Remember March 19, when we posted about some of the great finds to be had at the Value Village in Vaughn? Well we thrifted our way home from Collingwood the other day and although it was slim pickings in Stayner thrift shops and the Barrie Value Village, we had a great time at the Vaughn location only 5 days after our last visit. You may recall the photograph of the almost full set of English dinnerware:

This set initially intrigued me because I thought it was by English designer Kathie Winkle. Holly from Twice Found carries a selection of her dinnerware, which I had been admiring for some time. I enjoy it because of the patterning as well as the hand painted colouring that is not always completely between the lines.

Photo of Twice Found’s display of Kathie Winkle tableware

Of course, in true collector fashion, I had looked on the bottom of the set at Value Village and did not see Kathie Winkle’s very recognizable signature, so I wrote it off to just being a cool set of vintage tableware.

Above: the catch. What I had looked at was the bottom of one of the cups, which very plainly says ENGLAND. The stamped signature, however, resides on the bottoms of all of the plates. Lesson learned.

I actually did not catch on to this until I came across three small side plates at the Barrie Value Village.

They had all the markings and got me thinking about the set at Vaughn again…so off to Vaughn we went and thankfully the whole set was still there!

And now it is in my kitchen.

Looking pretty cozy.

From what I gather, this set is called SOLAR and it is missing about 5 bowls, a dinner plate and a few other odds and ends that we can acquire from ebay if need be. Personally, this isn’t one of my favourite patterns/colour schemes (I like the ones with pink/blue) but for $14.99 (+ a $10 off our purchase coupon) I really cannot complain. They are still very cool.

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About the designer:

Kathie Winkle had an interesting career. From a time when men dominated the field of design, she started off a long and prolific career in ceramic design at Shorter and Son, Stoke-on-Trent, where she trained as a paintress. Around 1950, she joined James Broadhurst & Sons Ltd, where she literally made her mark from the very beginning to her retirement in 1992.

By 1958 she was designing patterns, quickly becoming responsible for all of Broadhurst’s patterns. Over the course of her career as a designer (until the mid-1970s) she created over 100 patterns that proved to be very popular in Britain and abroad.

Printed on the ware by semi-automatic rubber stamping machines, the black outlines were then hand painted with bright colours before the wares were glazed. Post-war production costs were kept to a minimum by keeping the same shape of the wares and simply changing the surface patterns.

The backstamp dates the tableware from 1964 to 1978 (when she switched over to quality control).

Resource: City of Stoke-on-Trent website

Photos: Juli Daoust
Photo: The Designs of Kathie Winkle on Amazon