My Wexford Obsession

I thrift with my sister but we haven't always been thrift store addicted.  It happened innocently enough.  My younger daughter decided that she would start collecting vintage decor and dishes with the intention of starting a side business renting her treasures for parties and photo sessions.  One of the first patterns that she acquired was a group of Wexford stems.  Wexford is a sturdy pressed glass pattern made by Anchor Hocking in the 1940's thru 1960's.  The vintage glassware has a pretty distinctive pattern, small diamonds towards the top and larger diamonds towards the bottom.  Some places this is referred to as criss cross and occasionally it is called a waffle pattern.  When we noticed some glasses in Goodwill that matched my daughter's glasses we snatched them up.  My daughter lives across the state in a metropolitan area. My sister and I felt that while my daughter shopped the big city we could check the stores in the towns that we shopped and pick up things that she might like.

It turns out that Wexford apparently was pretty popular in our area because it has been readily available.  When we stop at Goodwill there is often one or more pieces and it is always reasonably priced. I now love it as much as she does and I now have many more pieces than she does.  She has not yet started her business.  Life has a way of intruding and she has had a lot of stuff going on right now and limited storage.  Perhaps soon.  When she gets ready to open her rental business I will happily share my pieces with her.  I don't have the place settings. No dinner plates, salad plates or saucers.  I have not seen them for purchase locally and have not searched them out online.  I do have many, many serving pieces.  I have six sizes of glasses, as well as punch bowls and punch cups.  I have footed sherbets, hexagonal salad plates, berry bowls.  More of some pieces than others but quite a bit of it.  Here is a sampling.  These pieces are currently displayed in my dining area.  The majority of the collection is in more functional storage on wire shelves in my basement.  None of the pieces are currently in the new dish pantry but I imagine that they will rotate in and out of there.

six sizes of glasses

canisters currently holding dog treats

ice bucket

two stacks of coasters

My newest piece was a gift.  Quite a long while ago I had written a post about my search for decanters.  I had read Helen, who blogs at Entertablement's, post about her husband's bar cart and her decanters and I was taken with the idea of a bar cart and I started my own collection of decanters knowing that at some point I would find the right cart to put them on.  Alas, I am still looking.  My good friend Kim, who blogs at Exquisitely Unremarkable, sent me a gift in the mail of a decanter that she found at an Etsy shop.  Unfortunately the decanter arrived in pieces having been broken in transit between the Etsy shop and the farm.  The only thing in one piece was the stopper.  It was a sad day.  Kim was not to be deterred and soon another package arrived.  This one arrived intact.  Turns out the decanter that she selected was the Wexford pattern and just happened to coordinate with my many other Wexford pieces. Thanks Kim!  It is a lovely piece.  It means so much to me that you would search out and send such a perfect gift.   

my new decanter

part of my collection on top of the bookcase