Crockery

The girlfriend asked me what I'd like for tea, so I told her that I would have whatever her little girl was having. Made for easy preparations.

The omelette came on a pretty plate. It caught my eye. I've always liked crockery of a certain age, and the color and design of this plate don't look contemporary. I flipped it over and was thrilled to see its history.

The girlfriend shared that it's a plate handed down by the grandmother to the family. How very nice. It put a huge smile on my face. I haven't really asked the girlfriends. But I think many have stored seriously historical dining sets at home. I should barge into their kitchens and demand to browse through their collection. These wares are simply beautiful.

This plate is from Johnson Brothers. I like them. I've got sets of their china plates and dining sets in storage and carefully tucked away at home. Same goes for the silver and china from Cooper Brothers and Sons, Portmeirion, Duchess, Miles Mason, Burleigh, Churchill. These are the day-to-day china that my grandparents and their parents once used alongside Noritake, Peranakan and Chinese porcelain. One could go on an acquisition blitz for these plates. They're not prohibitively expensive, but their significance (and possibly value) is higher when there's family history involved because of the fact that the beautiful plates are common daily objects used in everyday living.

A trace of colonial history and the people's living habits during that era can be gleaned from these crockery and cutlery. I'll say this, like an old lady, that they certainly don't produce quality like they do in the 1800s and 1900s. I could see the hallmark of pride and fine quality in the production of these china and silver. Decades, and almost a century later, with nary a chip, these plates, soup bowls and silver are now mine for keeps and I treasure them very much. :) Half are in use currently, and that's probably a huge impetus for me to personally wash them instead of asking the maid to do it, and those are definitely not meant for the dishwasher.