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Post by Portia

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Hello Fragrance Family,

I was looking around my house the other day and it struck me that collecting fragrance wasn’t my only “thing”. So it got me wondering about your other collections.

What Else Do You Collect?

I have a few.

Royal Doulton: Morning Star

Once upon a time back in the 1960s my Mum and Dad got married. They chose the Royal Doulton pattern Morning Star to be their “For Good” set of china. People were able to buy one or a few pieces for them from a Wedding Gift Registry. So for their wedding a beautiful 6 place set was bought with Mains plate, Salad plate, Bread plate, Bowl, Cup & Saucer. They also got a Vegetable Tureen, Tea & Coffee pots, Creamer, Milk, Sugar & Gravy Boat. We used it for birthdays, Christmas, congratulations and every other event in our household. After Mum and Dad died I was left with a pristine 6 place set but I tend to entertain on a larger scale than they did so over the next 10 years I grew the set to 15 seater with some extras of some. I also added Cream Soup bowls & saucers, Fruit bowls, 3 x Vegetable and 3 x Main Tureens, 2 x Platters, a Baking Dish, extra Tea & Coffee pots, Milk, Sugar and a bunch of curios as they come up on eBay. We now use this set as our every day set and each time I eat off a plate or make a pot of tea Mum and Dad are there with me. It’s like a daily hug and reminder of some of the super good times we spent together as a family.

Bath Products

I’ve talked about this before with you all. There is a special box that holds almost all my Bath Oils, Shower Gels, Bubble Bath and Soaps. It’s filled with modern, vintage, discontinued and current. From Amouage to Tom Ford, Caron to Olympic Orchids, Boucheron to Yves Saint Laurent and everything in between. There are vintage boxed soap & fragrance sets of Givenchy Le De, Hermès Amazone and Caleche, CHANEL No 5 & 19, Opium by YSL and many others. Soaps come in singles too like the Guerlain Mitsouko & Shalimar, Saipua, L’Occitane, Mysore Sandal Soap, Farmer’s Daughters Egg White Soap and loads of single bars found around the world. Shower Gels from Amouage, LUSH, Penhaligon’s, Korres, Lolita Lempicka, B&BW, Molton Brown, Jo Malone and others all roped in as bubble Bath (my favourite).

Tea

Yes, everywhere I travel if there is some local tea for sale I buy it. Particularly in India and the UK. Fortnum & Mason is now available in Australia which has dimmed it fabulousness somewhat but they still taste yum. Having spent time in India’s Kerala and Himachal Pridesh tea growing areas and doing some estate visits, through the production processes and then getting to sample some of the teas I also have a bunch from them. South Korea also has a tea farming culture, we went through the Jeju Island area and I have been through another one but can’t remember where. Not all of South Koreas teas are green or black they also do chrysanthemum teas and a slew of others that are interesting and delicious, once you get used to how different they are. I also have Chinese flowers that unfurl in the tea pot, Chinese loose leaf green, white tea from a few different places now and some red tea.

There are also a couple of other collections around here but……. next time.

So, what do you collect? Come on, ‘Fess up. You know I love to read your stories too.
Portia xx