Pilgrims Antiques West Street Dorking Get back to the Kitchen.

Welcome to Pilgrims Antiques Centre.

This must be rather a hurried visit, for I was short of time yesterday.

Naturally the customers come first and it is good to spend time with them, chatting and showing things and hunting for something that they are after.

It is also important that we give the customers something good to look at.

This means dusting, cleaning and rearranging quite frequently.

Just lately I (Paula) have acquired interesting items of kitchenalia and I planned that yesterday would be the day when I created a larger kitchen area.

My kitchen items tend to date from the 1930s to the 1950s - like most of my stock.

I didn't have time to take any specially staged photographs of stock. I took pictures of things on the shelves as you would see them on a visit.

Here we have my kitchen shelves.

If you want an enlarged view of my picture, then click on the photo and then use the back arrow on your screen to return to the home page.

This is the top shelf.

Next shelf.

Next shelf down.

And the bottom 2 shelves.

The other person who chooses to have quite a lot of kitchenalia is Jo.

These kitchen shelves back on to mine in the room at the far end of the shop.

Jo has some lovely old big stone jars and look, a couple of interesting pie funnels.

These are not strictly kitchen items - though pine is very much used in kitchens.

Monika has this pine kitchen dresser and a lovely crisp white table cloth, decorated with lace.

A large copper urn (cauldron?) to be found in Jonathan's area.

Some items with a kitchen theme in Sue's area - tucked into the original old fireplace.

The sun is shining today in south east England - it is quite warm

I hope it continues until the Bank Holiday weekend that is to come.

I would like to remind you that Pilgrims, along with the other antiques shops in West Street, does not open on Bank Holiday Mondays.

But whatever you are doing I hope it is enjoyable.

Pilgrims antiques, West Street, Dorking. Red and White of St George.

Happy St George's Day to you from all of us at Pilgrims Antiques.
Centuries ago St George was celebrated on 23rd April almost as much as Christmas Day; but after union with Scotland I guess it was deemed to be "politically not correct"! The habit began to die.

But we have to ask why St George is the patron saint of England - he wasn't English! He never visited England.
He was born in what is now Palestine in about 280AD - or maybe Turkey.
Knowledge of his birth his hazy. His mother was Palestinian and George was a soldier there.
He came from a wealthy family and on adulthood became a successful soldier. The emperor Diocletian decided that all Christian soldiers should be arrested and forced to renounce their faith. George refused and was brutally killed.
There are, however, less noble tales of his life. Nobody is completely sure of the truth.
The legend of St George and the Dragon has long been a favourite story.






St George is not just the patron saint of England - at least a dozen other countries have him as their patron and a number of cities, too, throughout the world.
Other countries pay more attention to St George's Day traditions than we do here.

My small contribution to a St George's Day celebration is to share with you photographs of things in our antiques centre depicting the same colours as the flag of St. George.

I am Paula - you will find my section at the back of the shop.

These vases and bowl are mine. The bowl is Sylvac.

I love both coloured glass and things which date from the 1950s and 60s.

This selection shows both.

The teapot is by Midwinter.

Red and white kitchen items from Jo and Terry.

Bill's Triang crane - which dates from the early 1950s.

My brothers had one of them - so lots of memories for me. Nostalgia is a force behind many purchases.


And many of us will have memories of Staffordshire dogs in our grandparents' homes. The dog is being sold by Jonathan. Jill has the red paperweight and little cream jug on her shelves.

More from Jonathan.

One of Julie's fine hand made cushions. She also has a red darning mushroom - one that unscrews to provide a space for storing your darning needles.

The buttons are from a basket collected together by Terry.

Monika's Whitefriars glass vase.

Red glass from Gill's cabinet and a white vase being sold by Jean.

A Lladro angel and a collection of 1960's Poole pottery from Jo.

Necklaces and a brooch from Sue's cabinets.

Stephen has a variety of old telephones - some from the very early days and others from the 1950s and 1960s.

If you wish to see an enlargement of any photograph, then please click on the picture and then use the back arrow on your computer to return to the home page.

Next week I will probably share with you the second part of my walk in Dorking - without going far from the shop.

I want to be busy in the shop next time I am in, re-arranging things to enlarge my kitchenalia section.

Come and look!

A browse round our antiques centre is a pleasure - indeed a browse round any antiques shop is a pleasure isn't it!

Pilgrims Antiques Centre West Street Dorking. Walk along The High Street

Welcome again to the Pilgrim's Antiques Centre blog - my web diary about the shop, its people and its stock.

This week I have something completely different.
I am taking you for a walk along the High Street.
It is a busy, bustling street and has been so for centuries - though motor cars and lorries have taken the place of horse and carts.

My walk was from the Post office back to the shop. It was a glorious Spring morning.
I enjoyed detours up other streets and alleyways and these will feature on the blog at some point too.

The first major building I passed was the White Horse - but I don't just seek out major buildings. There are all sorts of features which can catch my eye when out with a camera.

The White Horse was built in the 18th century as a coaching inn. It seems to have taken over from The Bull, where a famous coachman, William Broad, was employed.

The Dorking Heritage Trail is well worth exploring.

I would imagine that the museum and the library would have leaflets about this.

Close by The White Horse is an iron water pump on the pavement.

Keep the image in your head a moment.

Here is an early 20th century view of The High Street. The White Horse is on the right, beyond the horse and cart.

A bike is leaning on the fence just by the water pump.

The White Horse features in this photograph, which I presume dates from the late 1950s or early 1960s. Mac Fisheries was a well known chain at that time.

And now for a quirky detail that makes me feel so happy to have noticed - I had not spotted it until this walk with my camera.

I was looking up at the buildings and this is the view at the very top of the Boots the Chemist frontage.

I must do a little research and discover what the building originally was - maybe a chapel of some sort.

I love the stone owl up there, where nobody looks.

My eyes took me to a feature which I had not studied before - a metal archway over an alleyway.

It led me to read about this past Dorking resident.

There were lots of Dorking people who achieved some fame in their various fields.

Each side of the arch has been decorated with metal features.

How many people walk by this small metal statue of the man?

The left hand side of the archway is simply quite beautiful.

There have been many inns and ale houses in Dorking - there still are plenty.

The facade of The Upper Chequers still exists, thanks to symapthetic restoration by Robert Dyas the hardware people.

The view from Pump Corner, looking east. Many original buildings remain.

This 1899 photograph is from a very similar spot - just a little further along the road. The raised pavement and steps remain.

This postcard dates I should think from the 1930s.

Pump Corner.

The old water pump remains with the signs pointing the routes to Horsham and Guildford.

Now this part of Dorking has become a one way street - every vehicle turns toward Horsham to start with.

And here we have an artist's water colour of the same view. I can just make out the name of the artist as Peter Rushden (I think).

Many thanks to one of the followers of this blog who has pointed out that the artist's name is Peter Rushton and she passed me a web site showing more examples of his work.

http://www.artrush.co.uk/artRushPages/artRushFiles/artRushSearch.asp...

If you are a Dorking resident or an interested visitor, you might like to learn much more.

There is one second hand copy of the book, photographed below, in Pilgrim's Antiques.

I am sure the library and the museum have much more that they could offer.

I hope you have enjoyed a brief stroll along part of the High Street.

I hope, too, that once you reach Pump Corner, you will continue on a few yards into West Street to find Pilgrim's Antiques Centre.

I look forward to sharing other views of Dorking with you - maybe next time.

But I am sure there will be wonderful new stock in the shop when we are next there which I will want to feature in my web diary - so maybe I shall surprise you next week.

Pilgrims Antiques Centre West Street Dorking. Coloured Glass.

Welcome again to the Pilgrims Antiques Centre blog.
I hope you have enjoyed some good things during the holiday weekend.
In south east England we have enjoyed a certain amount of slightly warmer weather - Spring is trying to make its presence felt!

A long weekend disrupts the routine of course. This is made even more strange for me because for various reasons I am missing 2 Mondays in the shop - that is my normal duty day.
I am making up for it by doing other days instead.
Last Thursday Bill and I enjoyed a day working with Jill.
Jill loves her glass - and has knowledge about all sorts.
I decided to make glass the theme for this week's posting.
I particularly love coloured glass. I love to see items of similar colours displayed together.

Carnival glass is moulded or pressed glass, always with a pattern and always with a shiny, metallic, "iridescent" surface shimmer.
The keys to its appeal were that it looked superficially like the very much finer and very much more expensive blown iridescent glass by Tiffany, Loetz and others and also that the cheerful bright finish caught the light even in dark corners of the home. Wikipedia.

20th century blue glass.


Pinks and mauves.

As a lover of the 1950s and 1960s glass that is often referred to as "end of day" glass, I assumed the multicoloured dish to date from that era.

But experts have assured me it is Victorian.

Glass makers have always wondered what to do with the molten glass at the end of the day and have created a wealth of interesting pieces.

Red glass - some very obviously dating from the 1950s and 1960s.

Collecting handkerchief vases is an area all of its own.

Paperweights can be found to suit all pockets and varying in quality.

They take up little room, so it is a collection that can be added to when a new treasure is found.

Green and blue glass from Terry and Emma.

Pinks from Jo.

The lamp shade is very stylish.

Blue glass from Jill

The deep blue is referred to as Bristol Blue.

Bristol Blue was first made in the 1700s and is still being made today.

A superb example of carnival glass.

I took a close up, with the price ticket, so that you could see the fine detail and also the name of the manufacturer and the very reasonable price.

The underside is a vivid blue.

Below is information about the Fenton glass company and the American carnival glass. It is taken from Wikipedia.

Carnival glass originated as a glass called “Iridill”, produced beginning in 1907 by the Fenton Art Glass company (founded in 1905). Iridill was inspired by the fine blown art glass of such makers as Tiffany and Steuben, but did not sell at the anticipated premium prices and was subsequently discounted. After these markdowns, Iridill pieces were used as carnival prizes.
Iridil became popular and very profitable for Fenton, which produced many different types of items in this finish, in over 150 patterns. Fenton maintained their position as the largest manufacturer and were one of very few makers to use a red coloured glass base for their carnival glass. After interest waned in the late 1920s, Fenton stopped producing carnival glass for many years. In more recent years, due to a resurgence in interest, Fenton re-started production of carnival glass until its closure in 2007.
Most US carnival glass was made before 1925, with production in clear decline after 1931.

Red glass from Jill.

Our other Gill is also a glass specialist.

Much of her glass is crystal. She has some examples of coloured glass.

Gill has the 2 vases for sale and Julie is selling the paperweight.

Monika has these items of red glass.

The tall heavy lamp base was, I believe, manufactured as a lamp base. It was never a vase that has been converted.

Jonathan has some beautiful cranberry glass - much more than this.

Some historians believe that the first cranberry glass was made in Roman times.

Cranberry glass (or Gold Ruby glass as it is known in Europe) is a red glass made by adding gold chloride to molten glass. Tin, in the form of stannic chloride, is sometimes added in tiny amounts as a reducing agent. The glass is used primarily in expensive decorations.
Cranberry glass is made in craft production rather than in large quantities, due to the high cost of the gold and the delicate mixing process required. Wikipedia.

And now I have learned something new! I didn't realise that cranberry glass was made by adding gold.

There is a tale that a nobleman once threw a gold coin into some molten glass and thus cranberry glass was invented.

Actually, technically it couldn't have happened like that, because the gold has to be treated first.

Coloured glass has an appeal to very many people; a display of coloured glass, from any era looks fantastic.

The glass stock in Pilgrims changes often.

I was lucky enough to find examples of the sort of glass I love the best over the Easter weekend, which is now in Pilgrims.

Bill took some pictures of me with it - opting to use the modern approach with the picture on the tilt.

Call in to Pilgrims and see all the glass we have on offer - a treat for the eyes.

If you should want to see any picture in more detail then click on the picture and then use the back arrow on your computer to return to the home page.