Judge Snouffer and FiestaWare

FiestaWare's Onion Soup Bowl (Discontinued in 1937)

This weekend, Matt and I had dinner with Judge Snouffer, his wife and Matt's parents. Judge Snouffer is going to marry Matt and I. I admit I was nervous to meet him. I expected him to be very formal, very serious and well "judge-like". I don't know why, but any authority figure like that tends to make me a little nervous. We went over to his house for drinks and appetizers, before going to dinner at the Chart House. As soon as I walked in his house, I got a big hug from his wife Kathi and a hearty handshake from Judge Snouffer who introduced himself as Bill. They were wonderful! They took us on a tour of their home, showing us all of the amazing art collected from their travels all over the world. Judge Snouffer then welcomed us into his world of collecting FiestaWare.

Matt and I registered for FiestaWare as our casual dinner settings. I love it because it comes in a ton of different colors and you can have a rainbow of plates and get away with it. It is also what I grew up with at home. Even as a kid, Mom and I would go to the store and pick our favorite colors to add to her dishes. It never occurred to me that it has this whole collector's appeal. I also would never imagine a man like Judge Snouffer collecting it. He brought Matt and I down into his personal office, where he has beautiful Aboriginal Art, tribal masks, Picasso prints, pictures of him in 1970 having reached the peak of various mountains, and .... a wall full of plates, bowls, mugs and vases. They were his prized possessions and he showed us his favorite piece, the rare onion soup bowl. He also led us into a storage room adjacent to his office and floor to ceiling were boxes and boxes of FiestaWare. He made it a point to show us his lilac FiestaWare dishes and explained that they only made that color for a couple of years. I caught a glimpse of Matt's face as we were looking at all the boxes and could see the words computing in his head..."Lilac? Plates? Huh.." After the grand tour, and some delicious appetizers, (Figs, balsamic vinegar and goat cheese are a killer combination!) we were presented with a book on collecting Fiesta Ware and went to a wonderful dinner.

At the end of the night I was so glad that Judge Snouffer was marrying us. The vows he has written for us are so beautiful and his life experiences, travels, and his own obviously wonderful long marriage seem to make him the perfect person to officiate the wedding. Plus...he does have the rare Onion Soup Bowl!