Did you know that the Quimper Club is celebrating it's 10th Birthday this year?
The Premiere issue of the newsletter came out in the summer of 1999 and in the letter from the Editors, Katie Wiggins and Lucy Williams had this to say:
"Welcome to the USA Quimper Club! We would like to thank all of you for your help in establishing the first national club dedicated to the enjoyment of Quimper faience".
The front cover also features details of the first meeting which was to be held at the Santa Monica Antique Market on September 25th.
Highlights of the meeting were to include presentations by Adela Meadows and Millicent Mali and appraisals by Sandra Bondhus AND book signings by all five of the American Quimper book authors.
So, were you there at that first meeting?
Tell us about your experiences there & share with us what it was like to be in at the beginning of this wonderful Club of ours.
Here's my recollection of the beginning of the Club: one day I was poking around on the Internet, and I found the site for the USA Quimper Club, as it was called at the time. I asked my mother if she had ever heard of it, and she said "no". A week later, I returned to the site, and there she was, listed as a member of the advisory committee! My mother is not one of the great joiners of our time; however, Lucy persuaded her to join the Club! And Mother persuaded Barbara Richardson to go to Santa Monica with her, where they both had a great time and have been Club members ever since. (Me too, but my first meeting wasn't until 2001, and that's a different blog!) ... judy datesman
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting, I hope that Barbara & Lucy & Joan and any one else who was there will add their stories too.
Wow! Has it really been 10 years? I'm getting old faster than I thought! I remember having just met Joan and being a little intimidated by the fact that she'd written "the book" on Quimper....but we said to each other, "I'll go if you go", and next thing I knew, we were on a plane together, headed for California. Joan told me stories about her introduction to Quimper years before, and I was transfixed and humored on what seemed the shortest plane ride I'd ever taken. And years later, we've become very good friends and I never tire of hearing stories of France and faience. I knew that however the first meeting went, I'd already had a grand time....but then we all met Lucy, our funny, smart, sassy organizer and cheerleader, and Katie, the dear sweet, soft-spoken web wizard, and I knew this would be a group with which I would be happy to make friends and BUY POTTERY! It's been a great ride and now some of my dearest friends, and even our choice for a retirement spot have resulted from my fascination with the little Breton peasants. Barbara Richardson in Annapolis, MD
ReplyDeleteOlder but wiser so the saying goes, I think?
ReplyDeleteThe longer I am involved with this special group of quimpernuts the more precious the friendships, not the Q, become.