Selling "replacement pieces" is big business. In addition to estate sales
and antique auctions, my wife's family participates actively in the practice
-- indeed, considerable discussion, all very friendly, I'm happy to say, was
instituted by the "donor generation" with the "receiving generation" long
before managed care centers and death resulted in the actual transfer of
inherited household items.  Indeed, my mother-in-law used masking tape to
label many of the pieces with the name of the designated recipient, an
informal way of eliminating tedious detail in formal wills.  My wife is
augmenting the sterling silver set she originally bought -- and is no longer
being manufactured -- by doubling every piece through replacement sellers.
The purpose is to split the collection equally for our two daughters. Fact
is, you will find several of these companies on the internet, with
impressive web pages and offers to inform you by e-mail whenever new pieces
in "your pattern" appear.  I've bought stuff through the internet from
Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Nebraska and California.  Use of the
internet may be new, but I'm reasonably sure this cultural pattern is
traditional in my wife's family for many generations -- and the USA part of
that history goes back to pre-Revolutionary War days when they were
indentured servants.  For all I know, we have a few pieces that are old
enough to have come from that era.

Irv Rovner


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: 2nd Hand Ceramics, was Privies
>Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 14:57:48 -0500
>
>In a message dated 2/28/2001 12:43:25 PM Mountain Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
> > Selling "replacement" pieces to patterns no
> > longer being manufactured is, in fact, a big business.
> >
> >
>
>Linda, I don't know how regional your situation is.  I think its widespread
>in this country.  My wife and her friends and sisters (scattered from Utah
>to
>California to Oregon) are always looking to fill in their pieces that may
>have broken or for which they don't have enough and sometimes go to great
>lengths to find places to buy them.  When they find a store with one or a
>few
>they are estatic.
>
>Mike Polk
>Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
>Ogden, Utah

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