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About China and Dinnerware

The art of making decorated porcelain ware originated in China thousands of years ago. From 960 through 1279, during the Song dynasty, emperors established factories to make porcelain for the royal family. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the familiar underglazed blue and white patterns that many people think of as "china" were developed, and detailed decorative painting over glaze became common.

Porcelain, called china, was exported to Europe ...

European manufacturers attempted to make hard-paste porcelain in response to the demand, and began successfully competing with Chinese porcelain during the 18th century. France became the leading manufacturer of soft-paste porcelain, and the German Meissen factory perfected European hard-paste porcelain.

Meanwhile, England began producing bone china in large quantities, lead by Josiah Spode. However, due to its high cost, porcelain was still restricted predominantly to the upper-class and royalty (hence manufacturer names like Royal Copenhagen and Royal Doulton) until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Although technical advances made porcelain available to a wider range of people during the 19th century, earthenware (baked clay) and stoneware (clay fired at an intense heat to make it nonporous) continued to be popular for dinnerware items.

Mass-production of china and dinnerware began in the late 19th century, with a corresponding decline in the quality of craftsmanship and materials. Fine porcelain dinnerware was more commonly used for decoration than to hold food. (In addition to dinnerware, prominent makers also created ornamental figurines featuring people and animals.) By the 20th century, colorful functional designs – such as Franciscan and Fiesta – were in high demand.

Collectors today have access to a wide variety of antique and vintage china and dinnerware. In this section we provide a sampling of some of the major makers, styles and regions, including British (Royal Doulton, Royal Albert, Spode, Wedgwood, Royal Worcester, Johnson Brothers), Japanese (Noritake), German (Meissen), French (Limoges, Haviland), Danish (Royal Copenhagen), and American (stoneware, Fiesta, Franciscan, Lenox, Red Wing).

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DEENA CHINA Examples of Red Wing: Stoneware, Dinnerware, and Art Pottery RWCS 2010 Annual Convention Gold Platters silver spoon/please help identify who are these people?

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Interviews & Articles

An Interview With Howard Coutts, Ceramics Curator Of The Bowes Museum

I’m the curator of the ceramics bit of the Bowes Museum. It’s a big museum with 30 galleries of which three or four are devoted to… [more]

An Interview With Fiesta Dinnerware Collector Heidi Kellner

I started as a collector and I’m a web designer, so I thought I would design a website from my passion. I threw it up there and pe… [more]

Identifying China By Its Paste

Illogical though it may seem, few of the thousands of American china collectors know how to distinguish between hard- and soft-pas… [more]

Ceramics Used in America From 1830 to 1859

In the 19th century affluent Americans enjoyed ready access to the ceramic markets of the world. The result was the greatest known… [more]

Hausmaler Decoration on Fayence and Porcelain

This is a province of Germanic art not known to many of us. If there are no awe inspiring peaks and no big rushing streams it is n… [more]

American Vogues in Porcelain Since Colonial Days

For the most part our colonial ancestors were accustomed to a simple and even frugal mode of life. But here and there along the ea… [more]

The Three Periods of Oriental Lowestoft

Through sheer longevity and persistence, the term Oriental Lowestoft has become the designation for all Chinese porcelain made exp… [more]

English Portraiture in Ceramics

Although English artists began working very early in other media, the making of portrait busts and statues in ceramics lagged far … [more]

Exhibition of Cup Plates

It is always a matter of pleasure to collectors, who visit antiques shows, to find the commercial aspect made somewhat less obtrus… [more]

Decorative Accessories of 18th Century English Porcelain

Whilst much thought and attention has been given to the purely decorative figures and objects produced by the 18th-Century English… [more]

Oriental Lowestoft

"A sett of large blue and white China with the badge of the Society of the Cincinnati if to be had, " wrote George Washington to h… [more]

Oriental Lowestoft from Mexico

When one sees a piece of Oriental Lowestoft or a China trade item, the clock turns back a century and a half or more. In the shado… [more]

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Best of the Web (“Hall of Fame”)

Gotheborg.com

Gotheborg.com

Jan-Erik Nilsson's extensive reference on antique Chinese porcelain. Jam-packed with information (e.g. on porcelain… [read review or visit site]

Ohio River Pottery

Ohio River Pottery

Mark Gonzalez's fantastic American Dinnerware site features a comprehensive index of potteries along the upper Ohio… [read review or visit site]

Watt Pottery On Line

Watt Pottery On Line

Dedicated to Watt Pottery collectors everywhere, this site features an extensive database on Watt creations includi… [read review or visit site]

Worcester Porcelain Museum

Worcester Porcelain Museum

The museum with the world's largest collection of Worcester porcelain is a good starting point for beginning collec… [read review or visit site]

The Restaurant Ware Collectors Network

The Restaurant Ware Collectors Network

Don't miss this collaborative reference guide to china and dinnerware used in public, commercial venues. The site c… [read review or visit site]

Thepotteries.org

Thepotteries.org

Steve Birks' super deep site is a tribute to a bygone era, chronicling how a pottery center of excellence (they did… [read review or visit site]

The Bowes Museum: Ceramics

The Bowes Museum: Ceramics

This gallery showcases 2,130 of the 5,000 items in the museum's ceramics collection dating from 1500-1900. Include… [read review or visit site]

Ceramics at The V&A

Ceramics at The V&A

A great reference on ceramics from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Learn about different ceramics techniques and st… [read review or visit site]

Gardiner Museum

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This website boasts hundreds of beautiful ceramics items with detailed descriptions. Start browsing here, and keep … [read review or visit site]

The Art of Asia

The Art of Asia

This microsite from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts features objects from the Institute’s permanent collection,… [read review or visit site]



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