Alumni Profiles
Alumni Profiles
Alumna dishes on impressive collection of Evangeline china By Fred Sgambati (’83)
Left her speechless
It wasn’t terribly well-known then and she thought, although very pretty, it would probably make a nice kitchen set and not much more. Her heart was set on Minton or Royal Doulton, which she describes as the big names at the time. But the more she looked at the Evangeline pattern the more appealing it was and she finally purchased six place settings. Dinner plates were a dollar each back then compared to the $80-100 a plate it might fetch today, so she asked the people at Palmeter’s to put aside the set and she would retire the debt on layaway. Meanwhile, she carried on with her life, moving to Ontario in the fall of 1959. In the interim, things changed at Palmeter’s; he sold the business and his name around 1960, and McCuaig’s parents received a call asking that they come and collect two boxes of china. They did, and stored it in their attic for about three years. McCuaig returned to Nova Scotia for a visit in 1963 and suggested to her mother before heading home that she might as well take the china. They loaded the two parcels, drove to Ontario in a Volkswagen and unwrapped them in her Toronto apartment. 14
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What she saw left her speechless. There was six of everything, all right: dinner and dessert plates; luncheon and bread-and-butter plates; fruit nappies; cups and saucers. But added to the collection were a covered honey/jam jar, a covered mustard pot she swears she didn’t purchase, six coffee mugs, two different-sized meat platters, two open vegetable dishes, salt and pepper shakers, a gravy boat with saucer, a teapot and a cream and sugar set. There was also a set of six knives and forks with china handles plus a bread knife and a cake knife, also with china handles. She can only speculate on this unexpected embarrassment of riches and how it came to be in that box. Regardless, “my mother and I were floored,” she says. “Both of us were very surprised and quite thrilled.” She discovered also that sometime afterward, during the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, Staffordshire discontinued the pattern and broke the molds, which increased consumer appeal. “As the years went on, I became more and more fond of this china,” and she has amassed an impressive collection. Estimated value about 10 years ago was between $3,000-4,000, but today? “Who knows?” McCuaig says. “A lot of people have never seen or even heard of it, but I love the remarks from people when they do. I’m very proud of it.” She’s careful with it, too, of course, but enjoys bringing it out and showing it to people. “There needs to be a love of this china to look after it and preserve it,” she suggests, although she’s at a point in her life when she thinks now and then that she should sell it. Still, that’s more a passing fancy than anything. “I’d be bereft if I sold it,” she says emphatically. “If I opened that cupboard and didn’t see that china, I’d be very sad.” She has considered donating a place setting each to Grand-Pre National Historic Site and Acadia for display purposes, but hasn’t approached either organization formally to explore the matter. For now, it’s something she cherishes even if she doesn’t pursue individual pieces as ardently as she once did. However, she adds, with a casual wave and a broad smile, “if the cream soups (with the handles on the side) or a coffee pot came up, I might get into it.” Undoubtedly. That’s what happens when you’re in love.
Above: Maxine McCuaig (’59) proudly displays a portion of her Evangeline’s Acadian Gardens china. She has collected the unique pieces faithfully for the past 40 years. Below: Other pieces included a teapot, cup and saucer and cream/sugar set, and a full place setting for breakfast, complete with cutlery whose handles are made of Evangeline’s Acadian Gardens china.
Photos: Fred Sgambati
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t started with an engagement and blossomed into a 40-year love affair with a china pattern that is both strikingly beautiful and increasingly rare. Maxine McCuaig’s (’59) interest in Evangeline’s Acadian Gardens china made in Staffordshire, England started when she was in her last year at Acadia University. She got engaged (though didn’t marry the gentleman) and conversation turned eventually to the traditional things young couples considered: china and crystal. “My mother kept saying, ‘Go and look at the Evangeline’s Acadian Gardens,’” McCuaig says. The pattern was commissioned by G.R. Palmeter, who owned Palmeter’s Jewellery in Kentville and is renowned for his commissioning of the distinctive Apple Blossom design as well. McCuaig says Mr. Palmeter owned a large country home just outside Kentville that served as a showroom of sorts in the summer. She would visit this magnificent place, which was filled, she recalls, with the most beautiful pieces. People from all over Canada and the United States would go there to buy china and that’s where she encountered Evangeline’s Acadian Gardens.
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