I told you it was pouring Russel Wright (Status: an ice blue rain)

I stumbled upon this lovely collection of 60 Russel Wright Iroquois Casual, ice blue pieces in a lovely consignment store about two hours west of Columbus.  I was in the town to hit an auction where there was a small collection of thirty Franciscan Starburst pieces (no serving pieces) but the auctioneer wasn't going to get to them for a number of hours so, I poked around in the downtown and... voila!

When I entered the shop, I had seen a sign that said not to miss their lower level so, after looking over the first floor, I proceeded to the basement.  To get to the basement you go through a small hall; in the small hall is the office and some curtained off shelves where the new merch is stored for pricing.  The curtain was pulled back partway and I saw a few of the Russel Wright pieces.  I picked one cup up to make certain it wasn't the new Oneida reproductions, then asked the person in the office "how much is the lite blue china" (I was playing dumb)?   She said "We just got those in yesterday; there's more behind that other curtain."  I moved the curtain and my eyes nearly bugged out! Then she gave me a price that knocked my socks off.

Let's see what we've got

Nine Dinner plates

Eight bread plates

Eight cereal and eight berry bowls

Here is a picture for size

It seems that some of this collection is older than other parts.  The berry bowls have an older, larger mark than the cereal bowls

There are nine cups and eight saucers

Some of the cups must have broken and been replaced.  You can tell because of the different handles and size of the three cups to the left from the cups on the right.  The left is the second redesign coffee cup and the right is the last redesign (ol' Russ liked to tinker with his coffee cup designs) 

Left cup logo

 Right cup logo

There are two open vegetable serving bowls

Two oval platters,  a stacking creamer and sugar (my first), a half pound butter dish with lid, stacking salt & pepper.

The owners must have broken the butter dish base because there is a spare half pound butter lid

Sadly this 2 quart casserole is missing its lid

The big prize, however, is this lidded gravy boat!  Do the happy dance!

It's very cool how the lid becomes the base plate. that's ol' Russel at his most creative!

When I saw the dishes in the store I had not noticed that some of them were discolored.  Look at this platter, it looked like it had suffered from sun or heat damage (oh, noes)!

It really doesn't feel like dirt and truly looks like some sort of damage to the glaze.  I was disheartened but thought I would give it a go with the Magic Stain Eraser, what could it hurt.

HOLY COW, it worked!  It's freakin' magic!

I went back to the auction but did not win the Starburst, I didn't think $300 for ten saucers, one tea/coffee cup, eight dinner plates, two luncheon plates, three bread plates a creamer and five soup bowls was worth it.

I did pick up a few other items... (stay tuned)