Who buys an entire set of antique ironstone whilst on holiday in England?  And then has to arrange to transport it back to North America? Which they do, by purchasing another suitcase and bringing it back on the plane with them. Crazy people, that’s who. Like yours truly.

Soon after arriving in York, we visited Fairfax House, a beautiful Georgian Townhouse with wonderful displays of furniture, porcelain and glassware. As were were leaving, we spotted a set of Ashworth Ironstone in the tiny antique shop adjacent to the museum. It was incredibly reasonably priced and most of it was in excellent condition, particularly the twelve deep soup plates, likely because they were the least used of the set.

Ironstone has many wonderful qualities, including its durability. The downside is inherent in the name ironstone, as in heavy. We knew it was going to be a challenge to get it home, but figured we would manage somehow.

My husband is a saint. He not only encouraged me to buy it, but lugged the damned stuff through the next three legs of our journey as I distributed its not inconsiderable weight throughout our luggage. He then charmed the Air Canada clerk as we checked our (seriously overweight) baggage at the end of the journey.

It was absolutely worth it. It looks beautiful in our house in the Cape and coordinates well with the similarly hefty Old Williamsburg glasses in Deep Blue from Replacements. com. The salt cellars were from Vintage at Chirp and the pewter lidded serving dish is part of the Campagna series by Arte Italica, now discontinued.