Blue and white seems to be a classic color combination associated with the month of January – a serene and clean looking contrast to the busy “extra clutter” and bold reds and green colors of Christmas decorating. I love playing with thrifted elements to create blue and white vignettes, but one of my favorite pieces of “blue and white” is actually this:
Seriously, Victoria Magazine is so beautiful that each issue is its own decorating accessory! And no, they’re not paying me to say that – I have just found over the years that I can barely bring myself to discard back issues because of the beautiful covers and lavishly photographed articles.
I have a large collection of back issues, and I always like to bring out any for January that use blue and white.
Also in this vignette, I found a sweet little bread plate in one of my stacks that I think dates from the mid-1800’s! This piece is the “Allegheny” pattern by the English maker Thomas Goodfellow, whose facility manufactured ironstone ware in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England from 1828-1854. It is a display-only piece due to several chips and heavy crazing, but the fact that it has survived since the early Victorian era (or possibly even slightly before) is just amazing to me!
I’ve set it here with a lovely ornate fork from my vintage Oneida “Chandelier” set, and a pretty cloth napkin in shades of blue. The Oneida was handed down from my grandmother (it belonged to her sister, my Great-Aunt Hazel), and the napkin was on clearance from Pier 1 several years ago.
I recently attempted to down-size my Victoria collection, and I did set aside a small stack to be donated to my local library – but I still kept most of the collection, including this issue which is a favorite. It’s from 2010 – proof that lovely decor never goes out of style!
