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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.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022The difference between porcelain and ceramic figurines is the materials used to produce them. Porcelain is a delicate white material, while ceramic tends to be heavier and varies in color depending on the type of clay used to produce it. Shop a wide range of antique and vintage figurines on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022The term ceramic is a generic term that refers to something that is made of clay and solidified through heat. Porcelain falls under the ceramic umbrella, but it incorporates kaolin as an ingredient, creating a white clay. To determine if a figurine is porcelain or stoneware or earthenware, it’s best to examine it. Porcelain is somewhat translucent with a glasslike surface where there is no glaze. Shop a range of antique and vintage porcelain figurines on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022One thing to look for in an antique porcelain figure is to look for the maker’s mark, usually found on the bottom of the piece. The porcelain figure will also have a delicate fragile quality to it. On 1stDibs, find a collection of antique porcelain figures from some of the world’s top sellers.
- 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022No, every Fornasetti porcelain figurine is handmade. In fact, the brand produces all of their home decorative items by hand at their workshop in Milan, Italy. If you see indications that a figurine came from a factory, it is likely not an authentic Fornasetti. Shop a collection of expertly vetted Fornasetti on 1stDibs.
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