Tableware Blog

Most pieces of china that arrive at MrPottery have already had a life before we ever see them.

They may have spent thirty years in a kitchen cupboard, appeared every Sunday at the dinner table, survived several house moves or belonged to somebody who carefully kept the whole service together long after the pattern disappeared from the shops.

Then, for one reason or another, they find their way onto the shelf of a charity shop.

That is where our part of the story often begins.

There was a time when sending a plate from Dorset to Germany, America or Australia was mostly a question of packing it properly, putting the correct postage on the box and trusting the postal service to do the rest.

Those days feel rather distant.

International shipping has become considerably more complicated in recent years.

Poole Pottery has produced plenty of patterns that are instantly associated with a particular period, and Poole Pottery Vineyard is very much a product of the 1990s.

Designed by Anita Harris, Vineyard combines blue grapes, green vine leaves and softly sponged decoration on a creamy white earthenware body. It has an informal, country kitchen feel that is quite different from the cleaner shapes and solid colours of earlier Poole tableware, yet it still makes good use of the hand decorating skills for which the pottery had long been known.

Another batch of pre-loved china has made its way onto the MrPottery shelves, with a mixture of newly catalogued pieces and the welcome return of a piece already familiar to the website.

This time there is a particularly good selection of serving ware, including several substantial pieces of Villeroy & Boch Twist-Alea, together with a few rather more unusual finds. We have also added more Wedgwood Florentine, a small group of Colclough Wayside plates and a useful batch of Royal Doulton Wild Cherry mugs.

There is a definite moment in the year when the table changes.

Summer plates, salad bowls and jugs for the garden do not disappear completely, but they stop being the stars of the show. The evenings get darker, the kitchen starts to feel like the warmest room in the house again, and suddenly the pieces we reach for are different.

Some tableware patterns are subtle. Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz is not really one of them.

It is pretty, floral, cheerful and unmistakably of its time, in the best possible way. With pink flowers, pastel detail, soft borders and that familiar Johnson Brothers earthenware feel, Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz belongs very happily to the country kitchen and afternoon tea side of tableware history.

Some Royal Albert patterns are bold, dramatic and instantly showy. Royal Albert Lavender Rose takes a softer approach.

With its pink rose sprays, delicate lavender tones, green foliage, white fine bone china and gold trim, Royal Albert Lavender Rose has a gentler feel than some of the maker’s more flamboyant floral patterns. It is still unmistakably Royal Albert, but it has a lightness that makes it especially pretty on a tea table.