Blog Arts de la table

Some china patterns are simply chosen. Others become part of the family.

They begin as a dinner service, tea set or everyday tableware range, bought for practical reasons and used over many years. Then, slowly, they become something more familiar. The plates used at Sunday lunch. The cups brought out when visitors came round. The bowls that appeared at breakfast. The teapot everyone recognised without thinking about it.

And years later, when those pieces are inherited, they often carry far more than pattern names and backstamps.

Boots Hedge Rose is one of those discontinued tableware patterns that feels instantly familiar, even if the name is not always remembered straight away.

With its creamy white background, warm floral decoration and orange-lined rims, it has a gentle country kitchen feel. It is not a grand formal china pattern, nor was it trying to be. Hedge Rose belongs to that very practical world of everyday British tableware, bought from a trusted high street name and used in real homes.

Once you spend enough time around discontinued china, a strange thing starts to happen.

You stop watching television properly.

Because there it is. A familiar pattern. A discontinued dinner plate. A teapot you have handled before. A mug that makes you mutter, “hang on, is that Hornsea?”

Welcome to the oddly satisfying world of Tableware TV.

Colclough Braganza is one of the best known later Colclough patterns, recognised for its soft blue floral decoration, white bone china body and delicate gold trim. It is elegant without being too formal, familiar without being plain, and still very popular with customers looking for...

We’ve added another fresh selection of discontinued china and replacement pieces to the website this week, with some especially useful everyday items among the latest arrivals. Highlights include Poole Pottery Celadon dinner plates, Wedgwood Blue Pacific soup/cereal bowls, and a small but always welcome group of Royal Albert Old Country Roses.

It is a question we are asked surprisingly often. Is this piece genuine? Could it be a fake? Why is the backstamp different? Why does this pattern look almost the same as another one? The reassuring answer is that, in the everyday replacement china market,...

BHS Lincoln is one of those discontinued tableware ranges that many people remember without necessarily knowing much about it. Sold through British Home Stores and made for everyday use, it was practical, understated and designed for ordinary homes rather than display cabinets.

With its white body, gently embossed fruit decoration and clean, familiar shapes, Lincoln has the quiet charm of a range made for daily life. It was not flashy, but that is very much part of the appeal.

We’ve added another varied selection of discontinued china and replacement pieces to the website this week, with a few particularly interesting and harder to find items among the latest arrivals. Highlights include elegant Spode Midas dinner plates, a useful selection of Marks & Spencer Field Flowers, and several more unusual Hornsea and Poole pieces for collectors.