While it is tempting to store your antique and vintage porcelain decorative objects and other items behind closed glass cabinet doors and reserve them only for display, your porcelain dinner plates and serving platters can safely weather the “dangers” of the dining room and be used during meals. So go ahead and dress up your dining table for a special meal with a range of porcelain tableware, platters and tea service from 1stDibs.
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.
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.
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. Elsewhere, Denmark’s Royal Copenhagen first made dinnerware and vases with blue-and-white motifs inspired by Chinese porcelain. Hungarian brand Herend favors large, bold designs for its porcelain, with its serving pieces, dishes and other works incorporating historical scenes, animals or vegetation.
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.
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.
Find antique and vintage porcelain made in a variety of styles on 1stDibs.
