War over - most of them were discarded or broken, so we are lucky to have this set.

This is one of the other sets we have in the collection  - from the coronation of our current Queen's parents. Many families had a cup and saucer or two to mark a significant royal occasion. Or a mug. How many are there out there locally? Because we are looking for another fifteen - can we find that many that are different?

Why do we want fifteen royal mugs or cup-and-saucer sets? In May, we have the "We Saw The Queen" exhibition coming from the Public Record Office. We have already worked out that we might be able to find  few hats - when the Queen came to Sale in 1954, all women going to see her would have dusted off their best hat, and been wearing that.

Now, we are thinking of filling a cupboard (from the courthouse, originally for documents), that has sixteen perfect pigeonholes, with royal drinking vessels. Cups and saucers only please. Or mugs. If we are really desperate, a tea pot or two might make it in there, but that is all.

This cup-and-saucer? Found in the RSL kitchen, much the same as our glassware ones were found in the museum. The RSL recognised it was too important to leave there, and passed it along to us.

Here is the empty cupboard - can you help fill it? We would need them for about two months - if you can find something else to drink out of for that time.

Thanks to Inside History for starting this off, by talking about having a cuppa with people.