AUBURN – The pink pitcher was made in September 1938. A pink teapot, December 1941. A pink sugar bowl, the following July.

In 1991, Julie Bean picked up her first piece of LuRay dishware, pretty pastels produced a half-century ago by Taylor Smith & Taylor. Then she spent 15 years assembling a complete service for 16, mostly one plate at a time.

Once she got close to the end, “I’d carry (a list) in my pocketbook at all times,” said Bean.

Those plates are her absolute favorite. And no, she wouldn’t dream of eating on them. She has an entire collection-in-progress of plates she wouldn’t set out on the table.

In neat stacks behind cupboard doors, she’s pulled together a forest green service for eight in a pattern called Charm made by Anchor Hocking in the 1950s. A complete set of Madrid by Federal Glass Co. was made in the 1930s.

Two more salad plates and a platter, and she’ll finish her service for eight in Sharon Cabbage Rose, amber-colored dishes made by Federal, also in the 1930s.

“I love it; I’ll never stop,” Bean said. “The beauty of them, I think, surpasses anything they make today.”

She’s working on patterns called Normandie and Patrician by Federal and Florentine No. 2 by Hazel Atlas.

“I’m also going to have to get another cupboard,” Bean said.

Every May she hits an enormous antique show in Brimfield, Mass., and usually has luck there. She’s found gravy boats, butter dishes and bowls at antique stores up and down Route 1 and, sometimes, at lawn sales.

The LuRay were originally sold in sets of Surf Green, Windsor Blue, Sharon Pink and Persian Cream that were broken, chipped or separated from mates over the years.

“Not many days go by that I don’t open up the cupboard and look at them,” Bean said.

She has two grandsons, 9 and 12, who have already been told they’ll get an eight-piece service of her prized plates on their wedding day.

“They also know they can’t touch them either,” she said. At least not yet.

When Bean marries Tom Juray later this month, she’ll gain eight more grandchildren, with one more on the way. She’s already matching plates and personalities.