Gertie's cup

Pieces of glass, china, and silver speak to me for different reasons. This 2-1/2-inch tall tarnished silverplate cup caught my eye at Goodwill on Saturday because of the bleeding hearts! I absolutely love bleeding hearts, and I think their design, like all of what God creates, is simply amazing.

And that looks like blackberries on the back. Take a look at the top rim of the cup. Would you believe about half of it is separated from the cup? I didn't know that that could happen to silver, and I must admit I'm rather fascinated by it. It's obviously a sturdy piece, not fragile at all, so I wonder what makes a silver rim separate from a cup? (Any thoughts?)

But what really spoke to me on this cup was the name on the left of the cup as I'm holding it: Gertie. Who was Gertie? Was that a baby or a little girl? How did the cup land at the Goodwill store in Carrollton? If I hadn't already planned all my Teatime Tales for the rest of the year, I would have to make up a story about Gertie's cup!

The other interesting thing about this cup was that it's marked James W. Tufts Quadruple Plate, and if you look the maker up online, you'll fine some beautiful tea sets made by this company. Through a little online research, I learned that James W. Tufts started producing his silverplated items in 1875, and they were called quadruple plate, as you might expect, because they were made with four times the amount of silver used for standard silverplate wares. You'll note the $1.31 price, but I must hasten to point out that because this piece was marked "Y" and yellow items were half off that day at Goodwill, Gertie's cup cost me just 65 cents. I think I've already had more than 65 cents' worth of fun with it!