The Quilt Inn Country Cookbook

Aliske Webb

Tomatoware Tomatofare

I’ve been haunting antique shows shops and flea markets for years. Which is

why the Inn is filled with an eclectic mix of antique furniture and bizarre collections. I’m

always on the lookout for that fabulous $10 unrecognized treasure. Happily, I’ve found

a couple. Like a gambler convinced a big win is at hand, I’m hooked on bargain

hunting. I’ve also outsmarted myself on occasion, by being part-smart about antiques.

Caveat emptor. Antique dealers are seldom as dumb as we would like to think they

are. If something is that cheap, it’s probably a fake. You’re the only one who doesn’t

know it.

The first time I remember seeing “tomatoware”, I laughed at the idea of making

dishes, teapots, creams and sugars, salts and peppers, and so forth, to look like

something so mundane as a tomato. “Who would buy that?” I said to Michael and we

scoffed. “I would never buy anything that gaudy!” I said smugly. Well, as my wise old

Grandma used to say, “Never say ‘never’, you just never know!” Check out the front

cover of this book. Yes, that’s our Chatham cupboard, circa 1900, and part of our

tomatoware collection, circa 1907. The Chatham was a contemporary of the Hoosier

cupboard and it stands in the Summer kitchen that was converted into an informal

family dining room. You see, we kept seeing it everywhere. We kept laughing at it. Until

we finally had to buy some because it was, well, bizarre. And after all, it was cheap.

That was a few hundred dollars ago!

Once we were committed to ownership, we did some research. We found out

there are several nationalities of tomatoware. Surprisingly, the Italians don’t make

tomatoware—too busy cooking with the original fruit, I suppose. The most expensive

is Bayreuth, made of fine china in Germany. Then there is cheap and cheerful

American pottery tomatoware. And finally there is knockoff Japanese pottery. Of

course, now that we specialize, we only collect the Occupied Japan tomatoware!

At least I stopped laughing at it. In fact, I think it’s started to laugh at me. Note

the teapot on the cover. And I learned a whole lot more about antiques in the process.

The stuff has grown on me. Every year we have a tomato weekend to celebrate the

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Country Cooking