This is a precious little keepsake that was made for me by my paternal grandmother, Sarah VanGilder Hughes. If memory serves me, it was a sweet sixteen present. I have written on other blogs of my Grams love of ceramics and the numerous gifts she made for family and friends during the mid to late 1950's and into the early 1960's.
The pink ceramic heart must have been made before their retirement and move to St. Petersburg, Florida. I would have been 16 in 1963 and they were already living in St. Pete by then. As I remember, Grams made her ceramics while still living in Bellevue, Pennsylvania.
The greenware was cleaned, painted and fired by Grams and the printing was done by my paternal grandfather, George Henry Hughes aka Pop Pop. I guess he was "permitted" by Grams to do the printwork as he was employed as a draftsman in his day job ;-)
Truth be told, I did use this heirloom as an ashtray when I as in college. Then following my smoking years it was packed away (with the cigarette stains still visable) in a box, moved from house to house, then placed in the basement....long forgotten.
Probably my penchant for genealogy and all things relative prompted me to pull the pink heart out of its hiding place, give it a good scrubbing and place it in the living room china cupboard--the heirloom place of honor in my house.
Thanks for sharing your treasure!
ReplyDeleteNice. I enjoyed reading about your treasure.
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