One particular day last week I went thrifting, as I often do. The antique movie theater seats from last week actually sold very, very quickly so I decided to go looking for a new project, which pointed me back in the direction of the Goodwill in Herndon. I figured, why mess with success, right?

Right, indeed. Though I didn’t find another project, I did find a whole lot of other stuff.

Now, not all of this came from the Herndon Goodwill. The Ben Seibel Iroquois platters and bowls came from a new place that I hadn’t yet visited, ditto the Russel Wright sauce boat. And the Dansk divided tidbit platter and the Russel Wright warming tray came from Bargain Loft.

Ben Seibel for Iroquois; Impromptu shape Lexington pattern

Russel Wright for Steubenville brown sauce boat in Black Chutney

Russel Wright Thermo Tray warming tray

But, yes, everything else came from Goodwill. And among that “everything else” was a freaking motherload of Heath Ceramic dishes. Oddly, Edith Heath is of no relation to me (my maiden name is Heath) and her plant is still located in Sausalito, California (near my home town of San Francisco), though she passed away in 2005.  The funny thing is, I have never seen a piece of Heath on the East Coast. I mean, yes, the new stuff pops up in boutiques, but vintage? Never. Or, perhaps I should now say, rarely.

Vintage Heath Ceramics

Because I now have…a lot. I had to count it twice to be sure, but there’s a total of 21 coffee and tea cups, 15 saucers, 4 berry bowl, 1 cereal bowl, 3 dinner plates and one random bread plate. Heath is still in business, by the way. They even have a very nice website. Because I’m not sure I’m accurately conveying the degree of my excitement about this, here… !!!!!!!!!!!

And that’s not all. Oh no. I also found 4 Metlox Poppytrail cereal bowls and 4 bread plates, a Franciscan Madeira line creamer, 2 1970s Hall China soup bowls, a Buffalo China sugar bowl, complete with lid and what I believe are three Taylor Smith Taylor Pebbleford bread plates.

Metlox Poppytrail plates and bowls

Hall soup bowls and Taylor Smith Taylor Pebbleford plates

Buffalo China sugar bowl and Franciscan Madeira creamer

My best guess is that someone who had an antique booth either decided to go out of business or passed away because a lot of the pieces had leftover booth tags on them. And the collecting pattern ran toward California pottery of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. There was also a fair bit of Hawaiiana and tiki stuff, though that’s not really my thing and so I have a hard time judging what’s vintage. In fact, seeing it all typed out makes me wonder if the person hadn’t migrated here from California at some point given the West Coast bias.

I’m sorry that all of this wonderful stuff ended up in the Goodwill, but I like to think whoever is behind all of it would have loved to know that it ended up in the hands of someone who saw it for what it was.

Much of this will appear in my Etsy store in the near-ish future though I will probably keep a souvenir or two from this remarkable day.