China lament

Teasers? aka tea sets!

That black set sounds interesting paddyann. It it Noritake?
It's nice to see the old china being used for afternoon teas etc.
We've got a cupboard full of my mums and grandmothers teasers which were always 'too good to use'. It still is!
Crystal too is out of fashion. People seem to have to have wine in huge glasses these days. However, I was encouraged to see DD really likes old cut crystal that sparkles under the lights in a way that modern pressed glass simply can't.

Just don’t drop it!

I still have my wedding china which isn't china but porcelain,anyway I dont use it the pattern is a bit old fashioned so I bought a complete set of plain white bone china that I use .My mother would only eat off white dishes and her wedding china was rarely out of the cabinet

.MIL offered me her 12 place setting pale yellow and floral china just last week ,but I wouldn't have space for it or use it.I've offered it to a local hotel who do Afternoon teas and special menu's using different sets of china on each table.Apparently its a big hit and MIL is happy it will be in use again.
Theres also a black set thats paper thin with flowers inside the cups that appear to shine through from the black side .Its lovely and I might take it if I can clear some of my own stuff

I love my dishwasher too but don't use it if there's over glaze gold on an item.
The nicest china I ever saw was back in the 70s, a special order for a Royal Copenhagen set called Flora Danica. It was eye wateringly expensive. Impossible for us to afford so I had Denby Gypsy as wedding china. Still have it! The Flora Danica spoiled me for all other china.
Recently we were in Copenhagen and made a 'pilgrimage' to Royal Copenhagen. Flora Danica as breathtaking as ever and so was the price - almost £2000 for a single 10' plate! I still couldn't afford it. I got a mug though but in the classic blue design and my most expensive mug. It's a pleasure to drink out of. Sigh.

We use Denby now but I have remnants of the china services my parents and grandparents used. My maternal grandparents lived in stoke for a while so we have quite a few oddments.

I love delicate china but feel it is out of place nowadays. As is the canteen of cutlery bought by my parents for our wedding present. And, I never want to go back to cleaning the silver cutlery that we had (and was a wedding present to my parents) - it was a nightmare and always my job!!

Anyway, I love my dishwasher!!

That is a pity about china being poorly produced in China.
I have noticed that some ranges on sale now have plates etc which vary in thickness as well as poor glaze which makes them chip and crack easily.
I still like a cup of tea in a bone china cup if I am having a traditional tea with scones etc - luckily I can do that at home.

Jane10 In New Orleans last weekend we saw a Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre Lily tray by Daisy Makeig-Jones in an antique shop.
MrA, who very rarely likes anything, was very taken with it and dared me to go in and ask how much it was.
It was $18,000, so it stayed in the shop.
I think the lesson here is that very high quality things may be beautiful, but are affordable only for the very few.
I get the impression that younger people have to save up proportionately much more to afford a home these days, and if they do save any extra money it’s more likely to be spent on holidays and experiences than beautiful things for their homes.

Jane I love real china, particularly the beautiful displays of Georgian china in museum cabinets.I once sat on the wooden bench next to it all in the Ashmolean for so long that the security guard kept checking on me.

I think the world is just moving on, in tableware as in everything else. It used to be that parents bought their daughters a china dinner service, I certainly have one, it was actually bought by my parents-in-law as our wedding present. Over the years I have come to dislike the old-fashioned shape and the bold pattern and have replaced it with plain white china. My daughter lives in an open-plan flat with limited kitchen space so just has IKEA plates, no room for a full dinner service to be kept for special occasions. I have noticed that in a lot of the US reality shows people are just eating off plastic or disposables. Horredous idea, but I suppose it´ll come over here soon enough.