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| Vintage Sadler jar from the 1950's |
When we bought our stone house last summer I couldn't stop thinking about decorating all of the deep windowsills of the house with ginger jars.
The sills themselves cry out for some sort of object to adorn them and take advantage of their depth, and by placing a ginger jar (or other decorative object) in a window there is an effect of tricking the eye. When approached from the exterior the eye is drawn to the jar or object in the window, and doesn't necessarily focus on the scene contained within the room. It offers some privacy in that it offers a distraction.
I also knew that I wanted to expose the original windows of the house fully, they are wooden windows with their original storms and many panes of glass are original as well (and they look so beautiful and wavy as old glass does). The ginger jars needed to both create a distraction and provide some decoration to these old windows and sills.
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| Giant black and white dragon ginger jar, new reproduction. |
If you yourself decide to get on the ginger jar bandwagon I have one word for you: Etsy. I found many small vintage ginger jars on Etsy, most made in England by Sadler in the 1950's. Typical prices for these smaller jars were between $15 and $25.
For the larger ginger jars? I had no choice but to buy new reproductions. I found some large antique ginger jars at various dealers but they were all several hundred dollars. Reproduction jars can be found in beautiful large sizes for around a hundred dollars or so.
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Not a ginger jar.
This large vase by Spode has a ginger jar shape but no lid.
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A ginger jar is not a vase, though of course if you remove the lid you could use it as a vase. The lids offer a great advantage however, in that they don't allow dust to gather inside. One can simply dust the jar without having to haul it over to the kitchen sink to rid the inside of dust... a distinct advantage on housecleaning day.
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| One of two ginger jars in the front window. |
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Small ginger jar on a fireplace mantel.
I love the colours on this one. |
I use the smaller ginger jars in our bedroom to store useful things like cotton balls and vitamins.
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| Ginger jar on a makeup table: cotton puffs inside. |
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| Ginger jar full of magnesium pills. |
Like most people I find groupings of three dead-set attractive. This new reproduction ginger jar and matching little vases are set on top of the pine armoire I use for storing clothes.
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| Reproduction ginger jar in a marble pink pattern, with matching vases. |
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| Pine armoire with grouping of three. |
I'm still looking for a large ginger jar as I have one bare windowsill in the upstairs hallway.
Are you also mad for ginger jars? Do you have any decorating your furniture or windowsills?
xoxDani
