26 
House & Garden. 
Portrait medallion of 
Benjamin Franklin in 
lustre, igth Century 
OLD LUSTRE AND THE NEW COLLECTOR 
A Ware for Those Who Love Subtle Colors Behind a Glaze 
and Enjoy a Meal for the Dishes in Which It is Served 
GARDNER TEALI 
1 AM NOT what you would call 
a greedy person, but there may 
be no harm in confessing that when 
I am in the countryside, lustre ware 
is always a discoverable certainty 
when chancing upon a pleasing 
farmhouse or a village of inviting 
cottages. Some there may be who 
would regard such a state of affairs 
as whimsical, who would have no 
patience with a predilection for a 
well-adorned country board, not 
necessarily groaning beneath a mid¬ 
day meal or a'twilight supper, but 
comfortably conscious of upholding 
a-plenty to go round. There one 
will find an abundance of fresh milk, 
hot biscuit and honey, delectable 
tea, and the jam-pot thoughtfully 
placed within reach. To such a 
meal one comes by instinct at the 
appointed time and leaves with 
body and spirit refreshed. 
Now I contend that the sight of 
bits of old lustre ware, such as one 
is apt to find on just such tables, is, 
in itself, conducive to a spiritual re¬ 
freshment which the silver service, 
solid or sham, of the very best 
appointed city restaurant may not 
dispense. There are, I grant you, 
some, or many, who would contend 
The first pitcher is Staffordshire copper lustre with a figured panel; the 
second a rose panel in copper lustre 
The Staffordshire district was the cradle of the lustre industry in England. 
These two silver resist lustre pitchers date from the early igth Century 
that apple sauce and not lustre ware 
is the root of the matter, but I 
know better, for I have but the most 
casual, and even then only occa¬ 
sional, interest in apple sauce,which 
leads me to be certain that it is 
lustre ware—the milk jug, the 
sugar bowl and creamer, the jam¬ 
pot and the silver resist lustre mug 
before my flowered pink lustre 
plate. 
Possibly, Dear Reader, you will 
think I am romancing, but my faith 
in human institutions and in the 
persistence of miracles has been 
greatly enhanced by the significant 
fact that all “this” happened to me 
—happened!—and not so very long 
ago. That country ramble—how it 
will live in memory! And the sup¬ 
pertime hospitality, come upon that 
early evening—how conclusively it 
has proved to my modest satisfac¬ 
tion that I am an exemplary excep¬ 
tion to that one of the frailties of 
human nature commonly categoried 
as envy, for no craven covetousness 
suggested my returning stealthily 
in the night to ride the cupboard 
that I knew would be holding these 
treasures when the cover was re¬ 
moved and the kindly housewife 
These three pitchers are examples of fine resist lustre of early igth Century make. Resist lustre was so called because the underglaze of color and design 
formed by chemically reduced metals resisted the final top glaze, leaving each its separate color and character 
