Birds, bees, beetles, dragonflies … even spiders and snakes. There’s a surprise waiting to be uncovered when you use this large oval ceramic platter ($425) for the family turkey. Original black line drawings are transferred to white earthenware and subtly highlighted by color — light blue, pine green, or iron buffalo (pictured) — along the […]
Magazine
Takes the Gravy
Of course, no holiday table is complete without a vessel with which to serve the gravy. Woodbury Pewter’s gravy boat ($57.50) is lightweight and easy to handle when pouring. If you prefer better portion control, also choose the 1-ounce ladle ($19.50). Both items are made in Woodbury, Connecticut, of lead-free pewter with a satin finish. […]
Deep Dish
Pies have been a staple of the New England table since the Colonial days. Bring them to a modern-day table in Seal Cove Pottery pie plates ($38). Lisbeth Faulkner and Edwin Marshall Davis’s studio/store/art gallery on Mount Desert Island in Maine is laden with blue, green, and red pottery on the shelves and nautical watercolors […]
Serve It Up
We’ve never seen a ceramic bowl this big (20 inches in diameter) and couldn’t imagine a more perfect dish for large quantities of salad, mashed potatoes, or stuffing. D. Lasser Ceramics produces more than 15 colorful, hand-painted patterns (Planet Green shown here, $185) at a post-and-beam barn in Londonderry, Vermont. Insider’s tip: At the showroom, […]
Lazy Susan
Swiftly share condiments and side dishes with this 14-inch-diameter turntable ($89). Marcia LaRocque-Levy hand paints a beautiful majolica tile, and her husband, David, adds a cherry (pictured) or milk-paint-finish wood frame. Eight tile designs (including pinwheel, pictured here) are available from Levy LaRocque in Easthampton, Massachusetts. 413-527-5040. levylarocque.com
Red Wine Uncorked
Think of a wine decanter and you probably think of a Victorian cut-glass carafe. No longer: Tsuga Studios’ rolling wine decanter ($180) is an elegant way to aerate wines and help sediments settle. “The canes allow for handmade detail without distracting the eye,” says Nicholas Kekic, a third-generation glassmaker in Chester, Vermont. “[They] appear to […]
New England’s Finest: Serving Dishes
Wreaths for Sale
The Lucy’s Hearth 6th Annual Designer Wreath Sale will be held Saturday, December 2, from 9 to 1 at the Rotunda ballroom at Easton’s Beach in Newport, Rhode Island. For more information about the sale or to find out more about the wreath-making workshops, visit lucyshearth.org or call 401-847-2021.
Wreath Sale: A Circle for Life
Christmas lights twinkle in a greenhouse in Tiverton, Rhode Island. People haul unwieldy stacks of evergreens from car trunks and the backs of pickups and station wagons through the frosty night. The greenhouse at Manchester Tree & Landscaping pulsates with conviviality while pruning shears snap to the Supremes’ Christmas Collection. It is the night of […]
America’s Bloodiest War
In 1600, southern New England was home to approximately 90,000 Indians. Approximately 12,000 were Pokanokets, a tribe living at the head of Narragansett Bay. From 1616 to 1619, bubonic plague, introduced by European fishermen in Maine, killed up to 90 percent of the Indians in some areas along the New England coastline. Massasoit, sachem (leader) […]
A Pilgrim Primer
English Separatists, a wing of the new Puritan movement, had fled oppression at home and found refuge in the Netherlands around 1607. In 1620, part of the congregation decided to build a new life in the New World. Their pastor, John Robinson, stayed behind and did not live to join his flock in America. The […]
Why the Pilgrims Still Matter
A conversation with Mayflower author Nathaniel Philbrick about why the Pilgrims still matter in today’s world. Why We Should Care About the PilgrimsGet Our FREE Yankee Best New England Vacations Guide! Email(Required) Subscribe The Pilgrims were America’s first illegal immigrants. Their patent did not apply that far north, and yet they said, “We’re going to […]