Annie Laura State Pin Dishes
I know, I know, you have been wondering what I have been doing. I tried to think of exactly what I have been doing, but honestly I know I have been busy--but just what I have accomplished--I don't have a clue.
So I decided that I would share one of my collections with you. These are Annie Laura Pin Trays.
The picture above is my collection of them that I have in my extra bedroom. I think (I started indexing them and got tired of doing it) that I have every state except Hawaii. My collection started when David and I were visiting in Illinois. I went antiquing and found a Mississippi one. The lady asked me if I collected them and I said no, I just thought it would be cool to bring home a MS souvenir from Illinois. She then said well there is a whole world of people out there who do. I never thought anything else about it until one day on a whim I eBayed them and the rest is history. I just went nuts.
This is a close-up. I can really only find out very little about them but here is what I know. Seems the lady "Annie Laura" started this while her husband was away in the Korean war and she made quite a good business out of it.
Each one has a sticker on the back, a star with the year that the state joined the union inside the star and each one is signed on the back. Each state has flower, bird and significant place edition. For instance my MS one has a magnolia on it and "Natchez" on it. I have only found one MS, I have been unable to find the state bird on any other significant place--like our capital, Jackson.
I haven't bought any in quite awhile, because I haven't found any that I don't already have.
I have them in alphabetical order on the shelves.
I would love to hear from anybody out there who collects these dishes.
Morelater.....angelmc
