Yesterday my delightful assistant and I visited a haven of second hand goods called Steptoe’s Yard, a few miles north of Montrose in the county of Angus.
I was on the hunt for vintage china. My sister (who had been before) had warned me that this place was incredible, but I wasn’t quite prepared for what hit me on arrival. This was the corner for garden implements, brushes, buckets, etc.:
Most of the china was housed inside sheds, but we didn’t realise that at first, and spent some time rummaging through baskets of it on trestle tables in the yard. Outside, everything was a bit wet and grubby, and much of it had green stuff growing on it:
Inside, it was much better:
I restricted myself to 14 teacups, saucers and tea plates (6 of one and 8 of another design), and one china plate. I’m collecting this sort of thing in order to sell it at Perthshire’s Birnam Fayre (run by Exclusively Highlands) in October, where I’m having a stall selling my Tearoom Delights books.
I booked the stall originally for just selling the book, but then I thought that a stall selling nothing but multitudinous copies of one small book might look a bit odd, hence padding it out with some teatime accessories. These are the teacups, saucers and plates I bought:
They’re in excellent condition but, as you can see, they need a little tender loving care and cleaning:
That’s my job for this afternoon.
Steptoe’s Yard is so large that we didn’t actually explore all of it, so I think another visit may be in order before the fayre.
This looks like a fascinating place! Well done on your ‘find’, I think they’re very pretty. That’s a great idea to sell them alongside your book at the show.
Thanks Jo, I agree, the pattern is very delicate and, from what I can gather having done a little online research, quite sought after too. I have absolutely no idea if they’ll sell or not, I feel it’s a bit of a gamble, but vintage china is quite popular just now, so hopefully people will like it enough to buy it.
Yes, what a fascinating place and sounds like a good plan regarding selling tea items at your stall in October. How exciting.
Thanks Linda, I do hope it works with the china, it’s worth a try anyway. I have to try and not get too carried away buying stuff though!
WOW!! That looks like a china lover’s bonanza!! I’d love to spend a day picking through all that stuff (Cape Cod, eat your heart out :0). I think selling tea cups and the like at your book booth is an inspired idea. People interested in your book will definitely be interested in buying a trinket or two, and vice versa. –Lucinda
I thought of you while I was in there Lucinda, I thought you’d like it!
Thanks for the encouragement about selling china, I hope it turns out to be a good combination with the book. I’m looking forward to finding out.