Delicate Hand Painted Porcelain
One of my antique collecting passions is pretty hand painted porcelain teacups and saucers along with teapots, dessert plates and cake stands. My personal collection started when I was a little girl, my Great Aunt Florence Atwater loved to serve afternoon tea to friends and family. My special duty was to set the table with her prettiest teacups, delicate dessert plates, polished silver teaspoons and beautifully pressed and starched linen napkins. At 6 years old this was a very special responsibility that I cherished. Her and I established this special bond of loving to entertain and setting a very beautiful table using beautiful china pieces and special heirloom linens, her teachings about manners and setting the proper table has lead me down my collecting and antique shop ownership lifetime path. Every birthday, Christmas and “just because” holiday she would give me a special bone china teacup from her collection, all of which I still have today, almost 50 years later.
Some table setting trends have changed since those long ago days. Today we have the fun of being more creative with mixing and matching of patterns and pieces. You no longer have to be restricted to owning and using a huge set of special china, often received as a wedding gift. As time progresses your entertaining style, your decorating themes and colors change. Also has we have become a more mobile society, changing residences as well as states and even sometimes countries, moving a 100 piece set of wedding china just isn’t practical any more. Nor do we always have the space to store a set only used on holidays.
So here’s the way to set a pretty romantic, picture perfect table with fine china. First find your inspiration, theme, pick something that you love and go from there. My muse is roses. I absolutely love dishes with roses on them. I am partial to small roses or garlands of roses. I collected an assortment of antique plates, cups and saucers, bowls and serving pieces, pieces made in Limoges, Austria, Germany, England and by various other fine china makers. All the dishes have the common theme of delicate roses. I have also purchased white and ivory solid color large plates and some serving pieces to mix and match with the rose decorated pieces. The combinations of putting together the pieces is endless and I have the freedom to be creative and am not limited to using just one set of dishes or having to store a whole big set. If one piece gets broken, I can easily find another rose decorated piece to fill in. It is very easy to find a small collection of china, maybe 4 bowls here and 6 plates there and before you know it you have enough pieces to host a teaparty or dinner. Bed and Breakfasts are famous for using these little collections of china to set a festive or romantic table setting for 2 and can do a different theme for each morning or meal. From my days of being a bed and breakfast I worked with the idea of having enough of each collection to serve 4 people. My sub-collection is a violet theme, there are so many single pieces decorated with violets, it is easy to build a collection. For a special teaparty, you could get a whole garden theme going. Add a beautiful bouquet of the theme flowers as a centerpiece and it is picture perfect.
The same goes for silver flatware. Buy pieces in different patterns to mix and match. We no longer sell by the sets anymore, we sell 6 or 8 of each type, whether spoons, forks, knives ect. and sell serving pieces indivually. Just so you can buy what you love, what you need and not make a major investment in a whole set. Nothing makes having a cup of tea such a special occasion as a pretty china teacup with a special silver spoon. Some of my teacup buyers purchase an assortment of bone china teacups and saucers and each guest gets to take theirs home after the teaparty. What a nice remembrance of the special day. Another idea is the gals who have a monthly moving teaparty, which is one at a different hostess’s home each time, each guest brings their own favorite teacup from their own collection to use.
Adding to the elegance of setting the table is a collection of table linens that complement your theme. Tablecloths can be layered with coordinating solids and prints or dressed with lace over a solid color, or perhaps a bright colorful 1950’s print with a solid. Or leave the table bare and use placemats or a runner just down the center of the table. There again the combinations are endless. And nothing says elegance like a collection of cloth napkins. There again, collect just the amount you need, find some coordinating ones and mix and match, should one get damaged, it’s not like ruining a whole set, because the set is made up of different ones, it is easy to replace. Sure most of the antique linens need to be ironed to have that beautiful fresh crisp look. But ironing linens is easy and a little spray starch is all you need. Being a linen dealer I spent hours ironing but it really isn’t a terrible chore, I get so much satisfaction taking something that is a wrinkled mess and looks like a rag, press it and it looks like a million bucks. Ironing damask is fun, when it is wrinkled the woven design barely shows, press it and the design pops like magic. Napkins can be embroidered, have lace trims, be classic damask, have interesting cut-work, and many have monograms. So even if you don’t use a tablecloth, use cloth napkins for a touch of elegance. They really are easy to care for. The use of napkin rings in the olden days was to let each person keep and mark their napkin so it could be used for several meals til it was really soiled and needed washing and no one else would mistake it for their own with the personal napkin ring around it. Napkins also come in several sizes with the largest 25 – 30 inch squares for formal dinners. Smaller luncheon size is suitable for every day.
Although I have been talking about special times for setting the table, what is more special than your family. Treat your family to a special dress up meal at least once a week, who better to spoil? It also is an excellent time to teach manners to the little ones and you will be surprised to notice on these special nights the behaviors at the table will magically improve. Even if you have a housefull of boys, learning fine manners will serve them well as adults in the business world, on dates and inpressing the future in-laws. I truly believe a course in manners should be part of every high school curriculum. It will carry them far in life.
After you have been collecting china pieces awhile, you may have more than you can use for dining, you may have a few pieces that have to be retired because of chips or cracks or some pieces just too delicate to use. Now give them a new life as decorating accessories. Use them to form a wall grouping instead of pictures. a stray saucer can become a soap dish, a earring holder. There are numerous jobs for stray bowls, plates ect. Single teacups can sit on a window sill, I have taken 6 same pattern orphan teacups and tied them with a tiny ribbon to hang off the arms of a painted white chandelier, I call it my “Teacup Chandelier”, perfect for a breakfast nook.
Alas some pieces will get broken or crack, if they aren’t too bad they can make perfect under plates for plants. If they are very bad, broken pieces of china can make interesting mosaics on tabletops, lampbases, anything. So if you come across some orphan pieces of pretty china, adopt them and build a family of china.
Lovely article and I do love your pansy china!!
PS I host Tea Time Tuesday each week would love for you to join me, with this lovely piece!