Bowled Over

My new pink bowl with it's ancestors

Flicking through the Aldi magazine recently in the Irish Independent I discovered they were having a bakeware sale.  I always had a hankering for a bowl similar to one my mother and grandmother used when I was a child but never got around to buying one.  So when I saw the ones in the Aldi sale were something similar I was really pleased.

I tweeted about it and there followed a long conversation about the bowls and people's memories of them, either their mother or grandmother's bowls.  And then the clanger, when Colette @katzwizkaz tweeted the ones with hearts around the outside were valuable.

I bet there were lots of pudding bowls rooted out of cupboards to have a quick peek.  I rang my mother and she told me she had hers and my grandaunt's in the shed and I could have them. I held my breath waiting for her to tell me that they had the magical hearts on the outside, but they were the common or garden diamonds.

She arrived for a visit today with the bowls and I set about cleaning them. I always remember the green spot in the smaller one and often wondered was it a flaw or was it intentional.

There is something magical about these bowls, as here in Ireland they were always used for making a big round of soda bread and at Christmas for mixing the pudding.  Many's a child was allowed lick the bowl or stir the pudding in them.  They obviously stirred up lots more memories, in a good way - as someone tweeted that cakes mixed in them tasted better, the way tea in a china cup does.

Both my mother's and my grand aunt's were made by T.G Green and Company in Church Gresley in the U.K and have patent numbers which presumably would date them as they have been manufactured since 1926.  I Googled the name and they are still in existence http://www.tggreen.co.uk/. When I clicked on the site the familiar old blue and white pottery reminded me of a similar set we had at home years ago.

I would love to see if the patent numbers on mine can date them.  For now they are going to be stored in my kitchen for passing on to my daughter and hopefully onto hers.

Sometimes the simplest of items evoke nice warm memories.

Tags: Ceramic Bowls  Christmas pudding Irish soda bread Church Gresley  T.G Green & Co. Ltd