When I was contacted by a dear friend in mid-August telling me that her china cabinet had toppled over my heart sank. She inherited the full collection of Royal Albert Memory Lane from her late mother and was devastated to see it in shattered pieces on the floor of her dining room. When our loved ones leave us, all we have left are the things they held dear and the memories that were created. She saw memories of Christmas dinners and family gatherings using this very set from her mom and now it was completely lost. It was heartbreaking.
As heartbroken as I was for my friend, I knew I had to help her rebuild this set. If anything gets me excited, it’s hunting for vintage china. While this pattern is still readily available on the secondary market, I wanted to gather the pieces as quickly as I could.
I quickly pulled all of our existing stock from our website. We quickly came up with 8 place settings to replace those in her original set. But we were missing some of the completer pieces like the teapot and gravy boat and I knew finding them may prove to be a challenge.
So off I went scanning every online auction, consignment store, and flea market within 100 miles of Ottawa. My first score was the coffee pot that I found at Snazzy Seconds, a consignment store on the East end. As you can see, it was in stellar condition. The journey was just beginning.
Then I found a listing on Facebook Marketplace about 45 minutes away. We hopped in the car and off we went. This lot was a great find as it had items like the teapot, cream, and sugar set, and the gravy boat as well as mugs and fruit nappies. It’s what we needed to complete this set. Admittedly, there were some oddities like 9 fruit nappies, 6 mugs, and 7 teacups but considering that we started at zero, we have done pretty well.
The table will be set with beautiful vintage Royal Albert Memory Lane and just in time for Christmas. And once again my friend will be able to take a journey down memory lane each time she uses this dinnerware set with her family. New memories will be made but she will never forget all the times spent with her mom.
From our home to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May 2022 be filled with health, happiness, and joy!
Wonderful end to a tragedy! Don’t throw away all of the broken pieces. We have a craft place here in Waxahachie, Texas that helps you make keepsakes from precious pieces of china, etc. They help you pick out complimentary pieces to go with your colors & patterns. I broke a precious piece of hand painted porcelain bowl from a long-departed family member. They helped me make several pieces of useable small plates, trivets, trinkets, keepsakes for many other family members. Now we can all share with a piece of Aunt Roses’ beautiful work, instead of just me!
Ive asked several times.Please respond! Do u carry mineature tea sets? Im a collector.Thanks.💜💜
Good Afternoon Victoria,
This is the first comment we’ve seen. We do not carry miniature tea sets. You can see our full inventory here: https://www.theteacupattic.com/shop
We’ve checked our email, our facebook posts, our inbox but found no messages from you. Where did you send the message?
Ebay has helped me find children’s vintage China of many patterns. Some auction prices are very cheap and others higher, but usually because they are complete of beautiful. Even Chintz.