Everyday Dishes

This will end in tears.

[quote]This will end in tears.

Well, it hasn't all the other times we've done this thread. So, I'm sure it'll be fine this time, as well.

There's a great thread on this on FrauCentral.com OP

Maybe post there?

Where's the search scold?

I don't see a lot of tears, but I do see a lot of broken plates.

^^^Well, technically it's me at r2.

However, it actually doesn't come up with anything if you search, so I was milder than the usual nutbag search scold.

Will my gay card get revoked for saying Correlle?

Can I get a bowl of chili ?

I don't care about the style or pattern of the bowl, as long as it's clean.

R7 #MeToo!

[quote]I don't see a lot of tears, but I do see a lot of broken plates.

Let's just hope they're not Corelle plates. It'll take forever to clean up the millions of teeny-tiny shards. And forever is also how long we'll be banned from Datalounge.

Correlle??? I thought that everyone here was rich!

My first set of dishes was Correlle. Classic green floral rim.

The new Correlle patterns are actually quite nice. Very modern or Updated.

[quote] Updated

My china is Japanese. Says “Made in Post War Japan.” Gold is the brand name.

OP is failing miserably to impress me.

Plates would mean eating and that’s how people get fat. Plus, food stinks up the apartment.

I inherited a motley set of dishes after my parents died and replaced them all with.......Corelle. After several years, I've been rethinking things, and will probably replace the whole set with Blue Willow, which I've always loved.

[quote]Blue Willow

Really? Isn't it a bit, ahem, "busy?"

I like my white pasta bowls that I got from Target (Made By Design). Good price, too. URL was too long to post.

I recently got some stuff from this company, Miya, located in New Jersey, USA. It's Japanese style but modern-looking, I think. Good customer service.

I’m a Le Creuset addict

Chipped Corelle that I found near a sewer

Corelle

R18, Not to me. I know the whole story that's depicted there, and it's very romantic and comforting to me. Some of the oldest china I ever used, back when I first moved out, was some Blue Willow china that had been left in an abandoned apartment, and which I happily used for several years. My current set of Corelle is very plain white, with no pattern, but I finally decided that it was really too plain.

[quote]Will my gay card get revoked for saying Correlle?

No, R7. It's being revoked for misspelling it. Hint: one R.

I thought Le Creuset only made pots, interesting.

I understand why people like Corelle. But when I use it (other people's houses), I feel like I'm eating from children's dishes.

I have plain white plates and bowls from IKEA.

Bistro by Williams-Sonoma. White with blue trim. Lovely. Not ever day is Frederick the Great by Rosenthal. Love the cobalt. Discontinued. Damn it.

Wedgwood’s, Grand Gourmet. Classic, white bone china.

Unfortunately, the replacement prices are more than i’m willing to pay.

I've downsized. Now I just have my Metlox Colorstax in different shades of blue and green. Midnight Blue and Fern Green (chartreuse) are my favorites. Metlox started making them (in Manhattan Beach, CA) a few years after Homer Laughlin stopped manufacturing Fiesta, which was what I wanted when my boyfriend and I broke up in 1982. But then I found these at Bloomingdale's. I like them more, actually.

I had two sets of white dishes, a French set from Williams-Sonoma and something more modern by Jasper Morrison. I sold the Apilco (?) to a young friend of an old friend, at quite a loss, and I could only give the Jasper Morrison away. But I'm an ancientgay. No more dinner parties [italic]pour moi[/italic] . And I never liked white dishes anyway.

eBay has the best compilation of pics I could find. Metlox went out of business in the late '80s.

Royal Dalton 1815 in white. Simple, durable, inexpensive.

Iittala Origo for everyday use

It’s not my everyday best but...

R1 Amen, sister

R25 good one, I liked that. Just the appropriate amount of standard DL bitchiness

Well! I can't believe we've had 36 replies without a single mention of "Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles."

Standards are falling everywhere.

I buy white mix and match at flea markets and junk shops.

I fill in when needed with white wear from Ikea and (God forbid) the Dollar Tree.

We have boxes of blue williow wear, as does every old house on Cape Cod. Loved it as a kid, not so much as an adult.

I was using plain white stuff from Crate and Barrel until last year when I hosted Thanksgiving. I thought it would be fun to try and find the dishes my Mom had when we were young, growing up in the 70s and 80s and sort of surprise her. Well, it turns out that they were a gift from my grandmother and my Mom always hated them. She got rid of them as soon as Grandma died. Anyway, I was razzed about them when we had a similar thread about china last year, but I don't care. I still like them.

I kept this one forever because the Tim was big enough to keep thumbs off the fucking food.

S/be “rim”

I have vintage 1980s Fiestaware in the four pastel colors. Sea-mist green, rose, apricot and periwinkle blue.

For good ones or everyday I only like white. I know, "Mary" but I actually feel nauseous and lose my appetite when I see food on a print dish or bowl or even on solid colors. Food looks so much better on white.

Crate and Barrel basic white. I like the fact that you can replace them one at a time and they rarely discontinue the line.

Two years ago I got rid of my old chipped cracked scratched everyday dishes and bought some nice Pacifica dishes. from Williams Sonoma. I bought dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, mugs and pasta bowls. I chose the turquoise. They are currently having a great sale on the very same items.

I have my Mom's Arzberg - I think 1960 - which she received for her wedding, plus most of a vintage Wedgewood tea set (plain and with roses).

But being a hopeless klutz, for daily use it's plain white Woolworths (the South African Woolworths).

Victoria and Beale's "Napoli"

Vintage plates that were put out with the trash. They were very beautiful and I can’t believe someone wanted to throw them out. I didnt have to pay for them And the plates got an appreciative home so a double win. I also got some plates from ikea

Half you bitches eat over the sink, 25 % of you eat over the toilet, while on it.

And the rest of you, but one uses paper plates, from yesterday's newspaper.

The remaining one uses the same China as Hyacinth

what a bunch of Hyacynth Bucket prisspot faggots you all are

Dixie

Denby for breakfast.

One of the Havilands for luncheon and dinner. I nice simple Lenox when people are over for brunch.

We're unpretentious.

These.

I'm bald, old, obese, effeminate and single, I have no friends and no one wants to fuck me, The only card I have left to play is looking down my nose at people because I use better china than them.

I admit to a porcelain and plate fetish. I have some 1820's Imari-style stoneware dinner plates, and a Spode Regency tea service and I tend to use them everyday. I don't collect anymore, though.

Who knew plates could be so controversial?

What does one put on these things you call "dishes"?

I think I will win for Most Frautastic.

My mom gave me these for Christmas 4 years ago. Before I unwrapped them, she warned me that she was regretful about having purchased them but that it was too late to send them back.

It made me a little sad that she was unhappy about whatever it was that I was about to open, but I, too, thought "yikes!" as I opened the box and started reading the quotes on the dishes.

"Love with all your heart" and "Home, where love is always found" were on the plates and "Laugh every chance you get" and "Live so that you never regret a single day" on the bowls and mugs, respectively. I reassured her that they were wonderful but wondered what I was going to do with them.

I left them in the box for months, then one day decided to take them out and look at them again and reread the messages. I realized that even though these weren't my style and even though she was regretful about having gotten them for me, when she saw them in one of her catalogs, the messages on the dishes spoke to her and were truths she thought were important enough to share with me, as trite as they may seem to my cynical mind.

I have plain white plates and bowls that are much more my speed, but I've grown very attached to my frau plates and they make me smile every time I use them.

I use mostly Homer Laughlin white restaurant china I bought from an outlet place 30 years ago. It was super cheap, has held up well and I have yet to break a dish.

R59 I’d suck every dick in a casino for the blue bird pattern.

R58, sweet story.

I have a ton of these Alessi dishes for everyday use (and frankly, I also use them for the 3 to 4 "formal" occasions that I host a year as well. I have a ton of tacky Wedgewood, etc. that I was either given or inherited from family over the years - and like most "porcenalia" these days, are likely worth next to nothing and are not my style at all. I bought about 12 place settings of this pattern when I found them new-in-box at a discount store for basically $2 a piece. Love it and don't think twice about using them for anything and everything. Shockingly, not one piece has broken in the last year since purchasing.. I love Alessi as a brand and own a lot of their stainless products (which cost a Hell of lot more than these dishes did..).

Eclectic. Nothing matches. Almost everything is a single item picked up here and there from thrift stores, garage sales, or some hand me down from three family estates and a combining of two homes. We like it like that.

r63 How common

My mother is downsizing, so I finally agreed to take her set of Noritake Veranda. For the past 25 years I've been using a set of plain black dishes that I bought as a box set, four settings, I think it was from K-Mart. The Veranda pattern is quite delicate for my personal taste, but what the hell. I'm using the hell out of that china. It's seen more action in the past six months than it did in the previous fifty years. I feel so civilized using a cup and saucer for morning coffee. I've even used the gravy boat for chimichurri and salad dressing. It's just the two of us, and when I die I'm certain the whole set will end up in the landfill. It seems silly not to use it for daily dishes at this point.

About 25 years ago I bought my mother a pricey Lenox china set for 12 to replace the fine china she had since her wedding that were chipped and had missing pieces. After she passed away 4 years ago I got them, and I only used them about twice a year when I have guests over for special dinners.

This thread is about everyday dishes. For some reason many did not understand that. Why?

This thread is useless without pictures.

Mason “ Mandelay”

I use Russel Wright Iroquois from the 1940's as my everyday dishes. They're incredibly durable and came in unique midcentury colors that I love.

here's my everyday dishes

The only porcelain in my kitchen is in the floor tile. I have no fine dinnerware, not even a complete set of anything, just some passable pieces that I happen to like. I do have some Corelware but that's just for me and the cats.

[R70] great choice!

I was given a small set of Russel Wright Steubenville Gray in 1983 when I hosted my first gay sober Thanksgiving. My friend didn't want them back. I passed them on to another friend c. 1999, during a big move. I wonder whether she still has them.

R74, I did that the same in maroon for a colonial tract house.

The best part of moving is getting rid of old china. And porn. And weed paraphernalia.

A set of china sold under the Cordon Bleu brand

I let my BF pick them, I think it’s called fiesta ware? Does that mean anything to anybody?

R74 sober thanksgiving?? No thank you

[R74] Wow, you’re a good friend! Way to go on the sober Thanksgiving! About to have my first.

Do Dixie plates and cups count?

Flora Danica. You've probably not heard of it.

I have, r81. Too flowery for me.

I love the floral Danica pattern and the history behind it. I just can’t afford it now :(

Villeroy & Boch

Pattern(s), r84?

[quote] what a bunch of Hyacynth Bucket prisspot faggots you all are

It's BOUQUET!

R85 No, a very sleek modern looking plain white setting called Urban Nature.

Macy's had a sale when we got them and, while it was more than what we'd have normally spent on everyday dishes, it was less than most of the more upscale china (and most of the V&B sets they had).

I think it was just being discontinued.

(the link shows the soup bowls - there's also a large and small plate, a cereal bowl, and various serving pieces.)

Yes, Fiestaware, R77 There's the new stuff but I have original sourced from garage sales and thrift stores over the years.

I use the Lenox dinnerware that I inherited from my grandmother every day. I grew up in a home that had formal/special occasion china and silverware, and it never got used. I figure, I could be dead tomorrow, let me use my stuff. So I eat cereal out of a very old, very expensive bowl. It's fine.

Portmeirion Botanic Garden. Timeless

colorstax

Fiesta's new color for 2020:

My 1970's Blue Cornflower Corning Ware. I've certainly gotten my money's worth.

I had these

I had this too. I remebe4cwhwn I learned to read I couldn't understand what “Bugs Leads a Merry Chase” meant.

....

[quote] I remebe4cwhwn I learned to read I couldn't understand what “Bugs Leads a Merry Chase” meant.

I couldn’t understand how to type, either.

Corelle Classic Winter Frost White. clean and you can't kill them.

Minton Delft pattern from around 1910. Found them at a yard sale years ago. And faux Fiesta plates from Wal-Mart.

we eat off some crap i got at Target (pronounced Targe' for you snobs).

that way i won't curse if any get broken about the near-impossibility of finding replacements.

I’ve been using a set of Henry Watson terracotta dishes for almost 30 years.

Whatever the tenants in apt 27 who got divorced and left behind. They're square, he was in to Japanese culture, and she was in to booze.

Before that I would usually just stand over the sink and eat, or grab a fork, pull up a chair and eat directly out of the fridge.

[quote]we eat off some crap i got at Target (pronounced Targe' for you snobs).

That's spelled "Tarzhay."

We never had matching dishes or glasses when I was growing up. Apparently they used to give away a dish or a glass at the gas station or at the movie theater and green stamps would add up to one glass or cup. Then you’d save up enough to get another and after you got it, they would discontinue that pattern. So we had a lot of 2s. Two matching dishes, 2 matching cups....two *other* matching dishes, etc.

My parents were working class & matching dishware was considered frou frou. Why would you bother buying a dish when you could buy beer, cigs or whiskey? In the 1970s I saved up my babysitting money and each christmas I gave my mother some matching Corelle that I made sure wasn’t frou frou — just one thin maroon line around the edge.

Assorted Japanese patterns from a wonderful little store we used to have in Dupont Circle called “Ginza”. If something breaks, I don’t have to worry about matching a pattern.

In which house?

Ikea 365 everyday white plates

Plain white Wedgwood for the house and Jasper Conran Chinoiserie Green Wedgwood to use in the garden in Summer.

The Chinoiserie Vert is pretty, r108.

R944 Holy blast from the past - I remember those Flintstone glasses. Didn't they come with Welch's jelly?

Fiestaware from when a service for 8 cost about $100. At Bloomingdales. Maybe 1980 or 1981.

I've never used the coffee cups, but the saucers are perfect for a bread plate if you're using the bread plates for the salad because you're using the salad bowls for the soup.

Anyway, it's lasted a long, long time.

Bloomingdale's brought Fiestaware back in 1986, r111. Contemporary Fiestaware is also referred to as "post-'86."

To achieve nirvana via porcelain, try Christie's "Dressing the Table" auction.

My partner has an insane amount of Denby Troubadour, very 70s looking but indestructible. I have a nice collection of Burleigh Calico and Portmeirion Botanic Garden as well as a ton of antique Willow Pattern that I would love to use but it's all languishing in storage because he says it's too feminine (insert eye roll here)

I've thought about collecting Burleigh Calico in Indigo. I like a lot of blue/white transferware, but I think that's my favorite.

We use Wedgwood Kutani Crane For everyday because it can go in the microwave; Royal Crown Derby Mikado blue for breakfast.

r114, Macy's has several Portmeirion Botanic Garden serving pieces on clearance. Go to the "Last Act" section on their website.

These antique sets are mouthwatering, but aren’t they all full of lead? How do you get the lead out?

I would love this china set [r108] Chinoiserie Vert china . It does NOT come up. can you post a link to purchase?

I have formal china and silverware that I never use. People are heathen and break things. I have the correlle, and an assortment of random white dishes and serving dishes that I use all time.

Royal Colonial Homestead

My mother had those, r121. She ruined two entire houses with her Early American taste.

I love Flora Danica but I use my dishes and I would faint, FAINT (MARY!!!) if I ever had to drag a knife blade across one of those magnificently hand painted plates.

I wish they had a Flora Danica full rim, undecorated well.

Same goes for enameled medallions. NEVAH!

My everyday dish is the 11 1/2 inch Villeroy and Boch "Basket" pattern Buffet/Chargers Plates NO CENTER DESIGN.

They are great dishes as they are huge and great dishes for putting in the microwave.

I got 8 for $120 on eBay.

r123

r123, aren't you insulting the craftsmanship by suggesting the Royal Copenhagen couldn't withstand actual use?

I am suggesting that a sharpened/honed stainless steel knife blade is harder than the painted glazes on a dish and it will leave marks.

I would never drag a knife blade across a decorated dish well. Plenty of my dishes have a fully decorated rim instead.

My dishes ALWAYS have a clear well.

Royal Copenhagen has superlative craftsmanship. I would drag a knife blade across a "blue fluted full lace" dish but none of my friends have this lovely pattern.

Rustic Trellis by Pfaltzgraff

Simple, pure white standard-shapes .... always found in Japanse decor shops, Pier 1, etc. or Pillivuyt. for the country, standard "green stripe"diner dishware.

I used to have Frost White Corelle but got sick of how boring it was. I love the look of mixing up lots of different patterns of china but knew I didn't have the patience to spend ten years putting together the perfect set.

I ended up buying an assortment from Villeroy and Boch's Switch 3 collection. Switch 3 has five different patterns (it used to be 3, hence the name) which all go together, so you can mix-and-match from just the patterns you like. They've lasted almost twenty years so far with minimal breakage.

Nothing screams gay in a bad way like Villeroy & Boch, popular in Hyatt Hotels in the early 2000’s.

you fancy

R119, The Chinoiserie Green Vert pattern you like at R108 is easily found in Europe. On Amazon(.co.uk) or this link, for instance...

Adjust your Google search settings, and search also for "chinoisere vert".

R132: should have been "search also for 'chinoiserie green'.

I got rid of tons of kitchen and dining stuff when I moved. Now I have a small kitchen and eat out almost every meal, so I only have "everyday dishes".

The image below is a 177-year-old pattern but with the black transfer decoration brightened by some rings of solid color (various colors depending on forms.) It's the stuff every middle class mother and grandmother has in her house here, but made more modern.

Otherwise different designs handmade pieces, also from Spain.

[quote] I have Jasper Conran for Wedgwood.

I have a Jasper DeKimmel

R29 Try finding it on Replacements LTD or Ebay or Etsy

I've been collecting Homer Laughlin Fiestaware for years. The vivid colors make for a beautiful table.

Crate and Barrel Roulette Blue Band. Love it. Had it at my weekend house until i sold that, then brought it to my city condo. Works fine in either place.

It's been a long time since we had a good thread for retail ice queens. Thanks, OP!

Spode Blue Italian. Pretty and tasteful, if not particularly unusual. It microwaves and dishwashes, and when I smash something there is a vast quantity out there to buy as replacements. 'Course I have a ton of better stuff that I use for entertaining, but that is for another thread.

Hutschenreuther's "Apart" pattern. Made in West Germany, late 50's to mid - 60's. Very much Euro MCM shapes.

Plain simple everyday dishes I got from my Mom that seem almost too good to use today.

I started this thread, and I’m starting to wish it would die. People actually admitting to buying Corelle????

Corelle is a fine everyday dish.

If you are a dish snob, start a dish snob thread.

What could be more everyday than Corelle? It doesn't fucking break.

You can use it EVERY DAY.

My 94-year old mother has 16 complete (and I mean COMPLETE!!) sets of dishes - some bone china, some stoneware - along with the appropriate crystal/glassware for each set. These were all handed down from her grandmother, mother, aunts, her own purchases, etc. And what does she eat off? That old Corelle cornflower blue set from the 1970s. God help me when she finally dies and I have to sort through her "collection."

r145, that is two of the trinity, what about her silver?

r146 She has two sets of sterling, one set of gold plated, and several sets of normal flatware. She's a borderline hoarder.

I have stacks of arcoroc aspen and plain amber dishes. The aspen is very cheerful, and the amber is very cosy. It was the industrial glass dishware for a long time in France, Switzerland and Germany. I throw out any piece that gets a bit scratched up. It's always available in thrift shops. I have other glass dish patterns. I got rid of all my English china and old French crockery. I still have majolica and various folksy Austrian, Swiss and German stoneware.

drabware

Thoune pottery is trippy. One can find the modern stuff for 5 bucks a plate. I have a stack. The old stuff is (was) valuable. Dish queens are dying out. Nobody wants anything anymore. Maybe a few museums and that's it. Young people want new simple things.

Pfaltzgraff’s “Yorktowne” pattern stoneware. I’ve had it for decades, and it has certainly held up. If I were buying everyday dinnerware now, I’d likely pick something else. The stainless steel flatware that goes with it is Paul Revere by Oneida.

I’ll save the fine china and sterling for the next one of those threads.

Typical German-Swiss-Austrian middle-class 20th C china. Nobody wants it. Stacks everywhere.

I don't like the way corelle items contact each other when stacking. There is something gross about the surface tension when you slide one piece on another. It's like nails on chalkboard to me, or aluminium on teeth. A very nasty sensation.

classic barbotine oyster plates. I should throw them away. I serve oysters all together on a chilled haven stainless steel platter. Help yourself. Nobody wants to be served oysters nowadays.

heavy

Austrian Imperial Crown, difficult to dislike.

I'm with the Willow fans. Been collecting, using, (and breaking,) for 30 years.

Yes, they are busy. Yes, they are old fashioned. Yes, they are cheap as chips.

I love them.

English blue china is cheerful for breakfast but I wouldn't want to eat dinner off it.

Sonata, from the Mrs. Forrest Tucker/ Don Loper collection

Kon Tiki

I bought these in 2005. I recently bought more from Replacements.com, and they were like new. They’re light weight, but not microwave safe.

Why aren't they microwaveable?

Square white plates I got from Macy's. White may be boring, but it lets the color of your food stand out.

R163, I do not know “why”, but they tend to yellow if nuked.

The plates I have that can be nuked are twice as heavy.

This is my Mom's wedding china, which I can't use. It spent too much time exposed to heat, cold and raccoons in the attic, and it's too damaged now to be used. I always loved it. They're very pale green. I grew up with Corelle (Butterfly Gold).

People buy Corelle because it doesn't break? Are you busy mom from the 1960s with a gaggle of children! Carole Brady?

You don't mind the disgusting oleaginous feel? the fact that it always looks dirty when it's new even? the cheap thinness? the ugly forms and designs? The fact that it *won't* break?

How many dishes do you break that it pushed you to this? Why?

And Pfaltgraff? FFS.

Wedgwood Hibiscus

Hefty, with butterflies and flowers.

Risks by Arabia of Finland. We bought our first piece in1972. Still have service for twelve.

Ruska not risks

Nothing less than Lenox fine bone china trimmed in either 24ct gold or platinum. Hand washed only, never in the dishwasher. The utensils must be sterling silver (not silver plated or stainless). For very casual occasions, porcelain dishware and Oneida stainless flatware is acceptable, but NEVER stoneware. And certainly no paper or plastic items, ever.

I like these.

r168, those are lovely. But for everyday? Why not?

I also had service for four with these Massimo Vignelli Melamine dinnerware back in 1980 (when I was only paying $150/month rent). I thought I was so chic! Mine were blue, green, purple and white. I still use a couple of them as houseplant saucers.

Villeroy&yBoch, old Luxembourg for every day and for really special occasions: Meissen.

R177 Vignelli is famous for designing the NYC Subway map, right? I know there is a design center named for him in upstate New York.

This is the one, r179. Note the three different colors each for the 1-2-3 and 4-5-6 trains, and four different colors for the IND and BMT trains.

We use vintage Russel Wright Iroquois in several different colors. It's fun to collect something from the 1940's and it's almost indestructible.

I use plain white plates from Crate and Barrel I bought in my minimalist phase and now I'm craving color and pattern.

Can any DL HOMOS imagine a forum for straight males discussing what dinnerware they have in their home?!

Towards what goal, r183, might we imagine that?

I had Steubenville Gray, r181. A lot of it crazed over the years.

When I buy dishes for everyday use I ask for two things: the ability to easily replace a broken piece and dish washer friendly. So I don’t buy special patterns and whatever because if they stop making it the whole set just become useless. Right now I am using a crate and barrel set.

Yes, R184, the Steubenville is known for crazing. I actually like it better, style-wise, than the Iroqois, but decided against it for that very reason. I love the shape of those Steubenville plates, though. Chic.

I’m pretty rough with tableware and am currently using find some Asian-style ceramic bowls and plates in glossy stone hues from K-Mart.

I am gradually collecting the blue Cornishware. I buy a few every year. My mother did the same with Richard Sebright Royal Worcester china.

I also love 1960s jadeite and buy whatever I find from local charity stores.

I have some beautiful dishes, both informal and formal, I inherited from my mother. Rarely if ever use the formal dishes anymore. And to be honest, when it's just me and I'm not eating anything particularly juicy, or just having a sandwich, I'm more apt to pull out a paper plate. One less dish to wash.

[quote]I'm more apt to pull out a paper plate.

I am one step above that. My everyday dishes are microwaveable. I hand wash for dinner parties because of the gold encrustations.

I am in the habit of one nice "formalish" dinner party (the dinner is fancy, people do not have to dress) a season, 4 times a year (I rotate Christmas and Thanksgiving with a friend).

[quote] My everyday dishes are microwaveable.

Both sets of my everyday dishes are microwaveable, but I don't consider them "one step above paper plates."

Only the best for me! Classic white, top quality. Even food compartments built right in!

Thank you for the laugh, r191. I needed that.

Chinet

r190, did I mention YOUR dishes?

There are many dishes that are microwaveable that are works of art. They are still a step up from a paper plate. Albeit a large step.

I submit my favorite microwaveable work of art for your perusal.

I like those, r194. They remind me a little of Richard Ginori's Vecchio Bianco. I wish I had known these existed when I was less [italic]vecchio[/italic].

Is Portmeirion Botanic Garden considered tacky now? (Or has it been all along?) I thought a few accent pieces would brighten up the spring table, but then I saw a travel mug in this pattern and I can't unsee it. Maybe I answered my own question. Thoughts, bitches? Alternatives happily considered.

Maybe I should start a poll about patterns considered tacky or not. It seems there must be millions on here, but I can't find them, at least nothing that specifically addresses this one. I know, we are all facing death, the destruction of our economy, and who the fuck knows what else, yet this is what I am thinking about. No apologies, just my fake ones.

The Portmeirion Botanic Garden is a pretty country-kitchen casual china on a solid body. It as you know was seriously popular for a while, and is now out of fashion, but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it if you like it (and it is a classic, so it's not a bad choice for the long term). Just don't make a big deal over it (it's not Flora Danica for instance) and you'll be fine.

Thanks r198!

Iuse three sets. Fiestware at breakfast. Lunch and any early dinner on retaurant-ware white "green-stripe" pieces. Dressier evening dinners on plain white. Everything from Chinese stores or Pier One etc.

turquoise Fiestaware

A possible referral.

Italian blue and white (plum) dishes from Crate and Barrel. I really like them, they're pretty and homey. They no longer stick them so I found them on another site to show you.

I inherited a complete set of these dishes - it's called California Provincial. Indestructible, heavy stoneware. I don't like them much, but I use them for Thanksgiving when I have a crowd for dinner.

I like this thread. For me, I use these giant 16 oz mugs called Andromeda by a company called fortessa. It’s a form of high phosphate bone China, very simple and plain, but feels amazing in your hand and the can be washed on the harshest setting of the dishwasher and never get stained, dull or chipped. It’s designed for restaurant use (that’s how I first used it, and I liked it enough to discreetly tip over the mug at the Ritz and order some for home).

I also have a plain white Fiestaware mug that is really good looking and durable. Id like a few more of these.

And I have a bunch of Royal Doulton1815 in plain white, but usually use mostly the big white pasta bowls for big salads at lunch on workdays. It’s not expensive and it wears like iron.

All my plates and serving bowls are Ikea. Mostly white, but some black bowls. Very basic.