Monday 3 September 2012

New Dishes

During our trip to Vienna the other day we bought two new dishes to add to our collection. We do this wherever we go, so by now we have a fairly extensive array of dishes / bowls / plates from all over the world. If you are interested in seeing some of the other items in our collection, please have a look at an old post of mine entitled "Around the World in 80 plates".

The ones we bought the other day are not fine ceramic or bone china or anything like that, just simple pieces of pottery, but their attraction is in the hand-painted decorative work. I think you'll agree when you see them that they are entirely appropriate for me!

One of them has Chillis, Onions and Garlic motifs:


The other has Tomatoes:


I'll show them to you again, this time loaded with relevant food items, harvested from my own garden:




You see, you can hardly tell the motif from the contents!

While I'm on the subject of ceramics, I want also to show you another item acquired in Austria (many years ago).


It is a piece of Gmundner Keramik (i.e. ceramic from Gmunden) in its distinctive green-and-white colour scheme. This is a "Tischabfalle", literally "table-rubbish" [which is naturally enough what we call it in our household!]. It's about twice the size of a coffee-mug. It's a receptacle in which to put all the debris that accumulates at the breakfast / dinner table, such as used teabags, eggshells, disposable jam pots, butter-wrappers etc. I think these are really useful things, and we ought to see them in use in every British hotel and restaurant, just as they are in Austria and Germany.

13 comments:

  1. The dishes look beautiful Mark. What great items to collect from where you have been.

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  2. The two new plates are really nice; great with your arrangements too. The 'table rubbish' pot is a good idea, something I wouldn't have thought of but actually very practical!

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  3. I love the two new plates. They definitely suit you. As for the pot called table rubbish, it would be an interesting idea but we don't eat at the table or drink tea (cold sweet tea only). It sounds kind of like a compost pot, where you would put all your compost-able. I have one here but had to stop using it because it seemed to create gnats in the house. I guess I am too lazy to walk down the compost bin often enough :(

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  4. Such a pretty dish for table rubbish. And the color of the motifs in the plate are very close to natural, very beautiful indeed.

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  5. They are truly gorgeous! I love dishes that have garden designs. Going off now to few the other 78.... ;)

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  6. ...to "view" the other 78. Dang iPad auto-correct!

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  7. I love your new dishes. I think it's a great idea to collect them from places you visit, something practical to remind you of your visit. I've visited a few restaurants which had a receptacle on the table for rubbish, but nothing as fancy as your tischabfalle.

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  8. That is one of a kind plates. I love it. Its much more gorgeous with that simple details.
    RTO system

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  9. English just isn't a particularly attractive language is it? Tischabfalle sounds so much nicer than Table Rubbish.

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  10. Very pretty dishes - lifelike! I like the idea of the table rubbish pot... I see them at times in Germany but it's not somethng that has caught on here. And as I'm cooking for two I usually plate things in the kitchen before bringing them to the table so there's much rubbish to be had.

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  11. oh goodness I LOVE the tomato one... I NEED me one of those! (my toms by the way, are ripenning up a good un!)

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  12. What gorgeous plates, Mark, and especially with your lovely veggies on them! I am catching up with your blogs for the past weeks, so hope you will go back and read comments.

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