Rainbow plates

These beauties arrived on my front porch earlier this week. They are salad plates in the Iridescent Moonglow pattern by Federal Glass. I've never seen the salad plates before, I didn't even think they existed because I have never seen a guide that referred to them. So, boy was I excited when I spotted these on eBay. The seller stated that they were 7 1/2" plates. I almost doubted her, but I bid on them anyway, figuring even if she was wrong, I still need a couple more dinner plates. When I saw the box, I knew it wasn't big enough to hold dinner plates.

I have a special love of these; there is a story. When I was little, my grandparents had a cabin in the woods. It was about a half hour's drive from where they lived (and now about a half hour for me, too, the other direction). This was not meant to be a residence, but a little getaway for them, and friends and family. My grandfather was the ultimate scavenger, and built this cabin with mostly found objects, and with the skills he and friends had. Unfortunately, it wasn't really built to stand the test of time, and is now in a serious state of disrepair. It makes my mom sad. She loved it there when she was growing up.

The property belongs to my mom now, since my grandmother died, and it is just more than we know how to deal with. Many people over the years have suggested selling it, but we have no intentions of doing that. At one point when I was house shopping, I even considered building there.

But back to the plates. The kitchen had a hodgepodge of plates, cups, utensils, etc. that had been left by different people over the years, and there were a small handfull of pieces of this pattern; two or three dinner plates, six vegetable bowls, three or four cereal bowls, and several saucers, but no teacups. Well, I just loved these when I was little (and still do). I named them rainbow plates because of the way the iridescent colors shifted when you tilt the plates. I always insisted on eating from a my rainbow plates.I've since added to the cabin's odd pieces, and now have quite a collection. I'd ultimately like to have service for twelve. Minus the teacups and saucers. I don't need those. I only have the ones I do because they came with a set I got at the local antiques barn. Now I just need to make room in the cupboard.