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Hammered Copper Plates

Mid-20th Century French Repoussé Hammered Copper Fish Wall Charger
Located in Pearland, TX
A lovely Mid-Century French repoussé hammered copper charger / plate / plaque / wall hanging from
Category

Mid-20th Century French Dinner Plates

Materials

Copper

Recent Sales

Set of Eight Arts & Crafts Copper Plates
By William Morris (English)
Located in New York, NY
A stunning set of eight hand-hammered copper Arts & Crafts under plates. English and most likely
Category

Antique Early 1900s English Arts and Crafts Dinner Plates

Materials

Copper

Set of Eight Arts & Crafts Copper Plates
Set of Eight Arts & Crafts Copper Plates
H 0.5 in W 11.5 in D 11.5 in
Set of Eight Copper Chargers
Located in Chicago, IL
A chic set of eight hammered copper chargers with wide rims, perfect for setting your best table
Category

Late 20th Century American Dinner Plates

Materials

Copper

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Materials: Copper Furniture

From cupolas to cookware and fine art to filaments, copper metal has been used in so many ways since prehistoric times. Today, antique, new and vintage copper coffee tables, mirrors, lamps and other furniture and decor can bring a warm metallic flourish to interiors of any kind.

In years spanning 8,700 BC (the time of the first-known copper pendant) until roughly 3,700 BC, it may have been the only metal people knew how to manipulate.

Valuable deposits of copper were first extracted on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus around 4,000 BC — well before Europe’s actual Bronze Age (copper + tin = bronze). Tiny Cyprus is even credited with supplying all of Egypt and the Near East with copper for the production of sophisticated currency, weaponry, jewelry and decorative items.

In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, master painters such as Leonardo da Vinci, El Greco, Rembrandt and Jan Brueghel created fine works on copper. (Back then, copper-based pigments, too, were all the rage.) By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, decorative items like bas-relief plaques, trays and jewelry produced during the Art Deco, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau periods espoused copper. These became highly valuable and collectible pieces and remain so today.

Copper’s beauty, malleability, conductivity and versatility make it perhaps the most coveted nonprecious metal in existence. In interiors, polished copper begets an understated luxuriousness, and its reflectivity casts bright, golden and earthy warmth seldom realized in brass or bronze. (Just ask Tom Dixon.)

Outdoors, its most celebrated attribute — the verdigris patina it slowly develops from exposure to oxygen and other elements — isn’t the only hue it takes. Architects often refer to shades of copper as russet, ebony, plum and even chocolate brown. And Frank Lloyd Wright, Renzo Piano and Michael Graves have each used copper in their building projects.

Find antique, new and vintage copper furniture and decorative objects on 1stDibs.

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.

Questions About Hammered Copper Plates
  • 1stDibs ExpertAugust 17, 2021
    Hammered copper has small dents that make it stronger than flat sheets of copper because it is able to disperse the weight of any object over a wider area.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Copper plates are often preferred by chefs as the cookware of choice because copper is an excellent heat conductor. For dinnerware, the aesthetics are a bonus, with the copper of the plate giving off a rustic, earthy appeal. You can shop a selection of copper dinnerware from some of the world’s top sellers on 1stDibs.

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