As a remembrance of my English grandparents, I collect items made in England. I have small saucers decorated with detailed and colorful colonial scenes and fish bone plates featuring detailed renderings of Currier and Ives prints.
I particularly enjoy my collection of English egg coddlers produced by Royal Worcester. An excellent reference site I use to identify the pattern of my egg coddlers is: http://www.coddlers.com. Although antique stores frequently charge as much as $22 for the large coddler and $18 for the small ones, I have been able to find them for as little as $2 and pay an average of $12 - $18 for them. They seem to be more plentiful on the east coast than here on the west coast. I was told by a shopkeeper in Charleston, South Carolina that they were a popular wedding present in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the east coast. I have also noticed that there is usually a distinct difference between the large and small version of a single pattern. Here on the west coast, the most plentiful pattern seems to be "Birds". My current collection includes the patterns Evesham, Lavinia, Birds, Bournemouth, Torquay, June Garland, Louise, Strawberry Fair, A Skippety Tale, Pershore, and Woodland. I would be interested in any of the other patterns featuring naturalistic images of animals and flowers (I don't care much for the stylistic). I would really like to add one of the "Old Game Series" pattern to my collection (if the price is right).
I was in an antique store in the little town of Monroe a few miles north of here (Eugene, Oregon) and saw some beautiful porcelain jar lids, that originally capped jars of English fish paste, adorned with detailed Victorian scenes. The antique store wanted $325 each for them.
So, when my sister and I traveled to London last spring, I kept an eye out for them and found a wonderful one complete with the jar as well at the Portobello Road Antique and Street Fair for only 48 pounds (about $96 U.S.).
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