Posts Tagged ‘1940s’
Tomato Ware
One of my favorite collections is my odd set of bright orange-red Tomato Ware dishes.
They are usually marked ‘Made in Occupied Japan’ or ‘Made in Japan’ and were made in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Two of my pieces are marked Maruhon Ware (with a K surrounded by a circle). Maruhon Ware was made from the 1920s to 1950s. ‘Made in Occupied Japan’ means the piece was made from 1945 to 1952.
The pieces in my collection are shaped like tomatoes (I have one set of salt and peppers shaped like long peppers). They are glazed pottery, coloured in an over-bright green and an orangy red. Most have green leaves as decorations, clasping the base of handles or teapot spouts. My collection is in good shape, the only flaws being a large chip out of the spout of one teapot and a broken handle on one creamer.
three Tomato Ware teapots (the green apples and the larger salt and pepper shakers, 2nd and 3rd from right, are modern pieces)
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I have:
2 jam pots
2 cups/tumblers
3 teapots (one marked with the K surrounded by a circle)
3 pair cream and sugars
1 pair cream and sugar with a tray, and one lone creamer
1 set of salt and peppers
1 set of salt and papers with a tray
1 set of salt and peppers on a tray with a basket handle (belonged to my mother)
1 lone salt shaker
1 set of pepper-shaped salt and peppers
2 tea cups and saucers (both marked Maruhon Ware)
The dishes are very bright and provide an accent color for my very green living room.
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Do you have any pieces of Tomato Ware?
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Copyright Jane Tims 2013
from the pages of an old diary – words about women’s work
I have been thinking a lot about ‘women’s domestic work’ these days. This not only because I do some housework myself from time to time (!), but because I am taking a History course – “Canadian Women’s History”.
One of the assignments for the course is to read a woman’s diary or journal and learn about what life was like for her through her words. I am lucky to have a set of six five-year diaries from my great-aunt who lived in Nova Scotia and I have decided to look at her diaries for my project. The diaries cover the years from 1944 to 1972 . Since I was born in 1954, I have chosen 1954 and 1957 as years to study.
Her diary for a particular year is a simple record of her daily activities. Simple, but what a lot of information is found in a few lines of text!
I have reviewed all of her entries for the year 1957 and find she covers the following topics in her entries:
- the weather
- people who visited
- people she visited
- housework done (she includes her husband’s work around the house)
- community work done
- community events (such as funerals or weddings)
- letters written or received
- special trips
- unexpected events (such as the car breaking down)
- family health
One thing I notice about her diaries, is her faithfulness in making an entry every day for 29 years! So many diaries I have begun fizzle after the first month or so of writing!
Another aspect is the value of her words. Over 50 years later, I can still find helpful advice in the way she did her work and the emphasis she put on participating in her community. I can find specific information of the birth dates of relatives or the date our family arrived for our summer vacation in a particular year. In addition, for anyone interested in the daily life of women in the 20th century, a set of diaries like hers is an invaluable resource and window into history.
Over the next few posts, I am going to look at various aspects of the daily life of my great-aunt and consider how similar or different life is for me today.
two of the six diaries my great-aunt wrote from 1944 to 1972 ... the quilt is one she made during the last years of her life
nichepoetryandprose 