China lament

Jalima1108 - I bought white/red with gold trimming china set from M & S many years ago and use it only at Christmas and New Year time. I love it and feel very happy using it. As I said before in another thread don't think the younger generation have the same enthusiasm for dinner services/chrystal glasses as our generation have. Shame!

Chewbacca

I am in the mood now for going on a china search! DH wants me to get rid of what we have though.

Tea tastes better out of china mabon!
I do use a mug but it is Aynsley china.

Has anyone else got photos of their china collection? I'd love to see them! Please post if you have.

Nope Jalima, definitely Tree of Kashmir. Its on the back of the plates!

I remember when M&S used to do lovely dinner services. I had just saved up enough to buy the white one with dark red and gold rim when they discontinued them. Presumably they were made by one of the British china factories.

What an interesting link to the difference between them all, Jalima1108. Thank you

Chewbacca - I think that is called serendipity!
Lucky you

We were given a complete dinner and tea service of Johnson china, blue and white, just after we got married which we used for years. It came direct from the factory, I think, and cost very little. Unfortunately, it wasn't dishwasher proof so it faded and quite a bit got broken over the years.

I lived in Stoke-on-Trent (the potteries) for 30+ years and everyone had a friend or family member who worked in a potbank (pottery factory) now most of them have closed down and many have been demolished.
I find this really sad as a lot of the workers were really skilled in their field such as fetlers, spongers, hand painters, sagger makers. These skills are now dying and the beautiful china they produced is no longer fashionable.
I moved to Plymouth to buy a guest house and the crockery the previous owners left behind was horrible, stained and chipped so I got out my own china (a full set of Johnson Bros Eternal Beau) to use instead.
11 years later (with additional pieces added) I am still using it. Yes, it is old fashioned but I think it fits in with my Victorian house and it has kept its pattern after lots of use and dishwashing.

You could have a cuppa with Grandad every day
Jalima: You won't believe, but I knew a Grandad who wouldn't drink tea out of a cup. Reckoned the spoon always stuck him in the eye; so he'd sup the tea from the saucer, where he could blow on it if it was too hot!

I have an Argyle china full tea set and also a Bridgwood tea set, both ancient but beautiful. Cake stands too,Indian tree.
I gave D a set of Copeland and Colclough tea sets but I doubt she's ever used them. I had no room for them.
Mum's Crown Derby tea set " vanished " after she died,that was lovely too.
I love the fine china and cut glass as well. Plenty of charity shop bargains. Even a delightful Meissen figurine for £1 !!

My DH brought a twelve piece place setting noritake set back from one of his trips overseas when he was in the RAF. For many years I kept it in a cupboard ‘for best, only using it at Christmas. We moved house recently and I decided to get rid of the odd plates etc we tended to use everyday and use the noritake. I do enjoy seeing the table nicely set with it and it seems to survive the dishwasher though I usually wash up by hand. I know the DDs wouldn’t want it so might as well have the pleasure of using it myself, though I’m not sure I’ll ever use the gravy boat that came with it.

A couple of years ago I went into an "antique" shop junk shop and spotted a teapot sticking out of a battered cardboard box. I recognised the pattern on the teapot as one that my granny had had many years ago. I asked how much it was and was told £7.50. So I paid up. The shopkeeper handed me the whole box. It was only when I got back to our hotel room that I found that there was a whole dinner and tea service in the box. I've since found the tureen and meat plate on auction sites, but the rest was in the box. The pattern is Paragon's Tree of Kashmir. There isn't a day when I don't use it. Love it!

Gabriella the Chinese pieces mentioned are quite varied. They're not for using ie they're not our conventional household stuff. Two plates are hanging on the wall, a bowl contains pot pourri, the pot things are just ornaments now (although one seems to be a Chinese version of an 18th century European chocolate pot), an ancient wine cask serves as an umbrella stand and the fish bowl gives me endless pleasure just to look at. Some pieces have very old repairs too. Previous generations thought them worth mending. They mostly came from my grandparents who loved auctions and Chinese porcelain almost equally. An inexpensive hobby in the 50s and 60s. I love them all.

I was lucky enough to buy a whole tea set of Royal Albert that was date stamped 1962, and 'Made in England'. How nostalgic and so rarely seen on anything now. The set had been kept in a cabinet and rarely used. It is exquisite, and counts among one of my very best bargains. Later items from the eighties and nineties are made in China - and they are not a patch on the delicacy of the older tea sets.

Years ago when I was a student nurse, at afternoon tea, we served each patient on the gynae ward, tea and cake in sets of pretty bone china. The nurses had to wash it up as it was so fragile. Around 1968. Amazing.

I love to buy pretty little dishes or bowls in charity shops. These are useful for jobs like sitting under jam pots. But I only buy ones which are made in the UK. These are a dying breed and are worth collecting before they disappear completely.

Lilypops
What is your definition of 'best'?

Jane10
Are they used or just to look at and dust?

Nograndsyet
It sounds wonderful and 'homey'.

A few years ago I bought a large plain white Royal Doulton bowl from TKMaxx. It's certainly heavy but, as I only use it as a fruit bowl or for salad in summer, it suits me fine. I didn't buy it for the name, just the size and price.

None of my children use tea cups and saucers but they each keep one for when I visit. I always make tea in a teapot and use leaf tea even if I am the only one drinking. Maybe I am old fashioned but I couldn't care less what anyone else thinks, after a lifetime of looking after three boys and a husband, boys have flown the nest and I am a widow I do exactly what suits me.

I was brought up with Denby, very fashionable at the time. They only di a few designs and ours was dark brown with pale blue insides and pale blue plates. It lasted forever.
I have had a Denby set for at least 20 years white plates with a green border and green cups, teapot and jugs. Like another PP said, it’s discontinued now.
It’s as tough as old boots and should something break EBay is a source of replacements.
My Wedding china was Ansley Pembroke, a complete dining, tea and coffee set. It languishes in a cupboard, too delicate for the dishwasher.

I've got one or two items of antique Chinese porcelain. They're hundreds of years old and of infinitely better quality than the modern chinese replicas of our old China. I treasure them and just hope my DCs do too.