Spanish Ironstone Soup Tureen: A Romantic Legend

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I'm addicted to ironstone soup tureens.  I even started a Pinterest Board devoted to them.  Sounds weird, I know.  I'm not quite sure exactly how it happened. 

 I only know that soup tureens have become one of my most coveted thrifting finds.  

Ever.

And up until now it's been pretty much run-of-the-mill vintage tureens, give or take.  

Until my latest Goodwill score.

I'll admit she's different from the others.  And because of that I almost didn't bring her home.  But boy am I glad I did.  

Here she is on my kitchen sideboard in all her glory.  You can see some of my other very traditional tureens and ironstone pieces on the shelves above it.  

You can see how I styled the china cabinet, below, with my many other ironstone tureens and silver pieces here.

But this tureen, well, she's just different.

She reminds me of a genie's lamp, what with those curved handles on the sides and on the lid.

Just look at that detail!

Once I got home and researched the piece I found out I was right.  She WAS different.  And boy, was she a find!  She was manufactured by a company in Galicia, Spain called Sargadelos. They've been in business since 1804, making porcelain dinnerware, figurines, sculptures and jewelry.  They currently produce four lines of tableware.  This particular line is titled "Relief" and the style is called "Cuncha."  According to their website:

Cuncha is a shape inspired by the scallop shape, which is associated with the birth of Venus, the goddess that emerges from the sea.  Later, in the 4th century A.C., it became a symbol of the pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James.  The origin of this association is explained in a legend surrounding the village of Bouzas, located in the ria [estuary]of Vigo.  This tradition was definitively established in the 12th century. 

Call me geeky, but I think it's really cool that there's a romantic legend behind the design of this beautiful piece of stoneware that I just happened to stumble upon at my local Goodwill! 

Here's what I found written on the bottom of the tureen, which gave me the original idea that there might be something special about it:

But more importantly, I also found this:

I totally thought that $4.99 was a fair price for it.  

And you can imagine my surprise when I later found it for sale on the Sargadelos website 

for 104.50 Euro 

or 

$142.85!   

To say I was pleased would be an understatement.

So she may be a bit different than the rest.

But different this time around turned out to be a very good thing.

What do you think?

Would you have brought her home?

Thanks for listening to my romantic ramblings, friends.  

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