Every spring we have a wonderful treat as we look out our kitchen window. We love birds and sometimes lament the cost of buying the seed, the continuous chore of filling up the feeders in the cold Wisconsin winters, and putting suet into the ‘cage’ with frozen fingers. But we do get some special rewards for our endeavors! We have an incredible visitor – an indigo bunting! Vibrant blue, small and cheerful, he makes us smile and we always vie for which of us will spot him first. He is our ‘bluebird of happiness’, you might say!

But long before he came along, I have loved blue birds. I have them in the kitchen, on old china pieces, on salt and pepper shakers, a creamer, a vase, and even a sentimental plate. My most recent treasure is a German, lustre canister set that is just covered with them! (This was a gift from dear hubby for our anniversary.)

As I glanced around at them this weekend, I realized they needed to be cleaned for anticipated guests and family. (Kitchen items do tend to get a bit ‘greasy’, even though I am constantly teased for not cooking a lot.) I began to wonder just why we call them ‘bluebirds of happiness’ and if this was a fairly new thought process. So, using one of my favorite tools, I “Googled” those words “Blue Bird of Happiness” and ‘voila’, I received the requested information and learned a lot.

It turns out that to many Native American tribes, the bluebird was sacred. According to the Cochiti tribe, the firstborn son of Sun was named Bluebird. The Navajo hold the Mountain Bluebird to be a great spirit in animal form and associate it with the rising sun. Their Bluebird song is still used in social settings and performed in the 9-day Ye’iibicheii Winter Nightway Ceremony.

I also learned that a popular song by Jan Peerce and Art Mooney and his orchestra called “Bluebird of Happiness” was recorded in 1948 and introduced at the Radio City Music Hall. There was also a stage play called “The Blue Bird” by Maurice Maeterlick in 1908. It was made into several films throughout the 20^th century, including the 1940 original starring Shirley Temple.

But the mythology of the bluebird actually goes back a lot farther. For example, in Europe, a noted fairy tale is called “L’Oiseau Bleu” (The Blue Bird) by Madame d’Aulnoy (1650-1705) and it seems to be the root of modern accounts of bluebird symbology and myth. In this tale, King Charming is transformed into a bluebird, who is the love interest of the younger princess Fiordelisa and aids her through her trials.

In magical symbology, bluebirds are used to represent confidence in the positive aspect and egotism in the negative. A dead bluebird is a symbol of disillusionment, or the loss of innocence, and of transformation from the younger and naïve to the older and wiser.

Indigenous cultures across the globe hold similar beliefs. It is the most universally accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness, prosperity, hearth and home, good health, new births, and the renewal of spring! Virtually any positive sentiments may be attached to the bluebird.

So I am not alone in my thinking. I will wear my bird pins and earrings regularly, display my blue birds around the house and whistle a cheerful song! How big is your bluebird collection?

I have been blessed with two daughters, just 18 months apart and inseparable through their childhood. They are both now ‘all growed up’ and are as much alike as “two peas in a Porche’.” These young ladies now have totally different tastes.
First, the oldest. Dee loves a lot of our antiques and collectibles. She enjoys the unusual items we place around, and in the house. She appreciates my ‘nudies’ while the younger one, Jay, avoids them like the plague. She has no desire to be in the same room with these gorgeous ladies who chose to display their attributes to all who would enjoy them.

Dee likes feathers, leopard skin and fancy ladies. Her home is decorated in an eclectic style – you never know what you’ll find when you enter a room. (Her somewhat shy father-in-law will attest to that.)

Jay prefers a tasteful water color or painted scene rather than deal with the ‘fantasy figures’ in these old prints. She would wrinkle her cute nose and say “butterfly wings, on a girl? That does not make any sense. And what man wears a jester’s suit anyway?”

Jay loves quality glassware! She proudly presents her lovely items in well-lit curios and prominently displays and uses her finery! She appreciates my glass items, especially anything with Waterford in its name. She hints about leaving her name taped to the bottom of a vase or cut-glass bowl. She need not worry – to Dee, these are just objects to clean. They’re OK to serve in, but if they can’t be popped in her dishwasher, who needs them.

I love ‘whimsy’ in the house and my ‘pig-butt picture’ is known far and wide. This was purchased with our granddaughter when she was about 6. I can remember that she picked it up at the yard sale and asked ‘how many pig butts are there?” We counted them and came up with 11, plus one proud farmer. I HAD to have this picture and it hangs in the back hallway, near the ‘farm-primitives.’ Dee is wild about it; even found bars of soap with pig butts on them so I could keep the theme going. Jay scoots past it on the way in the house, obviously not a favorite of hers.

Jay loves elegance! Fine china, top quality pottery and the classics. Her home is filled with beauty, almost all new, and in such good taste. Friends and family alike are impressed with the way she decorates her home.

Dee loves to shop at thrift stores and proudly boasts of great finds such as plaster cherubs and velvet paintings. She calls to tell about a funky picture she found for their unique bathroom or funny piece of yard-art. And she uses everything, many times having to get creative. She has used broken china to make a new top on a miserable-looking table. It now looks wonderful!
And jewelry-now we are really world’s apart. I like long, dangling earrings, the sparklier the better. And long ropes of crystal or rhinestones. Dee asks if I was born to gypsies, but admires them just the same. Jay love top-quality pieces. Real gold, gemstones, pearls; once again, the classics. I think my jangling unnerves her a little, but her attempts to make me more conservative have not worked.

Loving them both is easy! They are delightful ladies and I am proud of them! So, Dee wants the ‘basement stock’, and Jay wants the ‘corporate stock’, it’s just what makes my ‘small world’ go ‘round. Now, can you guess which one is which? Dee & Jay or Jay & Dee

For decades, Lefton has produced china that makes great gifts and collectibles. Lefton china was founded in Chicago in 1941 by George Zoltan Lefton, who had arrived from Hungary two years before. He had significant experience in the clothing business, but he loved to collect china and decided to focus his talents on ceramics for his new business venture. It happened that a neighboring shop was owned by a Japanese man, and following the raid on Pearl Harbor Lefton boarded up the neighbor’s shop to protect it from angry mobs that were destroying Japanese businesses.

George Lefton admired delicate Oriental pottery and at the close of World War II he headed to newly occupied Japan, with contacts supplied by that same neighbor, to strike a deal to import Japanese made pottery under the Lefton name. The following year the first of these products arrived in the United States, bearing the mark “Made in Occupied Japan.” The quality was good and the price made the china accessible to most Americans. Lefton continued to have its products manufactured in Japan until the 1970s, when it turned to other countries like Taiwan and Malaysia. The family held the company for 60 years, until it was sold in 2001.

Lefton china usually bears identification marks and numbers, labels or all of these, however the labels do sometimes come off over the years due to wear. Because the company has been in business for so long, it can be difficult to date the products, but a good guide can help.

Links:

Some Lefton collectors’ books available online

As a collector interested in things like china, silver and glassware, I frequently encounter Blenko glass, a type of beautiful, handcrafted art glass that is very collectible. For more than a century Blenko has been creating unique, eye-catching glassware the old fashioned way, and their reputation continues to grow.

It all started in 1893 when William Blenko arrived in the U.S. from England with the intent of starting the country’s only source of mouth blown sheet glass - the type used to make stained glass windows. He chose Kokomo, Indiana as the location for his fledgling business. Unfortunately, he was forced to close that business ten years later. He tried again with factories in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but neither of those factories were successful.

You have to give the man credit for persistence, because in 1921 at the age of 67 he tried yet again to get a glassmaking business off the ground, making and selling the glass on his own. This time around his twenty-three year old son, also name William, joined him, and with the son’s shrewd business sense, the company finally took off. At the outset of the depression with the market for sheet glass drying up, young William steered the company towards glass tableware, which brought in fresh customers.

Go to The Blenko Museum Online http://www.blenkomuseum.com/r20thc.html to see some fine examples of collectible Blenko glass.

Blenko glass lovers can meet like minded people by joining the Blenko Collectors Society, which offers a newsletter and yearly get togethers in Milton, West Virginia, where the Blenko glass company is located. Check out the society’s website for help identifying different types of Blenko glass.

Visit the Blenko Glass Company’s website at http://www.blenkoglass.com/ .

Another collectors’ website worth a look is The Blenko Project.

Check out Tia’s website to find vintage Blenko items for sale.

For thousands of years the Chinese have prized jade and attributed mysterious qualities and symbolism to it. In China, jade is a symbol of admirable values such as wisdom, beauty, courage and compassion and it is said that jade will protect and bring good luck to a person wearing it or carrying it on their person.

This versatile stone is used in all sorts of ways: as a gemstone in jewelry, carved into figurines, formed into bowls and teapots, made into chopsticks and chopstick rests, inlaid in wood - the list goes on.

Jade is commonly associated with China, but this beautiful stone has been mined and valued in Burma, New Zealand and even Central America.

There are actually two kinds of jade, jadeite and nephrite. Throughout most of history there was no distinction made between the two, but during the 1800s the fact that there were two types of stones was recognized and their differences documented. Jadeite is a rarer, harder stone, with brighter colors and is the more costly of the two. We automatically envision brilliant green when thinking of jade, but it can be found in many more colors, including orange, lavender and black.

Quality is an important consideration when considering jade. The best jade will have a uniform color. Translucency is another important quality, and the more translucent the jade, the better.

The difficulty with jade is that it’s not easy for a novice to tell real jade from green glass, so its advisable to buy only from reputable dealers when purchasing jade.. The best way to learn to distinguish the true jade from the faux is experience - handling lots of jade and learning the look and feel of it.

Related links:

Read about the grading system used to determine jade quality

Photos from a Jade Museum in Beijing