LUCY BURDETTE: It's always a happy day for me when Barbara Ross's next Maine mystery comes out. Sadly, I've already read SHUCKED APART. But I highly recommend the series to you, and know you'll enjoy her blog post today too. Welcome Barb!
BARBARA ROSS: Shucked Apart, the ninth Maine Clambake Mystery, is about oyster farming on the Damariscotta River. I loved doing the research, especially the part that started with a Damariscotta River Cruise, which takes you on a tour of the beautiful river, where you can see eagles, seals and lobster pots, and several oyster farms. On the trip they offer oysters from each farm and explain the difference in growing methods and taste. I recommend the tour to anyone who finds themselves in mid-coast Maine in the summer.
The subject of oysters brought me naturally to the subject of my grandmother’s oyster plates. It brought me there naturally because the plates were under my coffee table, which had also been hers, staring me in the face.
I first remember the coffee table, with the plates on its bottom shelf visible through the glass top, at my grandparents' house in Watermill, Long Island. That house was built in 1954 and following a tradition in our family, once the furniture was placed in the house it was never moved again. Sometimes, during my grandparents’ frequent cocktail parties, the crab you see in the corner of the photo above was on top of the coffee table filled with peanuts, which my brother and I found very exciting.
When my grandparents died the coffee table, plates, crab, and lobster-on-a-shell went to my parents’ sunporch in Dallas, Pennsylvania, where my kids and my niece and nephew grew up seeing them. When my parents downsized, the table ended up in their smaller home’s basement, as did the oyster plates, packed in a box. When it came time to empty that house, I grabbed them both. Now they’re at my house in Portland, Maine, where we clear them off that bottom shelf whenever my toddler granddaughters come to visit.
Thinking about the oyster plates I wondered: Do we keep things because they have meaning, or do they have meaning because we keep them?
The only plate I’ve done any research about this this one.
The design was specifically commissioned by Lucy Hayes, the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes and made by Limoges for his inauguration in 1877. And if my plate said that on the back, it would be worth, according to Christies, $8,000 to $12,000. Surprise, surprise, it doesn’t say that on the back. The design was very popular and offered to the public, so my plate is probably worth more like $8.00 to $12.00.
I don’t know if that plate was in the family from 1877 onwards. It is plausible. My grandmother’s family were famous cabinetmakers in New York City. They made the chairs for the US House of Representatives in 1857, and later collaborated with the architects McKim, Mead and White, and with Louis Comfort Tiffany. In the next generation, they were among the founders of interior design as an industry. We have a lots of their stuff around, though I often suspect most of we have was rejected from paying commissions.
Or, it could equally plausibly be that one of my grandmother’s friends spotted the plate at a yard sale in the 1950s and bought it for her. You know how it is when it gets around that you’re collecting something.
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| Barbara's grandmother |
Whichever it is, the value to me is that the plates have been around all my life and remind me of happy times and people I loved. And now I’m imprinting them on a new generation.
Readers: What do you think? Do we keep things because they have meaning, or do they have meaning because we keep them? Is there something you treasure, even if it has value only to you? Tell us about it.
About Shucked Apart
The Snowden Family Clambake Company has a beloved reputation in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. Almost as famous is the sleuthing ability of proprietor Julia Snowden, which is why an oyster farmer seeks her out when she’s in trouble.
When Andie Greatorex is robbed of two buckets of oyster seed worth $35,000, she wonders if somebody’s trying to mussel her out of business. Could it be a rival oyster farmer, a steamed former employee, or a snooty summer resident who objects to her unsightly oyster cages floating on the beautiful Damariscotta River? There’s also a lobsterman who’s worried the farm’s expanding lease will encroach on his territory and Andie’s ex-partner, who may come to regret their split. Before Julia can make much headway in the investigation, Andie turns up dead, stabbed by a shucking knife. Now it’s up to Julia to set a trap for a cold and clammy killer . . .
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About Barb
Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com
Congratulations on your newest book, Barbara . . . now I’m anxious to find out who nabbed the oyster seed! [And the oyster plates are just darling] . . . .
ReplyDeleteI think it’s probably an even split on keeping things because they have meaning/things having meaning because we keep them. I think the things we’ve seen all our lives are valuable because they have the ability to bring us wonderful memories, not necessarily because they are worth some money. I have a framed, hand-carved Lord’s Prayer hanging on the wall in my living room. It hung on my mother’s living room wall and, before that, on my grandmother’s living room wall. I know only that my grandmother’s great-great-great Uncle George carved it as a gift for his mother. [We once tried to have it appraised for insurance purposes; the appraiser told us they never appraise religious things because their value is subjective.]
All I can say is that it brings me wonderful memories of seeing it when I was growing up and the memories it evokes are, quite simply, priceless . . . .
That is a beautiful story. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
DeleteLove the coffee table display, Barb! The plates are lovely, whatever their value.
ReplyDeleteIt has to be a mixture, I think. I found boxes of soapstone carvings my father-in-law bought in the Northwest Territories and near the Arctic Circle in the 1960s from native artisans. They'd been hiding under the eaves in an attic for decades, unseen. Now they are in our entry hall, in a glass-doored china cabinet. I swapped the wood shelves for glass ones, so the carvings are easier to see. Some of them actually tell a story, like the canoe with three spear fisherman.
Are they valuable? Probably not really. But it's a remarkable collection for what it represents: a man with both an adventurous spirit and an appreciation of art in many forms. He often bought art from young artists, some of whom would later become famous. We didn't keep most of the paintings or prints; we already had loads of wildlife art, which is mostly what he had. It's valuable to us, because we know the backstory, and the collector was dear to us all.
Oh those sound like treasures!
DeleteMy mother-in-law had hord-y tendencies and I used to tell her if it's not displayed and you can't use it or enjoy it you might as well not have it. What you've done in displaying these pieces and keeping the story alive is wonderful.
DeleteKAREN: That is so cool that your father-in-law bought items from native artisans.
DeleteI wish that I had some soapstone carvings from Canadian inuit artists.
I have given some soapstone statues as gifts to some special international visitors but I have never bought any for myself.
Some of these came from around Yellowknife, Grace. They still had price stickers on a few $8-20 apiece.
DeleteDo we keep things because they have meaning, or do they have meaning because we keep them? Yes.
ReplyDeleteI have some things from my grandparents that mean a great deal to me. Not sure they'd mean anything to anyone else, but I love them.
Exactly.
DeleteBarb, I'm getting ready to read Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody. It seems I've read several books in the past few months that have to do with older sleuths, and I'm looking forward to adding it to my list of those. And, congratulations on Shucked Apart. It sounds so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have quite a lot of "special" items around my house, and the most special are the ones that belonged to my parents or my husband's parents. One of the items that I always remembered seeing in my mother's kitchen is her blue salt glazed pitcher, and now I have it on my mantle where I can look at it as I sit and type on the computer or watch TV. I know that it's valuable to me because of its association to my mother because I started to buy another one in an antique store, so both of my children could one day each have one, but I didn't buy it. I didn't buy it because without the story of it belonging to my mother, it wouldn't mean anything.
I have to comment on your pictures, too, Barb. That coffee table is beautiful, as are the oyster dishes. I had never heard of oyster dishes before. So cool. And, your grandmother looks like she's modeling for a fashion magazine. How stylish she was.
I hope you enjoy Jane Darrowfield. My grandmother did model for a lot of famous artists during her college summers, including Norman Rockwell.
DeleteBarbara, welcome to JRW and congratulations on release of Shucked Apart. The cover is amazing. As a New Englander, I can testify to the boldness of sea gulls when food is set out anywhere near the shore!
ReplyDeleteMy house is full of beautiful things that belonged to my mother, my grandmother, my step mother and my mother-in-law. There are so many items that evoke memories of those women that it would be impossible to select just one to speak of. What I do know is the the value of antiques changes over time, but memories are the biggest value I can place on these things.
Love your photos, the plates, the table and your grandmother.
I love the cover, too! Memories are the biggest value.
DeleteYay, Barb! I also loved Shucked Apart - and wish I didn't read so darn fast. Your oyster dishes - how often do you serve oysters in them?
ReplyDeleteAmong other things, I treasure my grandfather Allan's upholstered rocking chair. He loved it, my mom loved it, and I do, too. I paid to ship it out from California and to get it recovered. It sits in my office, and is my brainstorming chair, my reading chair when I need to escape the crazy kitten downstairs, and, during the last year, where I sit during Quaker Meeting for Worship over Zoom.
Hi Edith! I'm so glad you liked Shucked Apart. I love the story of your chair. And the answer is I have never seen oysters in those plates until Bill put them in when we were testing the baked oyster recipe for the book and took a photo.
DeleteBARB, welcome back to JRW!
ReplyDeleteI have been a fan of your Maine Clambake series and also loved reading SHUCKED APART. The details about the oyster farm industry and conflicts with the lobstermen and other locals was very interesting.
I had never seen an oyster plate before, so thanks for providing the history.
Like others have said, I think we treasure items for both reason.
Unfortunately, I don't have many items from my family. When my mother passed away suddenly in 2003, I helped my dad and we basically tossed out almost everything (at his insistence). And I was not allowed (by him) to keep much, except for a couple of pieces of her jewelry (brooches, her pearl necklace).
And when my dad moved from his condo to a retirement home near Toronto in 2016, I was living in Ottawa. He basically threw out any pieces of furniture, and childhood mementoes that I had left there, so I got nothing that I would have wanted to keep.
But you have the suits your mother sewed for you, Grace. That seems like such a gift,
DeleteEDITH: That's true but of course the suits were made for me.
DeleteI would have liked to have kept a small item from my grandparents such as a kokeshi doll (you would know what this is).
My mother was much like your father, ruthlessly getting rid of stuff. I had to 'rescue' a few items over the years.
DeleteBARB: Yes, I wish I could have "rescued" a few items, but he was not sentimental at all about stuff, and didn't think to ask me if I wanted anything. Besides the wooden doll I mentioned above, it would have been nice to get some family photos of our trips to Japan. I have no photos of my grandparents or any of my uncles/aunts and cousins.
DeleteThat is your actual grandmother? I am swooning. What year (or so) is that ? So gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI have my grandmother’s watch —it is absolutely bejeweled and gorgeous—and I wear it on very special occasions. It is so fragile and otherworldly...
Congratulations on the book! And I hope you are all safe and well!
I'm so glad you wear the watch. That is the point. Safely and carefully, but wear it. I think that drawing would be around 1921. My grandmother modeled during her college summers including for some famous illustrators like Norman Rockwell and C. Coles Phillips.
DeleteOh, what a wonderful post, full of love and history. Which, of course, is why we keep our family heirlooms, whether they are worth $8 or $8,000. (Wait. $8,000?! That baby's going straight to the auction house!). I have a delicate Cottage Rose-patterned tea set that once belonged to my great-grandmother, Maw Maw. Every summer, she would ceremoniously invite me for a tea party complete with tiny cookies. And at every tea party she would gaze fondly at her tea set and say quietly, "I love my beautiful things."
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful story. The Snugg sisters in my Maine Clambake books have rose-patterned china. Maybe it is the same. I will look it up.
DeleteBarb, congratulations on SHUCKED APART. I'm looking forward to reading it and catching up with Julia and the crew at Busman's Harbor.
ReplyDeleteMy mom gave my brother most of the family pieces during her lifetime. I received the Limoges platters and covered serving dishes that my grandfather purloined from a house slated for demolition in Westchester County, NY, and mom's potato peeler, grapefruit knife, and French rolling pin. Although I use the china, it's the utensils I cherish. I feel a direct connection to my family each time I use them.
That is so funny. I have some of my grandmother's utensils and my mother-in-law's. I think they are precious because we use them frequently and they weave our memories into our daily life.
DeleteCongratulations on your latest! Love the serving plates.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents had a hideous bronze Victorian lamp of Minerva, the Roman goddess, that had originally been mounted on the newel post of my great-grandparents home (gas, converted to electric). As a child, I adored it. Years later, my parents gave it to me. I had it rewired and bought a new shade and it still sits on the piano.
I have a couple of those Victorian lamps, too. One is beautiful to modern eyes. The other, let's just say it has sentimental value.
DeleteI think the first feeds into and becomes the second. We are attached to the items and we keep them. Then they are so ingrained into our everyday lives we have difficulty considering life without them or parting with them.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a cycle that goes around over generations.
DeleteSometimes, when I was doing fieldwork, we'd find a site that dated to a certain prehistoric time period, and then there might be one much, much earlier projectile point in the assemblage of artifacts. Did this mean two different time periods of occupation at the site? Maybe, but maybe that lone point, so beautifully made, was found and prized simply for its beauty or meaning by those more recent prehistoric people.
ReplyDeleteI make quilts, not stunning or intricate art quilts, but quilts to be used until they fall apart. The one currently on my bed was pieced by my mom and the one at the foot of my bed is over forty years old. My two treasures to be lived with and admired daily.
The oyster plates are so elegant, Barb. As was your grandmother! I see I have another series to add to my TBR pile. Thanks!
I also have my mom's quilts, Flora. Plus a top her mother made that my mom and her quilting group adding backing to and hand quilted. They all signed it. Such a treasure.
DeleteYour family is endlessly fascinating!
ReplyDeleteLOL. So is yours--people who founded a town!
DeleteI have had to keep things that actually mean something to me, not just because they belonged to an ancestor. When I moved from a house to a small apartment I had to be rather ruthless in my decisions. Certain items like the wardrobe my grandad brought to my mom, the battered silver candle holders from my grandparents, the tray with my mom’s name, were all no brainers. Other things had to be thought about and decided upon. That made me think about what is really important to me.
ReplyDeleteYes, moving, especially down-sizing has that effect. We moved three and a half years ago and I did a lot of pruning then--though not enough.
DeleteWhat a wonderful question! I think it's some of each. I look forward to reading your newest book.
ReplyDeleteBut first I was gobsmacked by the photo of the oyster plates and THE COFFEE TABLE! I had to go look at a photo of my family on Easter Day in Atlanta in 1956 seated around the same table, my mother and three little girls on the sofa and my father in a chair next to us. It's the exact same table with the glass top and wooden shelf. My mother would do small Ikebana arrangements on the shelf. Mother moved to a condo in the 1980's and I have no idea what happened to the table but it was part of my life forever.
Oh my goodness! Isn't that amazing. The same era in which I can definitely say we had that table.
DeleteI think it's a little of both. The things have meaning to the people you inherited them from, and therefore they have meaning to you.
ReplyDeleteOn the top shelf of my china cabinet is my grandmother's collection of teacups and saucers. Not one of them has any monetary value. A couple were painted by her or a friend of hers. But they were her treasured possessions and, therefore, they have great value to me. Same with my piano. I don't think it has great monetary value, but it was my mother's and I learned on it - therefore it has value to me. And because I valued it, The Girl wants it someday, even though she doesn't play.
Emotion is a weird, powerful thing.
So true. And emotion about things is so powerful. Human beings are amazing.
DeleteMy grandmother never moved a piece of furniture once it was in place. When they moved, after forty years in the same house, the major furniture pieces were placed in the same configuration as the previous house. I used to think that if they the television was in a new position grandma would have a sore neck from looking in a new direction.
ReplyDeleteI have so many things that belonged others before me. My great-aunt's grammar school graduation pendent watch was given to me when I was a senior in high school but I was not give the actual watch until I graduated from college. Grandma wanted to be sure I was old enough to take care of it. I think different items have different personal value as time goes by.
I agree different items have different personal value as time goes by.
DeleteWhen are things treasures, and when are they stuff? I have a tendency to hoard, thus I keep reminding myself most of my possessions are stuff. It is okay to toss worn out items. Now we do have a few pieces from the 19th century that are treasures and don't get me started on books.
ReplyDeleteBut what I really want to ask, and I am so happy you are here today, Barb, is about a character development in Shucked Apart. It is difficult to discuss without spoiling, however Julia had a significant life change in book 9. Had you planned this for her all along or did it happen during the creation of Shucked Apart. ps. I am very happy to have had the chance to be an ARC reviewer for this book. It is a great read!.
Hi Coralee--the answer to your question is somewhere in the middle. I didn't plan for it from the beginning of the series, that's for sure. But in the last few books it had become increasingly obvious that something had to change, for good or for ill. There will be three more books, so now I have to figure out how this situation gets resolved.
DeleteOOOOH, three more Maine Clambake mysteries is great news, Barb!
DeleteWhew! Just returned from ferrying my little brother to a dr appointment and home again. Finally, he can drive himself now. No brace for his arm. Freedom!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have items that belonged to my maternal grandparents that I remember when I was a kid, an oak table and a cedar chest. I've also acquired some things from both sets of grandparents that my mom passed along, with notes or stories about them, such as the little butter crock or the metal mortar and pestle. It is meaningful to have family items with history.
So thoughtful of your mom to create notes and stories. I keep thinking I should do that.
DeleteHi Barb! Apologies for joining so late today--we've been getting new Internet this morning. I love your oyster plates and am fascinated by the background of Shucked Apart. I'm looking forward to learning more about the oyster industry--along with a good read! I have a lot of my mom's things and so many have memories and stories attached. It has occurred to me that I should share more of those connections with my daughter, although I'm sure there are other things that will have their own special meanings for her.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deb! I have been thinking about my kids lately and what I have thought to say and what I have not.
DeleteHi, Barb! I am such a huge fan of your series!!! This blog post speaks to me, especially this line: "That house was built in 1954 and following a tradition in our family, once the furniture was placed in the house it was never moved again." I think our families must be related. LOL! Can't wait to get my hands on Shucked Apart! Woo hoo!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you are a fan, Jenn. I am laughing because it has been a joke in my family for at least three generations, "You better like where the furniture gets put the day you moving, because it is never changing again." Even when things like couches got replaced they went right back into the same spot.
Delete