You Know You're a Southern Belle When...

...you celebrate the 100th anniversary of your sterling silver. Of course, I haven't had it for 100 years, but this set of sterling has an interesting story.

A few years ago, I complained that it wasn't fair that you have to get married to have fine china, sterling, and crystal. My Southern Mama agreed, so she spent 6 months searching antique malls and auctions for affordable fine tableware. So, my Christmas present that year was a set of crystal, 2 sets of fine china, and 4 place settings of sterling. The sterling had an interesting story...my mom bought it for almost nothing at an estate auction of a 100 year old friend of ours from church. It was such a unique pattern, no one seemed to realize it was sterling. The pattern is Cairo, and was inspired by the fact that Egyptology was all the rage at the turn of the century. The motif engraved into the silver is quite Egyptian.

One of the neat things about Ms. Huggins' set is that the knives are engraved with "Thanksgiving '08". Obviously, that is 1908!

Unfortunately, we didn't know to ask Ms. Huggins about the story of the silver before she passed away, but the pattern came out in 1908, so I imagine it was a Thanksgiving gift to her parents. I used the silver at one of the first Thanksgivings I hosted in 2002. Anyway, this was the 100th anniversary of the silver, so of course, we had to use it for this year's Thanksgiving dinner!