Retired

Many years ago, I was invited to a Renaissance feast. It was explained to me that I needed to bring my own tableware. I knew nothing of accuracy, so I went to World Market and bought a pretty plate with a dragonfly motif, a bowl and a set of flatware. It ended up being a lot of fun, and I became slightly obsessed with collecting period-appropriate feast gear.

I started looking for things at thrift stores, and found so much stuff that would pass that I started selling it online. I even put together a little booklet that I sent free with orders. Of course, all the choicest stuff went into my basket!



After attending a total of maybe four feasts in roughly 6-7 years, and nothing since before the wedding, I have retired my feast gear basket. There are stories connected with many of the pieces; some I received as gifts, others were obtained when wait staff nudged something toward me with a wink after I asked about buying one. Most were either purchased or tracked down at thrift stores. Either way, I love them all, but keeping them in a basket makes no sense. Many items went into my kitchen window (above), a couple went into the cupboard. The now-empty basket went on top of the cabinets in case we go on a picnic.

This stack, I'm not so sure about. I'm hoping to set up some kind of bookshelf on the kitchen side of the divider between the kitchen and entry-that-is-supposed-to-be-a-dining-room. This is the kind of thing I'd put there.

These, on the other hand, were not in my basket, and will be sold at the next opportunity. I found them when I packed up the kitchen; they must have been purchased in one of my thrift store tours when I was focusing on feast gear. (Three-tine forks aren't "period," but are less modern than the four-tine version, and people usually want forks. There's a limit to how historically accurate people want to be. Two-tine forks would be period, although not for lower classes.)