I have fond memories of my mother putting together mine and my sister’s hope chest.  She must have had the master list directly from Queen Victoria, everything that a young lady needed to run the perfect household had to be included.  Starting with the china, crystal and flatware, she scoured every sale and flea market to find all of the perfect components.  I guess it was like our dowry, to show that her daughters were proper young ladies.

I was always a little envious of my sister’s china pattern.  She had been awarded Stangle’s “Fruit”.  It was so beautiful and would match everything.  I always in front of her referred to it correctly as pottery just to show that it was not china, being the older sister I never wanted her to think she had something better than me.  My pattern was Homer McLaughlin’s “Wheat”, real china or not I hated it.  Who really wants a set of china with a stalk of wheat in the middle?  There was no future temptation for me to add to the set, let along remove it from the china cabinet.

I really am not sure if my Mother gathered these hope chest’s for us because it was a tradition or to satisfy her collecting bug?  My Mother was self dubbed a “Dealer of fine Antiquities”.  In other words we went to every yard sale, she bought, and we went to every Flea Market she sold.  It was a constant cycle that spanned my youth.  I enjoyed spending time with her and also buying and selling myself.  I especially loved to help her look for costume jewelry and became so good at it other seasoned dealers would demand to see what I had found on my scouting runs while my Mother was manning the booth.  I of course would comply with the hopes of learning something new with my show and tells.  They would often try to buy my new found treasurers out from under my own Mother!  I learned so much about vintage jewelry, what was going to sell and how to fix pieces that where in need of restoration.  I always admired and wore certain designers and period pieces but I always dreamed of the day I would receive gifts of real jewelry and receive my much anticipated hope chest.

In my early adulthood I received my hope chest, I promptly unpacked everything except for that undesirable china.  I did not start out finding the right man to share my hope chest with but I did enjoy a career of selling real or fine jewelry on a national level to Jewelry Stores.  My Jewelers would laugh when I would get excited to see the new Eisenberg Ice pieces that came in at Christmas or the Miriam Haskell sets that had arrived in time for Easter.  I got rush seeing the new collections of costume jewelry in a sea of fine jewelry.  I personally found the fine jewelry to be boring without history or the personality a piece of costume jewelry had.  The temptation bite me, I started collecting vintage costume jewelry without really realizing it. 

 Ironically this career in fine jewelry brought me to Minnesota along with my entire hope chest which included that box of china still in its originally packing box from when my Mother had lovingly packed it decades before.  I finally found that right man, settled down and had babies.  I did decide not to travel so much for work and followed my temptation and became a vintage jewelry dealer.  I did decide to confide to my Mother how much I disliked my china, wanting to clear my conscience without hurting her feelings.  I donated the china to charity in its original disintegrating packing.  I did not feel bad or guilty for a minute I had done everything right, I had been truthful, found the right man and gave her three grandsons.  I also knew I could rid myself of the set when my Mother a week earlier had presented me with a replacement set dishes.   Correctly referred to as pottery, she brought us a set of Stangle’s Amber Glow, their only Scandinavian pattern.  My hope Chest was now perfect and my new Scandinavian descended husband could only agree.  Now I sit back and admire my husband’s array of beautiful Stangle Birds and complete, with the original framed magazine ad, place setting for twelve of Amber Glow we now have.  I guess one collector creates another or the temptation just bite a new collector.