Beautiful Georgia Plates

Many times at our estate sales, beautiful Wedgwood Georgia Historical Plates will show up. They are still wildly popular and many a southern lady searches for the pieces to complete her set. I didn’t think a whole lot about them until I ran across an article in a Georgia history magazine at an attorney’s office, and I thought our readers would also enjoy the story.

The Transylvania Club started in 1908 in Sandersville, Georgia as a civic club who espoused the motto: “Service not for ourselves, but for others.” These ladies dreamed of building a public library and worked hard to raise the funds to do so in 1909. There were many ice cream socials, teas, plays and all manner of fundraisers that helped them open their library with 7000 volumes in the Masonic building on the square.

Unfortunately, the building burned to the ground in 1921 but those ladies were just more determined than ever to rebuild bigger and better. The new library was housed in an antebellum home that had also been a law office and served the community until 1998 when the new modern library was built.

The plates were the most successful fundraiser ever for the ladies and can still be purchased to this day. Even in the midst of the Great Depression, Club Member Louise Irvin conceived the idea and designed the plates to celebrate the 1933 Bicentennial of Georgia and also the 25th anniversary of the Transylvania Club.

Wedgwood Pottery in England agreed to manufacture the plates as long as the ladies could come up with a $1500 advance payment. Three gentlemen benefactors heard of this endeavor and donated the entire sum! Wedgewood used the Queensware formulation that was used for Queen Charlotte in the 1700’s by Josiah Wedgewood, himself.

Miss Irwin created a distinctive Georgia border consisting of peaches, cotton, Cherokee roses and long leaf pine. The seal of the state and the motto also appear on the border. Border scenes also include Bethesda orphanage, the Savannah steamship, home of Crawford Long, ruins of Ft. Federica and Liberty hall, home of Alexander Stephens — Vice President of the Confederacy.

The Center views are General Oglethorpe, Georgia Trustees receiving Oglethorpe and the Indians in London, Wesleyan College, Richmond Academy, the capitol in Milledgeville, the capitol in Atlanta, Nancy Hart aiming her gun at the Tories (my favorite), the burning of the papers in the Yazoo Fraud and Georgia’s Revolutionary and Civil War heroes.

The plates were originally produced in dinner and dessert size plates and came in blue, pink and a mulberry color. In 1974, Governor Jimmy Carter signed a resolution making the plates the official historical plates of the State of Georgia. The plates are now only available in dinner size and come in pink and blue.Who knew that a library fundraiser such as a humble dinner plate would become so famous and is the best fundraiser ever for the Sandersville public Library and Transylvania Club and would still be bringing in funds today? Happy Collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 28 years and is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist. You can contact her through the Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com.

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