A Few of Our Favorite Things

[Katie77]

This little dinner bell has a memory or two for me. I'm not really certain how old it is. I know it is AT LEAST as old as I am.

I first watched "It's A Wonderful Life" when I was very young, and I always remembered the line - "every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings". So every time I went past this little bell I'd ring it over and over again hoping to give another angel his wings. \

 The bell has 1944 stamped inside of it and nothing else. I don't know if that is a date or a mold number.

Awwwww what a lovely thought to have in your mind when you rang that bell.

You were a sweetie then as you are now.

[Penthesilea]

Ok, I have dusted off some of the Meißner stuff. Here are the pics:

My two china cabinets. I didn't have the time to dust everything off, including cabinets. 
I have more of the stuff than I can properly display, therefore some plates are piled with cloth between them, so they won't get chipped. Doesn't look too nice, but serves the prupose. The elephant and the blue cup are not Meißner.

       


The biggest piece in my collection. You can see in the right pic above that it's a bigger than the other plates, it's in the top shelf, middle place. It's also very heavy. The saying in my family goes that it's also the oldest and most expensive piece. Of course I wasn't allowed to touch it when I was a kid (neither are my kids now).

[Penthesilea]

Some vases and a soup cup (I think it's a soup cup).
Sadly, the vase to the right is broken; the snout broke off and was glued together by my father. But luckily this is the only broken piece.




Some plates



Details of the plate to the right. It has flowers and insects on it.



      

[Penthesilea]

Detail of the cup. The handle is a swan.



Detail of the broken vase. Also with swan handle.

[Penthesilea]

The underside of some plates. The crossed swords emblem varies through the different decades. There a books specifically about the Meißen emblems, to date the pieces.







(I should have cut out the emblem before uploading the pics. But when I post them in smaller size now you don't see the difference in the swords.)

[Katie77]

Oh Chrissi they are beautiful.

Love the ones with the swan handles....how unique is that.

The colours and the gorgeous little flowers and butterflys.....I love them.

[Penthesilea]

My favorites of the collection. I have always loved cobalt blue.





Detail of the left plate




Detail of the plate to the right

[Penthesilea]

Oh Chrissi they are beautiful.

Love the ones with the swan handles....how unique is that.

The colours and the gorgeous little flowers and butterflys.....I love them.

Thank you Sue

[Kerry]

The underside of some plates. The crossed swords emblem varies through the different decades. There a books specifically about the Meißen emblems, to date the pieces.

OMG!  It's REAL Meißen!!! It's so beautiful, Chrissi. It must be worth a fortune. You have such a large collection. You're a rich woman! I know from the TV program, "Antiques Roadshow," that Meißen is worth big  bucks! Like thousands  of dollars! And the fact that it was smuggled out of East Germany would add even more value at auction. How's the best way for an English speaker to pronounce Meißen, Chrissi? Is it My-sen  or My-zen?  Or am I totally wrong and it's pronounced some other way entirely? (I'm not a German speaker)

[Penthesilea]

OMG!  It's REAL Meißen!!!

Yes of course it's real Meißen, lol. When I say Meißen, I mean it.

It's so beautiful, Chrissi. It must be worth a fortune. You have such a large collection. You're a rich woman! I know from the TV program, "Antiques Roadshow," that Meißen is worth big  bucks! Like thousands  of dollars! And the fact that it was smuggled out of East Germany would add even more value at auction.

Thousands? Are you kidding me? Or are the prices for Meißner down under that much higher? AFAIK, the prizes for single pieces and place covers (plate, cup and saucer as a set) are in the lower hundreds here (Euros). If you want to reach the dimension of thousands, you'd need to have a complete service. Or maybe a very, very rare and old special piece. And I doubt that one of mine belongs in that category.
So yes, if I sold everything, it would bring quite some bucks, that's right. But far (very, very far) from being enough to become rich. 

How's the best way for an English speaker to pronounce Meißen, Chrissi? Is it My-sen  or My-zen?  Or am I totally wrong and it's pronounced some other way entirely? (I'm not a German speaker)

My-zen would be good. Actually the letter ß is an Es-Zet, somewhere between s and z.