HELLO and welcome to the December 2010 newsletter of ANTIQUES AND TEACUPS--your virtual shopping source for an elegant tea table, Victoriana, antiques, collectibles and more!
http://www.antiquesandteacups.com

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IN THIS ISSUE:
1.  AFTERNOON TEA ACROSS AMERICA YAHOO GROUP

2.  FEATURED--MOTTOWARE

3.  FUN FOCUS--THE CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME

4.  WHAT'S NEW?--SPECIAL NEWSLETTER DISCOUNT CODE

5.  TEA RECIPE OF THE MONTH--EGGNOG SAUCE

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  Greetings and best wished to everyone...Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and joy to everyone!  This is my favorite season of the year and am fully enjoying the various bazaars, programs and concerts around our area. The local museum holds it's major fund raising Christmas Tea next weekend that I always look forward to!

Our wishes for you all are for fun, food, family, faith and joy throughout the season and the coming year!
Antiques And Teacups
http://www.antiquesandteacups.com

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1.  AFTERNOON TEA ACROSS AMERICA YAHOO GROUP

  For those of you who are interested in chatting with folks who enjoy drinking tea, taking tea with friends, seeing tea tables, tea rooms and tea party settings and generally just chatting with like minded folks I would encourage you to look into the Yahoo group Afternoon Tea Across America, or ATAA. I have very much enjoyed being a part of it and wanted to pass on the opportunity. The page for joining the group is at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfternoonTeaAcrossAmerica/

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2.  FEATURED--MOTTOWARE

  I love items that are distinctly English and Mottoware or Motto Ware, Torquay Pottery or Devon Ware qualifies as such.  When deposits of red workable clay were made in the Torquay area of Devon, England in the 1870s, a new cottage industry was born. Various potteries sprung up making all hand made pottery dishes and decorative items that soon became codified into several designs, most featuring the sgraphitto, scraffito or scratched motto added before the final firing. The mottoes were often in a Devon dialect like 'Elp Yersel Ta Craim and many had satirical, funny or even suggestive sayings...with many being just humorous. Some are fine proverbs and sound wisdom. The designs can be the traditional cottage, a floral or Scandy, a kingfisher or rooster or several others. There are dedicated collectors of all the designs as well as all the potteries and sometimes the shape is what is collected.

There is a Torquay Pottery Collector's Society in England that we belong to with a very informative website:
http://www.torquaypottery.com/index.html

We have been searching for motto ware on our buying trips for years and love it...there is always something new to see and smile about.
You can see our current stock of mottoware at Antiques And Teacups at:

http://www.antiquesandteacups.com/search.asp?referer=mailid:0&keyword=mottoware&search=GO

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3.  FUN FOCUS--THE CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME

  It was so difficult to decide what about the season I wanted to focus on this month and finally decided to choose an English Christmas tradition, the Christmas Pantomime. The annual Christmas Pantomime, or Panto, is a form of hilarious public entertainment with roots going back to Italian Camedia del arte during the middle ages that was really revived and remade by the British Music Halls in the mid Victorian era.

The idea transformed as it now exists is to take a well known fairy tale with definite heroes and villains, mix in equal parts of slapstick, timely political jokes, celebrities, outlandish costumes, skewed endings and generally play everything for laughs to within an inch of it's life.  When we lived in Ashland, Oregon, the home of the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Cabaret Theater did (and still does) a panto production every other year...I think this is a Yes! year. One I remember was Snow White & The Several Dweebs with a 6 ft 6 inch guy played the wicked witch to side splitting perfection and the rest was a total romp!

  A London example we heard of from friends when we arrived in the April after Christmas 2004, was Sir Ian McKellan playing the Widow Twankey in the Old Vic's production of Aladdin. So...check locally...there may be one near you!

For a current London Panto, here is a website about this year's offering at The Hackney Empire production of Jack and The Beanstalk:

http://golondon.about.com/od/hackneyempirereviews/fr/Hackney-Empire-Jack-And-The-Beanstalk-Review.htm

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4.  WHAT'S NEW? -- SPECIAL NEWSLETTER DISCOUNT CODE

   For newsletter subscribers only...use code DECEMBER in the comment  area for 10% off your order over $50.00...It's December...Christmas and the Holidays are HERE!!! May be re-used and applies to SALE items! Enjoy! This will not be published on the website!

Antiques And Teacups
http://www.antiquesandteacups.com

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5.  TEA RECIPE OF THE MONTH--EGGNOG SAUCE

   This is great with plum pudding, pumpkin pie, mince pie and fruit and nut breads.

2 cups half-and-half, scalded
1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 Tbs bourbon
freshly grated nutmeg to taste

1.  In a saucepan, combine the hot half-and-half and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until combined, add the half-and-half mixture in a stream, while whisking and return mixture to saucepan. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT BOIL or sauce will curdle.

2.  Strain sauce into a bowl and stir in the vanilla and bourbon. Let cool and chill, covered, 2 hours or over night. Before serving, transfer sauce to a sauce boat or serving dish and sprinkle with nutmeg. Makes about 2 1/2 cups.
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Again, best wishes from Antiques And Teacups to you for the holiday season and coming year.

Isaiah 9:6

Remember, our previous customers are always eligible for our Returning
Customer 10% Discount. Just write RETURN in the comments area.

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or

antiquesandteacups@gmail.com

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