This is a detail picture of some of the South of the Border sets.
The one in the back is from Peru. It is hand painted and really
wonderful. The clay on the outside is unglazed, while the inside
of each piece is beautifully glazed. It was a bargain at the State
Fair of Texas - $9! The others are examples of several Mexican
sets. You'll notice that those have cups/saucers in multiples
of three instead of two. Notice the really bright colors of the
one in the center. That came from the border town of Matamoros.
They are all really colorful and unique. The tall green set is
probably a water set with the large jug and cups instead of a
teaset which would have a cream jug and a sugar bowl
This grouping is representative of what you might call my favorites.
I like that ones that are really feminine and well, beautiful.
The set at the back with the fruit on it is interesting. The fruit
is actually 3-Dimensional - raised. The metal box is the 'teaset'
that Ken bought for me on our Honeymoon in San Diego - actually
on Coronado Island at the historic hotel - the Del Coronado. The
small pink one came from Epcot Center at a shop in the German
section. The cobalt blue one is one of several that I have that
are similar - Victorian in design, with a courting couple. The
blue net design is Limoges, and the peach colored one is from
Hallmark and is actually a limited edition numbered collectible.
This is my newest display cabinet. It is rather hard to tell from
the picture, but the cabinet is only about 12 inches by 12 inches
square, so the teasets in there are mostly "Teeny Tiny"
ones. Their platters are about 2 or 2 1/2 inches in diameter at
the most.
This picture is of the contents of the curio cabinet that my dad
built for me. It is really a beautiful cabinet, but even better
are the teasets inside of it. The bottom shelf has several of
the 'Picnic Basket' sets, where the sets comes packed inside a
miniature picnic basket, sometimes with napkins and silverware
included! The next-to-bottom set has most of the South of the
Border sets. I do have a few sets from Peru, but all of these
are from Mexico or points not very far North.
