[thecodont]

The best part: there were shards of dishes left there that were identified as being Wedgwood, and because Wedgwood hasn’t changed in the past 200 years I was able to go out and buy dishes in the same pattern my ancestors used.

This is very cool.

[ottbmare]

This is very cool.

Yes, it was. When I saw the shards I phoned Wedgwood in the UK and asked them what museums in the US would have samples of the types of dishes they had in the US in the late eighteenth century. The nice Englishwoman at the other end of the line said, "May I have your postcode, please?" I gave her my zip; there was a pause; then she said, "The nearest place you could see the patterns we had in the late eighteenth century is called Bloomingdales, in North Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Is that convenient to you?" I blithered that Bloomie's was a modern US department store and she explained patiently that I did not require to go to a museum--their patterns were unchanged in the past two hundred years, they used the same molds then as now, and the only difference is that the dishes now say "Wedgwood" on the bottom.

[highlander_UW]

The best part: there were shards of dishes left there that were identified as being Wedgwood, and because Wedgwood hasn’t changed in the past 200 years I was able to go out and buy dishes in the same pattern my ancestors used.

This is very cool.

It sure is...just imagine the fun at formal family dinners trying to guess which person has the plate that's spent the last few hundred years marinating in poo.