Welcome to Retro Chick and our first blog post.  For my first post I'm sharing my Vintage Fish Plate Collection.  My husband and I bought our very first fish plate about 14 years ago.  Our first plate was not a great example and bore no makers mark, but it was the start of a larger obsession.  

Our fish plate collecting soon turned to Shorter and Son,  Wembley Ware and Jim Beam fish decanters.  Today I'm showing the Shorter and Son collection of which this picture is just a fraction of the collection.

Shorter and Son Fish plates date from the 1950's and 60's and come in a diverse range of colour and styles.  Most vintage shops have the common yellow with green trim but you have to be a serious hunter both physically and on-line to find the rarer colours.  Over the years our Vintage Fish collection has grown to consume a number of crates in addition to what is on display.

My most complete set, pictured below will allow an 8 person dinner party - something I really hope to do one day.    

Other pieces in the set include fish Casserole dishes and fish lemon wedge holders

Shorter and Son also produced a slightly different style of fish plates with kissing fish and swirling fish, I don't have very much in this pattern range but they pop up now any again.

This little dish has to be my oldest fish plate.  I have three of them all with varying degrees of major fading but have not been able to find any other similar pieces except maybe the salt shaker further down the post.   

With the exception of the plate above, all pieces have a mark like the one detailed on the left.  But my really old piece has the mark on the right. 

We found this platter at the Tyabb Packing house.  It measures in at 55cm long.  We haven't found any other platters this large, this must be for a good fishing day.

Shorter and Son Fish Plates come in a great range of colours and shapes and look great on display.

So, have I finished this collection?  The only piece I would add is a pepper shaker to match this salt shaker below.  From memory we came across this salt shaker on the UK ebay site but have never found the pair.

To end this post, I had to include the fish that started this obsession.  I hope you enjoyed your introduction to vintage fish plate collecting

Enjoy,  Retro Chick