Bolognese Dog Figurine
20th Century French Rococo Animal Sculptures
Porcelain
Early 1900s Rococo Figurative Sculptures
Porcelain, Glaze
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Early 19th Century Portrait Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Animal Sculptures
Ceramic, Porcelain
Antique Late 19th Century French Paintings
Canvas
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Early 20th Century Belgian Belle Époque Paintings
Gesso, Canvas, Pine, Paint
19th Century Animal Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Vintage 1950s Danish Mid-Century Modern Animal Sculptures
Oak
20th Century German Other Animal Sculptures
Porcelain
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Animal Sculptures
Art Glass, Blown Glass, Murano Glass
19th Century Victorian Animal Paintings
Oil
Antique 1830s German Rococo Porcelain
Porcelain
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Animal Sculptures
Bronze
19th Century Animal Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Vintage 1930s German Rococo Animal Sculptures
Porcelain
Antique Late 19th Century American Folk Art Paintings
Canvas, Giltwood, Paint
Antique Late 19th Century French Louis XV Paintings
Wood, Paint
Recent Sales
Antique 1870s German Rococo Porcelain
Porcelain
Antique 19th Century German Baroque Animal Sculptures
Porcelain
20th Century German Baroque Porcelain
Porcelain
Finding the Right porcelain for You
Today you’re likely to bring out your antique and vintage porcelain in order to dress up your dining table for a special meal.
Porcelain, a durable and nonporous kind of pottery made from clay and stone, was first made in China and spread across the world owing to the trade routes to the Far East established by Dutch and Portuguese merchants. Given its origin, English speakers called porcelain “fine china,” an expression you still might hear today. "Fine" indeed — for over a thousand years, it has been a highly sought-after material.
Meissen Porcelain, one of the first factories to create real porcelain outside Asia, popularized figurine centerpieces during the 18th century in Germany, while works by Capodimonte, a porcelain factory in Italy, are synonymous with flowers and notoriously hard to come by. Modern porcelain houses such as Maison Fragile of Limoges, France — long a hub of private porcelain manufacturing — keep the city’s long tradition alive while collaborating with venturesome contemporary artists such as illustrator Jean-Michel Tixier.
Porcelain is not totally clumsy-guest-proof, but it is surprisingly durable and easy to clean. Its low permeability and hardness have rendered porcelain wares a staple in kitchens and dining rooms as well as a common material for bathroom sinks and dental veneers. While it is tempting to store your porcelain behind closed glass cabinet doors and reserve it only for display, your porcelain dinner plates and serving platters can safely weather the “dangers” of the dining room and be used during meals.
Add different textures and colors to your table with dinner plates and pitchers of ceramic and silver or a porcelain lidded tureen, a serving dish with side handles that is often used for soups. Although porcelain and ceramic are both made in a kiln, porcelain is made with more refined clay and is stronger than ceramic because it is denser.
On 1stDibs, browse an expansive collection of antique and vintage porcelain made in a variety of styles, including Regency, Scandinavian modern and other examples produced during the mid-century era, plus Rococo, which found its inspiration in nature and saw potters crafting animal figurines and integrating organic motifs such as floral patterns in their work.
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