Blue plate special: Vintage dishes on display

It's unsettling to see the dishes from your college home economics class on display at a vintage dish shop.

It's amazing that anyone considered the 40-year-old dishes valuable enough to save them from the Dumpster.

Two former professors at California State University, Sacramento, gave the set a reprieve, adding them to their personal collections of retro dishware and small appliances.

Now they are regally displayed at a new shop, Dish: The Shop on Riverside, in Sacramento, Calif. Part museum and part retail space, the shop features dishware and other small items from the 1920s through the '50s.

"It's all from an era before planned obsolescence," says Lee Anderson, one of the shop owners. He is a retired chairman of the design department at the school.

"I started collecting in the '60s," he says. "Back then we spent weekends doing what we called 'saleing' -- shopping yard sales. I started picking up interesting period pieces that were all made in the U.S. -- things like old toasters and Fiesta (ware). I just liked the shapes and the colors."

Eventually Anderson had a garage full of items, as did his friend and colleague Cecilia Gray. Gray, a retired associate vice president for academic affairs at the university, has been collecting mid-century kitchenware and china for 25 years. After the two retired, they pooled their collections and opened the shop late last year.

"The toasters and waffle bakers are Lee's, and some are for sale, although he has trouble parting with them," Gray jokes. "He will only let me sell the duplicates, which is why we describe the shop as part museum and part retail."

The tiny shop showcases toasters and waffle bakers, Homer Laughlin Fiesta, Harlequin and Riviera dishware, barware, amethyst glassware, assorted teapots and much more. There are salt and pepper shakers, cigarette paraphernalia, vases, pitchers, cocktail shakers, jelly glasses, punch bowls and platters.

"Nearly all of it is American-made," says Gray. "We collected only through the '50s and not much was imported until after that decade."

While Gray and Anderson appear to be curbing their collecting bug, they love the challenge of the hunt and they are happy to help locate items or even to help identify something you might have inherited.

For more information, visit www.dishtheshop.com.