Not-So-Vintage Thingie Thursday: Victorian-Style Pitcher and Basin

Grandmothers are just antique little girls and grandfathers are just antique little boys. –Unknown

Last spring, when we were cleaning out my maternal grandparents' house so it could be sold, I picked up a few great heirloom-y {a valued possession passed down in a family through succeeding generations} type items. I'm sure none of them have much monetary value, but the sentimental value is pretty off-the-charts for me. I was kind of excited to show these things {like my grandma's 1965ish Noritake china set} ala Vintage Thingie Thursday, but wasn't sure exactly what qualified something as a Vintage Thingie and was timid about linking up. I wasn't sure of the origins of a couple of things, so I posted them without the Vintage Thingie designation. I gave away a lovely set of milk glass serving dishes that I think were in the neighborhood of vintage, but I've held off on posting the other things that are researchable and identifiable because really, I'm not a collector of vintage {except for these few things of my grandparents, which hold sentimental value} and don't know much about the world of collectables and antiques.

So it is with trepidation that I make my first official Vintage Thingie Thursday post, because I'm not sure if this Victorian-style pitcher and basin are actually vintage {but I wanted to show them off anyway because they look vintage }. The underside of the pitcher is marked VB Athena California, so I Googled. The company was founded in 1977, so at best, this pretty set is only 33 years old {which is not even as old as I am}, but I'm pretty sure it is more like just 30 years old. Where is line of demarcation for a vintage thingie? {And do I fit into the vintage category ? I'm not even 40. If I am vintage, how does that define me? Because I certainly don't feel vinatage. All good questions, but subjects for another post. Sorry for the tangent. Hopefully the close-up of the flower detail was entertaining. Moving along now.}

While I don't know exactly know old this pitcher set is, it looks vintage and I do know a bit of the history of how it came to reside at my grandparent's house. When my grandpa's mother passed away, my grandpa and grandma inherited her old brass bedstead {which has now been passed on to my youngest brother}, and redecorated their downstairs bedroom around that big brass bed. They put up blue damask wallpaper, placed an old rocking chair next to the bed and filled the shelves above the bed with their own collection of old-fashioned things {this vase being one of them}. They also kept my grandma's mother's old 1960's Bernina Sewing Machine {a post for another Thursday } in that room and on top of the cabinet that housed the machine sat this pitcher and basin. I'm pretty sure they bought the set new and for the express purpose of decorating the old-fashioned room. When it came time to clean out their house, I couldn't bear the thought of it being sent off to a thrift shop. So I brought it home and found it place on the corner of my dresser. And while I think it looks lovely there, I am glad that I don't have to use it.

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