Jan. 6, 2004
By Cathy Farmer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Guinness Book of World Records has certified a church plate collection owned by a United Methodist couple as the world's largest.

Barbara and Thomas Southwell didn't set out with that goal in mind. But, Thomas noted with a grin, "I don't suppose Imelda Marcos really started out to collect 3,000 pairs of shoes, either."

The collection began in 1988 on a trip to Kansas City, when the recently married Southwells visited their Uncle Billy, a frequent yard-sale customer. The couple accompanied him on one of his shopping expeditions.

Rummaging through the odds and ends, Barbara spotted a Methodist Church plate crafted by World Wide Art Studio in Covington, Tenn., only a hop, skip and jump north of Memphis.

"I bought the plate for $1 as a memento," Barbara said, "and told my mother, Anna Ruth Brown, about it. She said she had two plates in her attic, one from Epworth Methodist where she and Dad were married, and one from St. Matthew's. She gave them to us."

After that, every yard sale, every flea market, every antique shop and second-hand store the Southwells visited seemed to have a Methodist Church plate calling their names.

The unintentional collection eventually featured plates from every state in the Union; several from Canada; 20 or more from England; and a few from Wales, France, Germany, the West Indies and Australia.

An article in the Memphis Conference United Methodist Reporter newspaper kicked everything into high gear.

"The wire service picked up the story about our collection," Barbara said. "One of the people who read it lived in the San Francisco area. He called his mother, Harriet Leidich of North Bennington, Vt., because he knew she had a Methodist plate we'd like to have." She immediately contacted the Southwells and offered the plate, which had a "flow blue" pattern from Wales.

The "flow blue" plate from Leidich was made in 1907 to celebrate 100 years of Primitive Methodism. The Southwells have since acquired another and believe the two are worth about $300 each. The collection of more than 1,650 plates (more are arriving all the time) isn't limited to United Methodist plates. Besides the "flow blue" plates from the Primitive Methodist tradition, others are from the African Methodist Episcopal, Christian Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Free Methodist, Evangelical United Brethren, Methodist Episcopal, and Methodist Episcopal South churches.

In addition to plates, the Southwells have platters, tiles, sconces, chapel ware and candy dishes. Some are fashioned in china; others are ceramic, pottery, pewter, copper, wood and earthenware.

The plates were usually commissioned for local churches, but they also celebrate hospitals, schools, historic events and organizations.

"After the story came out in the Reporter," Barbara said, "several people became our benefactors."

Bob Grosvenor, a professor in Lansing, Mich., started e-mailing the Southwells and eventually visited them in Memphis.

"While he was here, we showed him how to bid for plates on e-Bay (an Internet Web site)," Barbara said. When he returned home, Grosvenor started buying plates and having them shipped directly to Memphis. Last year, he sent about 400.

Two women, Eileen McConnell in Texas and Mary Lee Pulley in Arkansas, are also helping the Southwells. McConnell and her husband once drove two hours to purchase dozens of plates from the family of a retired minister.

And then there's the Rev. Elton Watlington. Without him, the Southwells wouldn't have their world record.

"Elton helped us set up a show at St. Luke's here in Memphis," Thomas said. "You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get in the Guinness Book of World Records."

Displaying all the plates took 65 eight-foot tables and two display cases. A certified public accountant had to count them, and a historian had to certify that they were Methodist-related before the collection could be recognized.

For the Southwells, the trip has been memorable - all the way from one plate bought as a memento to a world-record collection.

United Methodist News Service
Cathy Farmer is the editor of The Memphis Conference United Methodist Reporter.