Posts by Laurier Beaudoin

We receive many questions about what signify the names “salad plates”, “bread and butter plates”, “dessert plates”, etc. mean and how these relate to the items in their sets. In order to aid you in your purchases we provide here a list of  the different sized plates with. their different names:

• 6-6 ½” across are bread and butter plates
• 7-7 ½” across are dessert plates
• 8-8 ½” across are salad plates
• 9-9 ½” across are luncheon plates
• 10-10-½” across are dinner plates.

Please keep in mind that nothing prevents using the bread and butter plates for dessert or salad and vice-versa. The use of these names for each size of plate is only for ease of communication and does not restrict their function to only those suggested by their names.

China for centuries had been produced with varying levels of ornamentation through the addition of relief or colours by painting. The level of ornamentation on the dishware in a household was largely based on the social and financial standing, given that the applying textures or colours increased the time involved in their manufacture as well as percentage of rejects when the efforts did not give the desired results, thereby increasing significantly their cost. The revolution brought by transferware shook the whole of the earthenware and china industry in the UK and other markets.

Transferware involved printing on tissue paper inks that were then pressed onto blank pottery so that the pattern would transfer onto the clay surface. This process was developed in the mid-eighteenth century and quickly became popular because of the opportunity it offered more classes to acquire dinnerware with finer designs than they could have afforded with hand-painted pottery.

In the 18th century, particularly popular were the blue transferware patterns influenced by Chinese imports as seen in the Blue Willow patterns. Eventually local country, village and urban scenes were immortalized by coloured transfers such Johnson Brothers Old English Castles and Meakin’s Fairwinds.

Many of the Made in England bone china manufacturers in the 20th century chose to combine transfers with hand-painting sometimes even with raised enamel to provide more distinction to their patterns. For example, Minton did this with some of its signature patterns such as Ancestral and Suzanne.

Now almost all china patterns are produced using transferware technology, to the point that we do not indicate it in the pattern descriptions of our on-line shop unless it is used in conjuction with other techniques such as hand-colouring, hand-painted enamel, etc.

For more information about the transferware process, Sprucecraft a fairly detailed description.

Hand-painted colours or gold on transfers

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Hand-painted raised enamel on transfers

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Washing your bone china dishes needs only warm water and a mild soap. It is best to avoid the use of abrasive products.

We reccomended not using a dish-washer for most bone china dishes. This is because the composition of most cleaning products combined with the hot water can cause loss of lustre on the glaze, colour fading or loss of gold/platinum trim. This is especially true in many of the older patterns.

If you decide to use a machine-wash it would be advisable to do so only once in a while. Wehn you do you should use a milder liquid cleaning product. We suggest avoiding those products that contain bleach or lemon. Finally you should choose the most delicate washing cycle available on your dishwasher.

If your bone china plates have light scuff marks from the scrapping of cutlery, rubbing them lightly with a wet soft cloth and a dab of baking soda or cream of tartar should be sufficient to make them look like new.

If your gold guilding is discoloured after not having been used for a long time, it can be gently cleaned with an gold polish or an ammoniac-based soap soaked on a soft cloth and then rinsed and dried. Soft rubbing works best because vigourous rubbing could cause loss of gold or platinum trim.

The good news is that with just a bit of care in washing your bone china dishes they should continuing to grace your table for many decades.