TEA SET OF KAREN KIRKHAM TUFT

The following was written by Karen Kirkham Tuft about this tea set. To tie this to the blogspot, Ada Lucy Steel was the mother of Edward Wrigley, who was the father of Sarah Kirkham. Therefore Edward is a half brother of Anna Forman Stoddart Barlow and Anna is an aunt of Sarah Wrigley Kirkham.





















Anna Forman Stoddart Barlow was the youngest child of Ada Lucy Steel and Robert Stoddart. Her sister Birdie Stoddart Kirkham was my grandmother. (Joseph Hyrum Kirkham was my grandfather.) . Birdie died when I was five months old, so I never knew her. Aunt Anna never had children. She was a widow for many years, and worked as a bookkeeper at the old Mormon Handicraft on South Temple, retiring at the age of seventy-eight. My father, Robert Stoddart Kirkham, played the role of son for Aunt Anna and took care of her until her death. She was my "adopted grandma". When I turned seven, she gave my a toy tea set that she said she'd gotten at the age of seven. Since she was born in 1892, that would have been in 1899. She told me that she had taken very good care of it (it is only missing the lid to the sugar bowl), and made me promise that I would, too. The set includes six 2" cups and saucers, a teapot, sugar bowl, and creamer, each showing scenes of children at play. It appears to be earthenware, with printed decals, apparently a common practice at the turn of the century. It has a surprisingly delicate design, compared to some I saw online that look a lot more sturdy and kid-durable. Karen Kirkham Tuft