CHAPTER XX.
OLD POTTERIES AND DECORATED DISHES.
One day, looking through the old corner cupboard, Mary exclaimed, "Aunt Sarah, you certainly possess the finest collection of quaint old china dishes I have ever seen.

I just love those small saucers and cups without handles; yes, and you have plates to match decorated with pinkish, lavender peacock feathers, and those dear little cups and saucers, decorated inside with pink and outside with green flowers, are certainly odd; and this queerly-shaped cream jug, sugar bowl and teapot, with pale green figures, and those homely plates, with dabs of bright red and green, they surely must be very old!" [Illustration: Old Earthenware Dish] "Yes, dear, they all belonged to either John's mother or mine.

All except this one large, blue plate, which is greatly valued by me, as it was given me many years ago by a dear old friend, Mary Butler, a descendant of one of the oldest families in Wyoming Valley, whose, forefathers date back to the time of the 'Wyoming Massacre,' about which so much has been written in song and story.
"The very oddest plates in your collection are those two large earthenware dishes, especially that large circular dish, with sloping sides and flat base, decorated with tulips." [Illustration: SGRAFFITO PLATE Manufactured by One of the Oldest Pennsylvania German Potterers in 1786] "Yes, Mary, and it is the one I value most highly.

It is called sgraffito ware.

A tulip decoration surrounds a large red star in the centre of the plate.