I love vintage china

I don’t know why I love vintage plates so much. It all started after the twins were born and I was doing more baking. For my sanity and because I was always eating on the go.  I think that a cake or plate of warm cookies just looks that little bit prettier when it’s on a sweet floral plate.

And one day while trawling the internet when the twins were babies, I discovered that there was a pottery company with my maiden name from Staffordshire. It’s no longer operating but there are lots of vintage plates for sale on the internet. So I could buy vintage plates with my name stamped on the back. I knew I’d love those plates even more. Unfortunately the quality really varies and a lot of the things for sale are showing their age with lots of crazing or cracks. But this one caught my eye.

And so today my collection grew by one with the addition of this sweet plate. It’s so pretty and isn’t showing any cracks or signs of age. And since I’m going to be showing off some of my baking on it I guess I could classify it as work related? Just kidding. I do have a rule to curb my spending, I never spend more than $20 on a plate or piece of vintage china. It’s just a little rule because I have been seriously tempted by some pretty Royal Copenhagen. And I have enough expensive hobbies. But this pretty sandwich plate came in at $12. Pretty and on budget.

Tell me I’m not the only one who loves a bit of vintage china?

Comments

  1. Definitely not the only one! And what I really love are all the vintage plate wall displays on pinterest. Just beautiful!I’d love to do my own one day

  2. Thata lovely -and love the idea of collecting the ones with yr name on the back. Very sweet

  3. cecily maher says:

    me i have loads of staffordshire, inherited from my late mum and grandmother, i love it, i whip it out whenver i can. I even have a royal doulton jardinere which is approx 100 years old ! i love it, and op shops are great places to find it.

  4. I love them too!! I have picked up a couple at my local Vinnies store for $10, I haven’t thought to try ebay. I found some gorgeous teacups with saucers in Tassie on holidays last year, there seemed to be a great supply in opshops down there – will be coming home next trip with a suitcase full! I’ve also been lucky enough to have been given my grandmothers teaset, which sits pride of place in my china cabinet.

  5. Hello :) it’s Swinnertons, am I right? I bought the whole dinner set in this same pattern earlier in the year! And we don’t put it away for ‘best’, but my kids use it for their cereal bowls, etc. Very pretty! Alison

  6. Baking always looks so much nicer presented on a beautiful china plate! Bring back high teas I say!!

  7. Hi Corrie, I have a bit of a soft spot for vintage platters. I’m a huge Jamie Oliver fan and I love that he uses vintage platters and boards etc.
    I picked up a really cute platter at a local Op Shop recently for $4. It isn’t in the greatest condition (just as you described – crazy cracks) but it doesn’t have any chips and it does look lovely. It has so much more character than a plane white platter.

  8. I LOVE vintage china, but I’m also a bit like you in curbing the amount spent on a piece. You can get so much gorgeous stuff, without paying antique prices for it too. But I haven’t learned that without making a few ‘pricey’ mistakes here and there haha. Love your new addition!! Kel x

  9. What a pretty find! I would love to use that color combination in a sweet quilt.

  10. Morning and afternoon tea is so much more special when served on a pretty plate!

  11. For me, vintage plates just make serving up dinner to my family every night just that bit more special. Not sure if they really appreciate it but it makes a difference to me. This plate you hzve found is lovely.

  12. This is simply gorgeous! Like you said I think it’s something to do with being a mum, baking more and just making what we bake look prettier. Can’t believe I found you writing about this when I linked to your 120 cookies recipe when I’ve just written about pretty plates too!

  13. I love collecting vintage tea sets. I love a cup of tea in a bone china tea cup. There are a few of us out there.

  14. There’s plenty of us out there. I love blue china, but I’ll collect anything with roses on it as well. Finding a treasure for under $20 is all part of the attraction too :-).

  15. I love vintage plates too and intend to make an eclectic collection my main plates to use once my youngest has left home. (She is mentally allergic to anything secondhand which makes living with me really hard for the poor girl.) I limit myself to no more than $10 though because of my habit of breaking things. Recently, a sweet lady tried to sell me a plate for $20 but I declined because it would feel like such a waste when it came to throwing the broken bits in the bin. Also, if I have spent too much I won’t be likely to use the goodies and I think it is important to have nice things around. Love your pretty plate too but don’t recognise the pattern. Cherrie

  16. I have loved vintage china since a child as my granny used to let us choose a lovely plate off her china trolley to eat our lunch off. She had marvellous tea sets..cup, saucer and plates ..and it was hard to choose the prettiest out of them. Now my sister and I have a stack each and still love to have ‘tea parties’ with our friends.

  17. Cassandra says:

    I have always had a love for anything vintage and lucky me that my grandmother’s other 15 grandchildren don’t! Over the years she’s gifted me with some beautiful pieces but my favourite has to be a crazy tea set of 6 different sets of cups, saucers and cake plates, all from the 1950s for my engagement last year. We currently live in an apartment but I’m waiting for the day that I can properly display all my lovely pieces in a nice big kitchen sideboard or china cabinet.

  18. That’s a lovely plate. Just right for some melting moments or similar.

  19. Sharon@funkenwagnel says:

    I love vintage china! I havent got any yet, because I’m in the process of putting together a vintage corelle set first. I also have an unholy obsession with vintage Pyrex and fire king (don’t have any fire king yet though).

    There’s some vintage china in excellent condition at this train cafe at Gundagai. Mostly cups and saucers, but they look brand new! I plan to start my china collection there. They have an eBay store too, if anyone is interested I can chase it up

  20. I love pretty vintage plates too. I have a few pieces in my collection that I love. I love teacups and saucers too. I have also collected a few of the Brambly Hedge plates, not that they are vintage, but I love the detail in them. Jacinta

  21. It’s so pretty Corrie and good value, well done…

  22. Toni Huggins says:

    ooh I love it too! I enjoy scouring St V’s etc for pieces of china and crochet

  23. So beautiful, loving the images on Instagram, love Posie

  24. I love vintage china too – although I don’t have any (yet). I love it when I go to a friends house and they pull it out. I think your plate is just glorious and I would love something like this. Could on you for sticking to a budget too.

  25. I inherited my love of beautiful china from my late Mum. I also inherited many of her and my grandmothers’ beautiful pieces – the remainder of wedding dinner sets, tea sets, cake plates and other attractive crockery, which I really love using at any opportunity. I have acquired more through ebay Australia and UK, the latter having a much wider selection. At my nephew’s wedding a couple of years ago, champagne was served in china teacups with matching saucers. The 80 sets were acquired from family but mainly from scouring the abundance of Op Shops in the UK. I am amazed at the thousands of different patterns that were produced by the makers of china in years gone by.

  26. Hello,

    I recently came to acquire a lot of Johnson Brothers Game Birds china. This pattern was discontinues in 1976.

    All of it is a cream colour. There are oval dinner plates, side plates, bowls, and mugs (45 pieces). I also have a gravy boat and a sugar bowl with a lid. And, I have two large covered casseroles, one round and one oval.

    I am having a hard time determining what this may be worth.

    Everything is in excellent condition, in fact the casseroles have never been used.

    Any help would be very gratefully appreciated.

    Thanks!

Leave a Reply to cecily maher Cancel reply

*

Optionally add an image (JPEG only)