Jo Nell Bakanec
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This month, we feature Vintage by International Silver. This stunning pattern was inherited by our own Jo Nell Bakanec. Jo Nell currently works as a member of our Attributing staff. She first started at Replacements, Ltd. in 1995 as a tour guide in our showroom. The story of how she came to collect this beautiful silverplate pattern is very interesting.

Vintage features a scrolled edge that is accented with clusters of grapes, leaves, and a winding vine. The pattern was produced around 1904. Jo Nell inherited part of her Vintage collection from her grandmother. Originally, Jo Nell’s grandmother began collecting the Vintage pattern because her sterling silver was stolen while she was out of town. Jo Nell says that her grandmother had an affinity for the grape design on the pattern. Over the years, Jo Nell’s grandmother continued to add to her collection.

Vintage by International
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When Jo Nell’s grandmother began her Vintage collection, Jo Nell was living in Kentucky. She knew her grandmother was augmenting her Vintage set by buying pieces from Replacements, Ltd. Jo Nell could hardly believe that she would one day move to Greensboro and begin working for Replacements, Ltd. In 1995, right after marrying her husband, Jo Nell moved to Greensboro. Her husband had just taken a new job in the area. Jo Nell’s joy and excitement about moving to a new area was short-lived. Her grandmother passed away in 1996 at the age of 87.

Over the years, International’s Vintage pattern has become very special to Jo Nell. She looks at it and thinks fondly of her grandmother. She uses it with her other patterns, Noritake’s Barrymore, Mikasa Crystal’s Sonata-Gold, and Spode’s Christmas Rose. Today, Jo Nell continues adding to the collection of International Vintage that her grandmother started decades earlier.