I MUST stop looking at dinner china. (This is related to food, right?)

A

amanda_pennsylvania

Well-known member
I have an unhappy addiction to china. I love looking at it all, although my favorite is the English transferware. (BTW, I totally blame my mother for this.) My current obsession is to buy a set of dinner plates that I can use for the fall and Thanksgiving, mostly because my everyday ware is blue and white, which doesn't seem very autumnal.

I just bought a Johnson Bros. turkey platter at an antique store. Every year we make the turkey and then run around like crazy looking for something to put it on. I'm really looking forward to using it.

 
aw, bless your heart...I just donated the last of my glass dishes from K-Mart (1981). I figured

there wouldn't be a fight over them when I'm dead.

 
LOL, Marilyn...I love simple, beautiful and sturdy dishes and have a dream of owning Heath

dinnerware some day. However, as I grow older, I look around and think, we have 51 years of stuff and I need to get rid of all this so the kids don't have to do it. It is an awful chore to do. So. gradually, I am giving it away, selling or it goes to a thrift shop with a no-kill shelter animal shelter.

 
My "every day dinnerware" when I was married was Johnson Bro. Now these many years

later it is gone. Did I give it away? Did it all break? Who knows. I now have a complete set of Royal Dalton that I bought at their discount store when it closed. I love it and it is everything safe!! My "good china" is Fanciscan that doesn't go in the dishwasher and hasn't been used in 18 years. I need to get rid of it, God knows my kids don't want it. Maybe I'll see if Replacements will give me anything for it. It seems many of us are in the same boat, getting rid of stuff so the kids don't have to. It seems that I keep getting rid of things every time my church has a rummage sale but somehow another batch grows in it's place.

 
My everyday dishes, from many years ago, are from when I went to Grand Union and purchased the

Sale of the Week". Not sure if everyone had this... But, they would have a special each week, so the bowls were lets say .50. The following week, the plates were 50 cents. So funny, I purchased a full set over many weeks... OH>>> and it was a set for 16, as my parents, in-laws, siblings, etc live in the area.

Funny memory, running in my business suit, trying to find enough plates, bowls, etc.. I still have the set.... and I smile about how I purchased it.

 
It really can be agonizing. I have 3 sets. I am one person. What do I do with this?

My mother's Blue Mikado (Royal Crown Derby) came with me and it's still packed ready to ship to Replacements, but I'm so afraid of breakage. She probably spent about $60,000 on this stuff, gave it to me and I never liked it. I feel so guilty but I can't use it. It was how she treated herself from her work money when we were kids. I have my Wedgwood and another German set.

I enjoy setting a table but really, my life just isn't that exciting.

I need to get off my butt and move some of this stuff.

 
Someone would love to have it. Put it on Craigs list with pictures or

if you have an antique mall in your area, put them in their care on consignment. We did that with some of grandma's gold crystal goblets and got a good return for them. Most of the folks I talk to today say their kids want nothing of what they have in the way of dishes, crystal, silverware. It seems no one entertains that way anymore, nor do they want to. Can't blame them, it is a lot of work to use all those beautiful things that have to be hand washed.

 
I still have my Mikasa everyday ironware from 1983 wedding

Ironware indeed. You couldn't break the stuff on a bet. I'm tired of it but there's nothing wrong with it. I actually like the shape of the pieces. Just so many things I need to spend money on besides new dishes.

 
Don't bother with REplacements--a pittance. Put it on Craig's

List--or look for a good Consignment store who would market it. It really all depends on who sees it!! I LOVE china and would have a set for every day, if I could. Had to get rid of a lot of "salad/dessert" plates when we moved--I used them often, and loved them all.

 
Our "family" china was obtained in laundry boxes. They included a dinner plate

with the large box of dry laundry soap. It was a blue/white Currier & Ives pattern. With 8 kids, it was really the only dinnerware my parents could afford. Appropriate, because our drinking glasses were recycled jelly jars.

 
Funny, the banner ad over this conversation is for Pfaltzgraf! I have NEVER shopped

o line for Pfaltzgraf. Guess those little spy bots don't miss a thing. Kinda scary....

I bought Nortitake china from a local dept store in the late 70's/early 80's, pieces at a time. Then it was discontinued so I got a lot of serving pieces at a warehouse sale. I used it thru the 80's but then I guess my taste changed and it was not me at all any more. I decided I liked a mix and match assortment of pottery dishes and that is what I still have today and love it. 10 years ago when my MIL died we took a lot of her stuff to a consignment shop. I added my china to the pile. Lady at the shop could not sell it and ended up giving it away.....

 
So much work, but so fun! Every once in a while, I will bring out the china for tea. BUT,

completely agree w/ you Karen, it is alot of work. AND, when we were kids, they did not have the sturdier plastic plates / utensils that they have today. I remember my mom was the first on the block that had the baskets that held a paper plate to make it more durable. Fun memory!

 
My first clue to stop the work came from both our sons, one Thanksgiving

as my husband and I toiled in the kitchen to clean up. I used my mom's china which had to be hand washed, and the crystal too. Our eldest son came up to us and asked us to start using the stuff that could be put into the dishwasher, because everyone was tired of doing dishes, and wanted us to be with them by the fire in the other room. I had always thought that, we, as a family were having fun doing all the fine dishes and wine glasses. Not so, apparently. The following spring for Easter, I did as they asked and must admit it was so much more fun. I've asked all three of our children to speak up as to who wants what from our collection of fine and vintage wedding gifts....no one wants it and they all three entertain VERY casually. I ruined them!

Since we expanded and remodeled the kitchen and have a huge glass top table, it is actually prettier than the formal dinning room, and looks out to the pool. Everyone wants to eat there instead. We should have sold the house before the new trend to NOT have formal living and dinning rooms.

 
This makes me sad. I'd adopt all the unwanted china and crystal if I could.

My mother had two sets of Wedgewood (my dad was a diplomat and they did a lot of fancy entertaining) which I'll inherit and we'll also inherit another set of Wedgewood from my MIL. My mother and I have the same crystal (Crystal d'Arques) so I'll have a ton of that. PLUS my dad gave me his collection of 300 Belgian beer glasses (my husband is insisting that I have to get rid of them).

But yet, I still can't stop looking at china...

 
I have put our good china in the DW for many years--it has a gold

rim and the paint design is glazed over--hence protected. I just use a very very small amount of dish soap. For the 3-5 times a year I use it, it hasn't hurt it.
Ihave old Cuthbertson Christmas china where the "decal design" is not glazed over. I washed it by hand for the Christmas season for a long time, and more recently, have done the same--just use small amount of detergent, and rinse well before putting in the DW.

 
I'm right there with you Amanda...

I love dishes and serving ware too! I don't get to entertain often, but when I do, I always go all out on my table design. I only allow myself to buy things that I will use in the near future (2-3 months) and that can stand on their own or go with something I already have (in other words, I won't have to buy a bunch of other stuff to be able to use it). Over the years, I have collected dinner plates in solid colors and I like to buy salad plates to change things up with them.

I also have a set of Blue Willow china that I got when I was first married. The grocery store was featuring it and I could buy a entire place setting for $2.99. I would get one every week or so until I finally got a whole set. For several years, those were the only dishes I had enough of to set a full table when I had guests.

If you find a 12-step program for this, let me know. If not, call me and we'll go to Homegoods together!

 
I worked for Mikasa corporate many yrs ago--re gold trim--our advice

which has served me well with my gold trim is--ok to put in dishwasher, but don't use the dry cycle--the drying/heat is what takes the gold off.
And yes, I am a certified dinnerware addict too!!
I used to have access to the rejected samples too, I used to have a lot of single cool plates that never saw production..... I purged most of those....
Also, for NYC folks, Fishes Eddy is a really fun store!

 
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