Wedgwood Cabbage Leaf Plate
Antique Late 19th Century English Aesthetic Movement Dinner Plates
Earthenware
Recent Sales
Early 20th Century English Rustic Dinner Plates
Earthenware
Vintage 1940s English Hollywood Regency Dinner Plates
Earthenware
Mid-20th Century English Aesthetic Movement Dinner Plates
Earthenware
Mid-20th Century English International Style Dinner Plates
Earthenware
Antique Late 19th Century English Aesthetic Movement Dinner Plates
Earthenware
Antique Mid-19th Century English Regency Dinner Plates
Pearlware
Vintage 1940s English Hollywood Regency Platters and Serveware
Majolica
Finding the Right dinner-plates for You
Set the mood when you’re setting the table. The right antique and vintage dinner plates for the meals in your home can truly elevate the dining experience.
We haven’t had our own plate at dinner for very long. It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century in Europe that individual dinner plates had become the norm, replacing the platters that diners had shared before them. Innovations at the dining table are believed to have been introduced by Italian noblewoman Catherine de’ Medici, who, when she married King Henry II of France in 1533, brought with her decorative table adornments for meals and fine tableware such as silver forks, replacing the fingers and knives utilized during dinner before her arrival. Italy was a bit faster on table settings, and, thanks to Catherine, tableware such as dinner plates would also replace the wooden trenchers and flat slabs of days-old bread that preceded them.
Today, while enthusiasts of mid-century modern furnishings might pine for vintage mismatched dinner plates — a mix of old and new can be refreshing — presenting ceramic vessels, glassware and decorative centerpieces that matched was once actually part of the point as setting the table became more refined during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And as Fornasetti dinner plates and Chinese porcelain tableware have long held weight as collector’s items and status symbols, your dinner dishes haven’t ever really been merely functional. From antique metal dishes and ornamental earthenware designed by celebrated English ceramics makers Wedgwood, dinner plates are statement-making works that bring elegance and likely stir conversation at your table.
Entertaining is an art form, and the kitchen bar island and dining room table in your space are cherished gathering places where families and friends convene and grow closer over good meals. Browse an extensive collection of antique and vintage dinner plates to pair with these important events today on 1stDibs.