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See our new website!

See our new website!
Same location but we have updated the look of our website. We want you to be able to shop online for all the fabulous things we have to sell you. We hope the site is pleasing and helpful and exciting for you. It only took us fifteen years to get this far. Keep in ind that the inventory on our website represents only a fraction of what we have to offer at the shop. Some collections have more in them than others but that only means that the entirety of the inter-webs is not large enough to encapsulate all that makes our shop such an exciting place to visit. We will be posting new items each week. But we will also be adding more to our brick and mortar shop each week. So don't neglect one shopping experience in exchange for another. And if you are looking for more options in a particular collection and couldn't possibly come to see what we have in person, give us a call on the phone and we see what we can do to help. Continue reading

Halloween Costumes and Vintage Clothing

Halloween Costumes and Vintage Clothing
Remember when you were little and dressing up in Mom or Dad's clothes was so much fun? With Halloween fast approaching and everyone is trying to think of a costume to wear, I want you to channel your inner child and remember those days of dress up.  Putting on that floral dress and feeling like a field of Daisies or wearing the business suit coat and feeling like you could manage Wall Street was so much fun. As adults we get so few chances to dress up and be silly. We are usually dressing for jobs or corporate events. We so rarely get to just put n a fabulous dress and pretend to be pirates or princesses or a field of Daisies. It is because of this that, for Halloween this year, I want to you come to the Speakeasy at Charlotte Elliott and find a funky styled dress and a great hat or a "Sherlock Holmes" coat or a lush velvet coat and enact some fun childhood fantasy for a costume. Use the excuse to not be so serious and cut loose for a change. You my find a new style for yourself in the vintage styles that we have to offer. Continue reading

BIG Spring Sale!

BIG Spring Sale!
We have selected some great stuff from around the store and put it all in one level of the store and marked it all down for our Spring inventory Sale.  All of it is marked down 20%-45%.  That is Sets of china, glassware, furniture, Asian decor, lamps, linens and lace, kitchen and country decor, antiques, rugs and so much more.  From May 10th to May 18th, in-store purchases only.

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Rock and roll

Rock and roll
There is nothing on the planet older than rocks and minerals.  As a matter of fact they are bits of the planet itself.  All of them formed back in the beginning of it all when the Earth had formed itself out of the swirling mass of space and star stuff.  We have just stocked a great geologist's cache of mineral, rock and fossil specimens.  Quartz, Calcite, Amethyst, Petrified wood, Galena were all formed as the planet was coming of age.  And we also have fossils of of Ammonite and Trilobite, some of the earliest life on our fledgling blue planet.  Hold these in your hand and marvel at time.  Own a piece of the planet and appreciate all it has given us. Continue reading

The Gravy Boat

The Gravy Boat

The humble gravy boat is the easiest thing to forget for your Thanksgiving Feast Table.  You have the eight to twelve dinner plates, salad plates and soup dishes.  You have wine glasses and water glasses and a nice table cloth, which is an heirloom from your mother's family.  You have the Turkey platter, the serving bowls and serving spoons, a carving set, linen napkins with napkin rings and even candle holders to hold those clever turkey shaped taper candles that you picked up on sale last year.  But did you forget the gravy boat?  The tureen which purveys the liquid gold that ties the whole meal together; the gravy boat carries the savory sauce that captures the very essence of the great roasted bird (cooked carefully with some wine and flour).  You can't just serve that divine thickness in any old pot to your splendid and perfectly designed feast table.  Such a luscious liquid must be given a precious vessel.   So when meticulously planning out this grand meal, as you dedicate effort to finding the free range organically fed and humanely dispatched perfect turkey give a thought to the humble gravy boat for serving up that perfect bird's juices.  If you don't have one, Charlotte Elliott has several.  We are here for you.  
In the photo this you will find a Georgian Style silver plate Gravy Boat.... $35  

and don't panic!  We have the rest of those fabulous things for your table as well.

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A Victorian Lady's adventures in Japan

The current front window display of Charlotte Elliott pays homage to our family heritage and the Victorian Lady who created the foundation for our love and appreciation for Japanese Imari pottery.

In 1903 Irene Elliott  Belding, my great grandmother, traveled to Japan with her husband, Albert Belding.  He had taken a job as an English Language teacher at Kobe College.

 

 

They took a train from New York City to Seattle, Washington with their three year old daughter, my great Aunt Alice.  From Seattle they embarked on a streamer ship to Tokyo, Japan.

Then they took another train to Kobe and an Ox Cart to their residence.  This is according to the family tales.  I am still awaiting further details of her life in Kobe.  My mother's cousins are sending me some of Irene's  journals or letters.  

I do know that Irene set up and managed the household while Albert began teaching.   And while she was in the market shopping for household goods she became delighted by an orange, blue and red glazed pottery design from the Imari region.  She so loved it that she collected great quantities over the next decade.   And shipped several crates of it back to New York when they returned in 1912.

Her collection has been divided amongst three more generations of my family.  I have continued to collect Imari porcelain.  Some pieces are added to Irene's collection but still more is for sale here at the shop.  

To Irene, Imari spoke to the elegance of Japan.  It is easy to incorporate into any design.  It is timeless beauty fits seamlessly into traditional, modern and mid century decor.  It can fit into your home as well.

 

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Recent posts
See our new website!
Halloween Costumes and Vintage Clothing
BIG Spring Sale!
Rock and roll
The Gravy Boat