Mildred, Martha, and Kitty

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Meet Mildred and all her children. There are a couple of step-children cream and sugar sets on the front row - - - try to look past them to see Mildred in all her glory.

Mildred was a china pattern which could be purchased through Kresge's, back in the day before it became K-Mart. She is a rather heavy pottery style china, not translucent in the least. My Aunt Martha, who worked at Kresge's in those days, purchased an entire set of Mildred to be her first set of china.

Years later, when she realized I loved such things, she passed the set on to me.


Mildred's dinner and luncheon plates have a floral design right in the middle of the plate. The other pieces do not.

A few days ago I saw a plate over at Susan's place, Ash Tree Cottage, which had a very similar pattern to Mildred, and had this same little floral design at the center of the plate. I was struck by their similarities, though they don't seem to have been made by the same company.


The markings on the back of Mildred look like this, and not being a china expert I have no clue what they stand for.

Later Addendum: Google is a wonderful thing! This marking is for the Mount Clemens Pottery Company. And, if the prices on the individual pieces I found are any indicator - - - I have quite a TREASURE in my Mildred set! Well, I already knew it was a treasure - - - but didn't realize it had such materialistic value.


Before we leave Mildred and her children at peace in the china hutch, I do want to tell a little tale that has to do with the platters. As you can see, there are two sizes of platters. When I received the original set of Mildred from Aunt Martha, she only gave me the larger platter.

Over the years, two of my aunts who knew their sister passed her china on to me have found various pieces of Mildred in antique shops and sundry places and have given them to me.

I remember once, five or six years ago now, my Aunt Kitty told me she had found two small Mildred platters for me, but she forgot to bring them on that particular trip. I promptly forgot all about them.

Time intervened, Aunt Kitty became very ill with cancer, and passed away at age 68, far ahead of when we were ready to let her go.


Nearly two years after her death my cousin Jeanny, Aunt Kitty's daughter, came up to me at a reunion with two little Mildred platters in her hands.

"Keetha, do these look familiar to you?" she asked.

"Why yes," said I, "They are Mildred platters, I have a whole set of that which Aunt Martha gave me."

"Well," said she, "We found these little platters and no more pieces like them, in mom's things. We were puzzled - - - why would mom buy just two little platters like this and nothing else to match them when they don't even match anything else she had? Then dad said he thought maybe she had bought them for you. So here," and with that she thrust the two platters into MY hands, "These are yours, from mom."

My eyes filled with tears then, and they are doing so again now. A little love coming straight to me from my Aunt Kitty even after she left this Earth.

In my recent move, I was grieved to find that ONE of my small Mildred platters got shattered. But this one I will keep - - - and I'm not removing the price label either. I'm keeping it as a reminder of Aunt Kitty's love and how she freely gave of it to us all.

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