Finland Porcelain

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I went to Finland a few years ago and brought home some Teema coffee mugs. I continued to buy some stuff of the same series here in Vienna and the colors I liked most were yellow and grey. Now Arabia had Kilta and later on Teema in it's assortment for some fifty years and the greatest feature of Kaj Francks design is the absence of anything fancy and thus it's timelessness. I wished more things in my life had these qualities. Another desirable feature of dinnerware should be it's replace ability. But all of a sudden some Arabia managers decide that the series needs update (which it definitely doesn't).
So they discard yellow and grey and invent dark brown and olive green, shades of digestion products that are unmentionable at a dinner table.

So now I can't enlarge my collection anymore without looking for antiques which wasn't my original motivation. Good things should be eternal.

It seems a collector of Arabia is what the most people think that he is dry and strange person. The second impression is maybe true(my wife say it at least 3 times a week to me) but the first absolute not. Let me explain this with an wonderful example.

I had some old Arabia of one production line for sale and I had an reaction of somebody from the USA. We agreed on the price and when the deal was closed he asked me to send it to his house in Italia, because he lived in the summer in Italia and in the winter in the States. No problem because I send often something to Italia. It was 2 packages of 10kg. But after 10 days after I send it, the 2 packages came back to me with a sticker on it with the text "Address do not exist". I contacted the person by mail and asked him what the matter was with his address (there was no number at the street at the address label) He mailed me back with the answer that the address was correct and it was also correct that there was no number, because his house had no number. It was a house outside a little town, and the only house on that road but difficult to reach. I send the parcels again but the second attempt came also back to me with the same message. I had already so much mail traffic between him and me and somehow it was always pleasant mail with him, so I phoned him to find a solution to get the goods to him. We did not find any and desperate as I was, I just told him "NO PROBLEM,I WILL BRING IT TO YOU". After I put down the phone I realized that in my impulse (again a strange habit of me) I made an agree to drive 2.000 km(1.400 miles) to him, deliver the goods and drive 2.000km(1.400 miles) back. But when I promise something I do it. After a very nice (and bad but that is another story) drive of 2 days (I drove with it with a small pickup that do not drive quicker than 110km (70 miles) with sleep underway in the back of my pickup I arrived at the address and found it with absolute no problem.

The couple who lives their (mister X and mister Y) where 2 wonderful and nice American persons who lived there is a house you cannot imagine so beautiful on the top of a mountain in the middle of the Italian country with only nature around it and in the distance a little town where the youngest house 400 years old was(about this I can write an very long story because it was something out of a fairy tail) . They had arranged a very luxurious hotel (on their expense) and in the evening we had a very big and wonderful home cooked dinner at their house on the veranda with the Italian Toscana at our feet. It was just a dream. After a good night sleep(but very short because the dinner last until the small hours of the night and the wine taste beautiful) in the hotel I drove 2 days back.

It cost me 3 times the amount I got for the goods and as a business person I should say it was a deal with total loss, but as a collector of stories and impressions behind Arabia (that is the person I really am) I can say I had a profit of 1.000% of impressions. And like I always say money is nice to have but good impressions and memories makes the quality of live and goes for a lifetime. I am maybe not rich (in money) but I am a billionaire in experiences because this is just one from a lot. 

I am 44 years old and I live in Israel. I was born in Norway where I lived with my family until 1970, the year we moved back to Israel. In Norway my late mother purchased the basic set of Ruska for 12. We used it only on special occasions. when I got married we got (as a wedding present) another set (not Arabia) and after using it for a couple of years my mother offered us the Ruska in exchange for the set we used ("Thomas"). Of course we agreed and since then I added many items.

Once we moved from our house to a new house and we packed all the Ruska in boxes and wrote in Hebrew 'aravia' (the Hebrew word for Arabia and also in Hebrew - an Arab woman) so later when we unpack the boxes we would know what's inside. The moving people, of course did not know the Arabia (it has never been sold in Israel!) so they asked us what was in the boxes since the writing meant an Arab women.

Before I was married in the late nineteen sixties, it was customary for a girl to begin  collecting a  favourite dinnerware pattern. I loved Ruska , my family thought it too dark, but I insisted.  Now forty years later my collection, is large enough to serve my Grandchildren  as well. In all these years Arabia Ruska has been the only dinner set I use, everyday and on special occasions.

If you start with the  quality of Arabia Ruska, table accessories are all you need to dress it up or dress it down. The feeling is always warm, like seasoned wood, enduring , perhaps even ancient. I have tried establishing another lighter set of flowery dishes also of excellent quality, but they never make it out of the boxes. Arabia Ruska is so versatile.

During the forty years, I have, by my carelessness broken one casserole, the biggest one, by setting it on a hot stove ring , and chipped the rims of a few cups, yes bumping them together. Fortunately I have been able to replace them.

Over time each dish takes on a personality and becomes favoured of individual people. When I look at them, my mind is flooded with gorgeous memories of hundreds of meals and coffee gatherings where Ruska has served proudly. So the set is intact and I will use it and love to the end of my days. Although I may indulge myself in a rare collectors piece now and again.

I was living in the 60est in Amsterdam/Netherlands as a student on the University. My neighbour was a company that was a store in porcelain called Indoor, but beside a store it was also the company who imported Arabia for the Netherlands. There I saw for the first time Arabia Ruska and I liked it a lot. After thinking a long time because I was a poor student, I decided to purchase some Arabia Ruska porcelain. That purchase was only one Ruska dinner plate but I was happy with it. As far as I can remember it was the most expensive thing in my little student room.

Later on I purchase some more Ruska (like one extra dinner plate, 2 breakfast plates and so on) so I could also impress a  fellow (girl) student if they visit my little room.

In the time I got to work, after my study period, I completed my Ruska china.As I got married, my wife also liked Arabia, we purchase some more, but my real collection started with an visit to Finland(the Arabia museum and the Arabia factory’s). After that visit I started with purchasing of new and old Arabia items of different kind.

After I married again, my wife had the same interest in Arabia(is that an coincidence), I purchased more and more Arabia. My hobby got a little out of hand, because my collection is now more than 100.00 different items and of some items I have more than one like an complete Ruska chine for 12 persons.

Luckily I have 3 houses in 3 different country’s in Europe, not that I am rich but the 2 other houses are from an inheritance  and the both other 2 houses are in not a such good state and I hope to get ready with the restoration before I die. The most of my collection is in the 2 other houses especially the expensive items because very few people know the addresses of the 2 other houses and that is an safe feeling.

My wife ask me often:

Why don’t you have a stamp collection as a hobby, so you can keep your collection in some books instead some houses (full).