A Wee Treasure

Yesterday, on a regular visit to my favorite Summertown charity shop, I came upon a little tealish-blue dish, about 2 ½ inches in diameter.  What caught my eye was the image that was on it – a sweet little bird (not sure what kind).  I do love the birds.  The drawing almost looks like sgraffito, but I couldn’t see or feel any indentations.   I bought it and brought it home to research it on the internet.  What wee treasure had I found?

On the back of the dish were the words:  “Beddgelert Wales.”  After doing a couple of google searches I learned that Beddgelert is in the Snowdonia area of Wales.  In Welch, the word means Gelert’s Grave.  Gelert was the name of one of the local prince’s favorite hounds.  One day when the prince went to look for his young son, who was not where he should have been, he was greeted by an energetic Gelert, bouncing around, covered in blood.  The prince was horrified, thinking that Gelert had killed his little son.  Immediately he drew his sword and killed the demonic hound.  Then he heard his son screaming, and found him next to the dead wolf that Gelert had killed to protect the little child.  The prince never smiled again…See the Legend of Beddgelert for more info.

So, that’s where the little dish came from, but what is? Again, more google-searching revealed that it is a pin dish.  A pin dish?  What, exactly, is a pin dish?  I immediately went to my online account at the Bodleian Library and looked up “pin dish” in the Oxford English Dictionary.  Not there!  More reading online, however, lead to the brilliant deduction that a pin dish is just what you think it is:  a dish to hold pins!

It appears that pin dishes were and still are a big deal in England.  In America, we tend to use pin cushions.  Pin dishes are all over British eBay.  Many people (especially quilters and seamtresses) use them to hold pins, but they are also used to hold butter, jam or even olive oil for dipping bread at the table.  Wouldn’t it be fun to have a mismatched collection of these to use for a dinner party! 

This picture from Cherie Saunder's blog:  Just a Little Something,
February 24, 2011
See Cherie Saunder's blog for her comments on pin dishes

I found a lot on the internet about how to make your pin dish magnetic – so the pins won’t fall out.  Basically you glue a magnet on the bottom of the dish.  Instructions are everywhere about how to do this.  See How To Make a Magnetic Pin Dish for details.

So now, as I continue to explore charity shops in and around Oxford, you know what I’ll be looking for:  more pin dishes!  They’re nice and tiny and should be a breeze to pack and bring home.  I’ll let you know how the search goes.  By the way, do you have a pin dish?