Don’t drink and eBay. That’s all I’m saying.
It started innocently enough. I was trying to set the table in St. Michaels for a dinner party, and we ran short of plates.
I took this as a challenge.
[More…] There’s a platter at the St. Michaels house that I’ve always loved. Solid, graceful, useful, and a pretty shade of blue. It was a stark contrast to the other things in the kitchen: thin Corelle plates, rusty eggbeaters, appliances with life-threatening electrical cords…
I flipped it over and learned that the platter was part of the Russel Wright “Iroquois Casual China” collection. If you’re not familiar with Russel Wright, please read about him at your earliest opportunity. He was all about “easier living.” He said that “good design is for everyone.”
Sound familiar?
A night or two after said dinner party, I poured myself a gin and tonic and flipped open my laptop to see what eBay might have in the way of Iroquois china. Wouldn’t it be fun, I thought, to christen the new kitchen with mid-century dishes in keeping with the house and the people who built it?
Fun, yessiree. And expensive.
I’m not an eBay expert. So I got, shall we say, overly enthusiastic at the offerings. I know now that if you can stay close to you computer, it makes sense to “watch” certain items so you can weigh each bid against your recent successes or failures.
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
Turns out that I’m such a “successful” bidder that I won EVERY SINGLE THING I bid on. Save for one serving bowl, I think. (Which would have been really handy, actually. But whatever.) And eBay makes you feel so good about winning. “Congratulations! You’ve won this! Good for you! You are so smart and savvy!” As though turning your wallet over and shaking it required any sort of skill.
When I got home, I was greeted by this.
I ignored the pile for three days. Then I thought I’d better start opening the boxes to make sure nothing was broken. (I wanted to leave feedback for every item, you see, so I couldn’t just open things willy-nilly. I had to have my laptop handy, and my notes…)
Here are some of the things I won:
Plus a set of pink “Dogwood” Melmac bread and butter plates (what was I thinking?) a gorgeous divided “foamy blue” vegetable bowl, and four platters, in blue, yellow, nutmeg, and orange.
I’m on the fence about the pink stuff. I can totally see Mad Men’s Joan whipping these out for a casual supper, but, well, I’m no Joan.
I might try Craig’s List and see if I’m equally “successful” as a seller.
In the meantime, who’s ready for dinner?
Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She has been quoted in publications from The Washington Post to The Seattle Times and is considered an expert on color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.
