Blog Arts de la table — General

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.

It would be easy to look at the recent news around Denby and feel rather gloomy about British pottery. Another historic name changed forever. Another working pottery lost. Another reminder that the tableware industry we grew up with is not the same one we have today.

And yes, there is sadness in that. Denby closing its pottery doors is a genuine loss, particularly for those of us who care about British-made tableware, factory history and the everyday pieces that have sat on kitchen tables for generations.

But it is not the whole story.

For anyone who cares about British pottery, this is a sad one.

After more than two centuries of tableware history, Denby has now closed its stores, its Pottery Village and its Derbyshire pottery operation. The brand itself appears set to continue under new ownership, but the Denby we have known for generations, the Denby of Derbyshire clay, British-made stoneware, factory seconds, pottery visits and familiar patterns on kitchen tables across the country, has reached the end of a very significant chapter.

That deserves a moment.

When people talk about replacing a broken plate, cup or serving dish, the words can get a little muddled. One person may call everything china, another may say pottery, while someone else may refer to ceramics, porcelain, bone china, stoneware or earthenware.

Summer eating has a different feel to it. It is less about formal place settings and more about sharing. A quiche on the table. A jug of something cold. Bowls of salad. Pickles, chutneys, olives, dips, bread, fruit, cheese, and someone inevitably asking where the...

There are some places where an industry becomes part of the landscape.

For British tableware, that place is Stoke-on-Trent.

Known around the world as The Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent has been shaped by ceramics for more than 300 years. It is the city behind many of the names found in British cupboards, dining rooms, dressers and sideboards: Wedgwood, Spode, Minton, Johnson Brothers, Royal Doulton, Burleigh, Portmeirion, Royal Stafford and many more.

Not every British tableware story begins in Stoke, of course. But an extraordinary number of them pass through it.

Some tableware patterns are easy to recognise because they only really exist in one familiar colourway.

Others are a little more complicated.

A customer may know they are looking for Denmark, Fruit Basket, Beryl, Maze or Andante, but that may only be part of the answer. With some patterns, the colour matters just as much as the pattern name.

Blue, green, brown, pink, terracotta, black, turquoise, purple and cream versions can all change the feel of a design. They can also make a real difference when trying to match replacement pieces.

Tableware is one of those things that quietly reflects the time it was made. We tend to think of plates, cups and bowls as practical objects, and of course they are. But look closely at the colour, shape, weight and decoration of a dinner service,...