The Iridescent Peacock

Enter the front door of the Morton House and climb the narrow birds-eye maple staircase, covered with a carpet runner specially ordered from Marshal Field’s in Chicago, and you’ll find a display case. Surrounded by peacock feathers and beaded bags and hats from the 1920’s, you’ll see my great-grandmother’s peacock carnivalware bowl. I have loaned it to this small museum for their Christmas display and it is the first time in 20 years it has seen the light of day.

It is a particular orange color called “marigold” with the characteristic iridescent sheen and the peacock spreads its tail feathers to fill up the dish with its finery. The bowl was first owned by my great-grandmother, Addie, and then passed to my grandmother, Rozella, then to my mother, Delores, and now, with my mother’s passing, to me. When the time comes, I will give it to my own daughter, Sloan, to continue the five generation chain.

I never met my great-grandmother, but I know she was a simple farm woman, as was my grandmother. It must have been a fabulous treasure for Addie, who struggled her whole life just to keep a roof over her head. I don’t know how or where she got it, but I’m betting that she never actually used it, as neither my grandmother nor my mother did, since it has survived these 80 years in pristine condition. It was probably enough for Addie just to know she owned something so glorious.

That dish inspired my mother to collect marigold-color carnivalware and in her typical fashion she was able to amass about 40 additional pieces. But, 20 years ago she remodeled her kitchen and the dishes were packed away for safe-keeping. When she built a new house 10 years ago, that old-fashioned glassware didn’t seem to fit with her décor, so they remained in their storage box.

Now it is up to me to decide where they must go. Among her many things that I have distributed, this collection is one that has stymied me. I know it was something she loved, but she also has not unpacked them for two decades! In the end, I have decided to donate the collection to the Morton House and many of the pieces will probably be sold for its benefit. I will keep one raspberry-patterned candy dish that is my favorite and the rare red bowl Tom and I bought for her in Durango, Colorado. Sloan will keep the 7-piece fruit dish set.

And of course the peacock bowl. Even though each generation of the women in our family has become more comfortable, more educated, worldlier; it is still, perhaps, a dish too glamorous for any of us. I can’t picture it in my house. Where could it be kept safe from curious cats and the rambunctious grandchildren we are just beginning to have?

But I am a sentimental woman and I know that some things you do and some things you say and some things you keep, just because it’s right. Great-grandma Addie can count on me.