Deldare Buffalo
Early 20th Century American Ceramics
Ceramic
Early 20th Century American Porcelain
Ceramic
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Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Ceramics
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Antique Late 18th Century English Chinoiserie Ceramics
Earthenware
Mid-20th Century German Porcelain
Porcelain
Vintage 1930s Swedish Art Deco Sterling Silver
Silver, Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century Chinese Chinese Export Porcelain
Porcelain
Early 20th Century American Arts and Crafts Vases
Ceramic, Pottery
Mid-20th Century British Arts and Crafts Vases
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Vintage 1910s American American Classical Platters and Serveware
Clay
1910s Art Nouveau Mixed Media
Clay
Vintage 1950s American Dinner Plates
Porcelain
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vases
Pottery
Early 20th Century German Porcelain
Porcelain
Antique 19th Century American Country Dinner Plates
Pottery
Antique Mid-19th Century German 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.