Muriel Grissom isn’t worried about earthquakes. A good portion of her more than 1,000 plates are firmly attached to walls of her Everett home with sturdy cup hooks.
She has rocked and rolled before during temblors, but she’s never lost a dish.
That’s a good thing. She has an amazing collection, including plates with pictures of John Wayne, Lucille Ball, Jesus, English castles, Magic Johnson, penguins, roses, popes, wolves, sleighs and geisha girls.
They are displayed in groupings at her home, with themes such as children’s faces, English royalty, horses, American Indians, Norman Rockwell paintings and “Gone With the Wind.”
More than 50 years ago, while on her honeymoon with Harwood Grissom of Stanwood, they stopped by a tavern in Conway. The owner, who lived behind the pub, gave them a beautiful rose-decorated Spode plate as a wedding gift.
In 1770, Josiah Spode opened a factory in Stoke-on-Trent, England. His blue-and-white designs are some of the most sought-after in the ceramic world.
Seeing the rose plate, Muriel Grissom, 81, said she was hooked on the hobby. The Spode plate instilled the disease of collecting, she said.
The first plate she bought on a trip to California featured John Wayne. One plate with a grain elevator reminds her of her childhood in the plains of Saskatchewan, Canada. A plate shows an old wood-burning stove like the one her mother used to cook oatmeal on when they lived on a freezing prairie with no running water or electricity.
Some plates were ordered through Bradford Exchange newspaper advertisements. The former door-to-door saleswoman also has an old Avon plate series.
A sphere with oyster-shell indentations on black-and-gold was salvaged by her sister-in-law, who ran a dump on Lopez Island. The relative rummaged through the trash for treasures sold at her other venture, a lucrative junk store.
Among her sister-in-law’s findings: a ruby ring, seven original Barbie dolls and the oyster plate. An identical oyster plate recently sold on eBay for more than $100.
Grissom would never part with her dishes depicting the British royal family, from the six women who ruled England to Princess Diana.
We had a small disagreement. She likes Camilla, wife of Prince Charles, but I don’t care for the English bride.
We agreed that Jimmy Stewart plates are priceless.
Grissom, a widow whose health isn’t the best, has wonderful memories of trips to the British Isles, the Caribbean, a cruise through the Panama Canal and Alaska, all captured on her wall dishes.
“Here is a Dickens plate from England,” she said. “I’ve been to a lot of plate factories.”
Her son lives next door, she rents two apartments at her place, and she has a caretaker. Friends take her to garage and rummage sales on the hunt for more plates. Her latest purchase is a limited edition from an Everett antique store, New and Again Thrift Shoppe, that supports battered women.
“My most expensive plate?” she said. “That would be problematical.”
There are too many valuable choices.
The former World War II Canadian “Rosie the Riveter” is rearranging her spheres. It’s a huge job. Before I left her home, I noticed a box stuffed with more plates that need to find wall space.
There are dishes in the bathroom and above the kitchen stove. Not junky, her array is quite pleasant, with historical sequences and gorgeous colors that snap the eye from orb to orb.
Her children have dibs on their favorites. One wants all the Wedgwood.
Soothing Christian radio plays around the clock at her home. Poetry she wrote and original artwork is framed on her wall, as well as a document about her grandfather, a former Lord Mayor of Bristol, England. Her father served in the Canadian army in both world wars.
Plates from around the world were sent by her son, a lieutenant commander in the Canadian navy. When one has a collecting hobby, it’s slick to find them gifts.
Grissom said the thrill of the hunt is getting something good for next to nothing. It must have been fun finding the plates showing skunk cabbage and Tammy Wynette.
Some of the dishes sport Hollywood themes, such as this one featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.
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