vintage texasware bowls (my slightly out of control collection)

Did you guys see the Oprah show about the lady that was a hoarder and you couldn't even walk thru her house there was so much stuff.  She kept everything including fast food wrappers in there.  I truly did feel horrible for her because it is a sickness that I have seen firsthand myself a few times. It is a compulsion that can be hard to beat.   Thank goodness this is not one of my own personal problems.  I've got plenty but this isn't one of them. 

I digressed.  Where I'm going with this is....many people in my antique collecting/selling business suffer from this affliction.  They buy with the intent to sell and then they can't part with the goods.  I have obsessive compulsive tendencies myself so I have to be very careful not to fall into this pattern.  It helps to be married to mister high energy neatnick who makes me address each pile of goodies I bring home within days.  I'd say that I keep only about 3% of the vintage stuff I buy.  I honestly and truly am thrilled to see my vintage finds  go to new homes.  

But a girl does need a few collections for herself.  And my collections are extremely random and often don't make sense.  For example, my Texasware bowl collection.  About 18 years ago I saw this super cute speckled bowl at a garage sale in Yorkville where we used to live.  I picked it up and was mesmorized by its confetti swirls and weighty plasticness.  My mom never had one of these.  I'd remember it if she did.  It was priced at $4.00 and I think I scoffed internally at the price (four dollars for a plastic bowl....listen lady this is a garage sale....why is everything else 25 cents and the one thing I want is four big dollars....I just spent 2 hours cutting coupons and I'm supposed to be grocery shopping right now....and my husband wants homemade lasagna for dinner and cheese doesn't come cheap...and wah wah wah)   My inner voice is really excitable and mostly over the top. 

But the bowl was speaking to me.  Yes things "speak" to me.  Not in a creepy ...I really hear a voice way...but a "you must buy me" vibe that is simply undeniable.  When bowls talk I listen. 

Still following me???  Good.  So obviously I bought the bowl.  I have never been one to dicker so I paid the full price and went on my merry way.  Well you would have thought I'd just brought home a baby from the nursery.  Here we are in my car driving home and I'm picking it up...putting it down.... turning it over.... smiling at it.... thinking about how I can't really use it because it might get scratched.... do I have a special spot for it...how will I make sure Bob doesn't use it when I'm not looking....what do they call bowls like this....when was it made..........do you all see why I am quite content to spend a lot of time by myself never getting too lonely.  I can entertain myself for hours with a plastic bowl.

So of course I did my research and I found out that they are called Texasware bowls and they were very popular in the 60's.  They come in all sorts of pretty colors.  With the different types of splatter patterns the possibilities are endless.  I kept my eyes on the lookout whenever I was out antiquing.  I always had my rules.  At first I wouldn't pay over 5 dollars then that became 10 dollars and finally a few years ago it went to 15 dollars and it killed me because I love to collect things that aren't really high dollar items.  That isn't fun to me.  

As my collection began to grow in size so did my fear of using and possibly damaging or scratching my bowls.  If you drop one the right way it can crack.  Yikes the horror of that happening!!!  But, I will say that I have gotten better over the years and I now use them almost daily for peanuts, popcorn and potato chips...only things that begin with p....see what I mean about my problems????  Just kidding, I use them for salad, too!

I still pick one up now and again if the price is right.  I do refuse to go over my fifteen dollar limit because I do have enough for now.  But the really desirable ones (which are deeply colored like in cobalt, deep pink, turquoise, hot orange)  go very high on ebay....like over 50 dollars.  

Rachel Ray used the real vintage ones on her Food Network show and so many people wanted them that she has a line of faux (and by faux I mean not nearly as cool) ones made by Precidio.  Ok maybe that was too harsh...but I've seen them in person and they simply don't compare to the vintage ones.  Apologies to anyone who has one.  If you like the look you should get the real deal on ebay.  There are some to be had cheaply especially if you don't mind gray and tan. 

(The above story was originally posted back on my old blog back in 2008 and was one of my most popular posts ever ... I slightly edited it for this post and all of the photos are new)

A couple of weekends ago the mister and I decided to clean our kitchen cupboards and took everything out of them to do the job right.  Imagine his enthusiastic reply when I asked him to help me carry the stacks outside for a photo op.  Really he did not complain as over the 22 years of marriage he has grown somewhat more accustomed to requests like this but I do think he was  mumbling something under his breath as he complied.  I like to think he was telling himself how adorable the bowls are and how worthy of a special photo session they were but I'm not betting on it!

So anyway ... here are a couple of mosaics highlighting some of my collection, and would you believe this isn't even all of them.  I've given some away as gifts to friends who love them also and have more I didn't carry out.  But YES, I'd still buy more in a heartbeat if I found the right ones.  

If you have a vintage collection you'd like to talk about please do ... I love to hear about other people's collections.  Makes me feel like I'm in good company!

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