Unexpected sadness

I'm another Denby Arabesque owner - from our wedding in early 70's. It was kept for special occasions but now I am trying to use is all the time. It is the only thing I have that is actually oven proof. Most modern stuff is microwave, dishwasher and freezer safe, but never seems to say ovenproof. We can have nice hot plates for our meals with Denby!
I bought some extra pieces from Ebay a year or two ago.
We use the very tall jug for gravy, as the proper gravy "bowl" is far too small! (and doesn't pour for left handers!)
Our first everyday china was Midwinter Romany and I loved it. I still have a big lidded vegetable dish and a few plates - all live in a cupboard and don't see the light of day but I can't bear to part with them.

I got a Wedgewood Ice Rose dinner service for a wedding present. I loved it then and still love it now. It's all on a big dresser, with lots of pretty pieces from the same range added through the years. For everyday I use plain white.
I use cups and saucers for Sunday tea. My grandchildren don't know what to do with them.

I still collect Midwinter Sienna, which now is now officially retro, you can get bits of it on eBay. I noted they were using it in the 60s scenes in the Theory of Everything film. I do use the little cups and saucers when we have guests for a meal and we have a cup of coffee or tea afterwards. You don't need a huge mug then. I suggest to printmiss, have a look on eBay.
I avoid buying new stuff if at all possible, as I agree with Jane10, I don't want to buy cheap imported stuff. I have some lovely vintage Scandinavian glass vases which again I bought on eBay, and look out for in charity shops.

My dinner service is Wedgwood Edme, I love it and thankfully many years later it is classical enough for the new pieces they make, to match it. I also love that I can now buy mugs that match it.

However I originally started out with Wedgwood Rosalind, exactly the same design but with small deep pink roses around the edges, I do have a fair bit of it left but made the decision years ago to use it every day and not to keep it languishing unseen.

www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=wedod+rosalind&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xwedgwood+rosalind.TRS0&_nkw=wedgwood+rosalind&_sacat=0

If you look at the prices - I can now buy the Edme or Windsor, brand new, for roughly the same prices, and for not much more per item than a really cheap plain set from Sainsbury's that wouldn't be as durable - these sets are tough! I really love my china. I am the unofficial china-finder on Ebay for several older village friends. If anyone wants to try finding their own set - please watch out, many people won't post it, they want you to collect in person.

Well that applied to the museum too jane - it was threatened with closure a while ago, but I think was rescued with an injection of capital. Josiah Wedgwood was an amazing man, starting out as an apprentice, and then designing the china. He was a scientist too, carrying out experiments to determine the best temperatures to fire the clay and to make new pigments, and also a very successful entrepreneur, exporting to the royal houses of Europe.

My (now ex) DH and I chose a Coalport Revelry tea set when a dear aunt wanted to buy us one for a wedding present. What were we thinking? Cherubs all round! Needless to say it is still unused in my loft, as nobody in the family drinks tea. I did wonder whether I might find a buyer now that fancy afternoon tea is popular, if I can be bothered to dig it out.

tiggy my DD has Emma Bridgewater everything. It seems very fragile though and chips very easily. She's always having to get replacements. I did tell her about good old Denby but to no avail. janea I'd love to go to the potteries museum. I've always wanted to go there. Suspect it would make me sad all over again though! We don't know what we've got till its gone!

Years ago I was left my aunts best tea-set in her will. It was very pretty and I decided to use it when my nana and mum came one day. There we were enjoying our afternoon tea only to notice a bit too late that our 3 cups were all leaking !!! They had hairline cracks in them. It went to a charity shop (minus the leaky cups). I was also left her 'oak' tea trolley which turned out not to be oak and had a wobbly leg.

As for what I use now I am a fan of Emma Bridgewater and at least it is made in UK. There are often good offers on-line in the sale and also 'seconds'.

jane10 if you're ever in Staffordshire the Wedgwood Museum at Barlaston is well worth s visit www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk

My daily service is a cheap and cheerful plain white with a rippled border bought from BHS 20 years ago. Before that it was one my dear mum gave me collected from vouchers at Gateway? Supermarket 38 years ago!
She's given me her wedding present dinner/tea/serving set, called 'Wattle' and made by Royal Doulton - I don't have the heart to tell her I don't like it......

I'm afraid we use a miscellaneous collection of plates and mugs on a daily basis - DH insists on using coffee mugs given away by a petrol station yonks ago (probably 45 years ) for his coffee- I dread to think what would happen if they got smashed!

This is my Harleigh China tea set, given to me as a wedding present in 1970 by my uncle who lived in Stoke and whose wife worked in one of the potteries as a decorator I think.
In 1970 I thought it was totally uncool and for years it stayed in Mum's loft.
Now I think It's lovely and I use it whenever a friend comes for afternoon tea, or if I feel like being elegant for a change. The tea tastes nicer too.
I just wish my uncle was still here so I could tell him how much it means to me.

Several on Amazon Printmiss

I would just now like to buy some very ordinary CUPS & SAUCERS. Nothing fancy. I do not want huge cups with no saucers, or tiny cups & saucers. Just TEA cups. I hate tea in a mug or large cup. I do not want a whole tea-service, just a few cups and saucers for our own use. I am sure lots of you will now tell me where I can purchase these, so in advance thank you.

Iterated= I treated

I loved a Susie Cooper design when I was engaged but it was too dear and I collected some rather dreary brown stuff from John Lewis piecemeal . I passed it onto dd1 who lost it in a move. The next lot was a royal doulton pottery one which got too expensive to replace so I went with woolworths white Italian which I loved. It is now getting too chipped and I treated myself to a set of soupplates wedgwood festivity for my birthday to match a tea service I had. A few years ago iterated myself to a grown up dinner service conran night and day I think it's called and I really enjoy using my best everyday. I've still got my mothers and grandmothers but I hoping to pass them on to unsuspecting relatives when they get married.

Grannyknot DD's ex was the same. The first thing she did when they separated was to go and buy a pink kettle

Thankyou Janerowena ( must checkout how to do bold). Mine is the same as the coffee pot the seller is describing it as pink printtemps.
It doesn't appear to be really valuable but I suppose a whole dinner service with tureens etc would mount up. Thanks again.

hilda that's very pretty.

This is an aside - I've got one of those husbands who wants to have a say in every teaspoon that is bought and as a result I've never had really pretty or feminine crockery, linen, etc and have had to fight to have a few of my treasures out on display. He is all for minimalist and masculine.

So just recently when I bought a new every-day dinner service on a whim (our previous one was white with a navy blue stripe around the edge, how exciting) - my daughter commented "At least this time it has a bit of funk".

And for those who think I should have fought harder over the years to have more of a feminine influence around the place - my husband's trump card was always - I'm fighting the corner for the men who have had to sleep in pink rose bedlinen all their lives . When we were first married he used to say "Why don't women ever leave the loo seat up?"

I couldn't find it for sale on Ebay, have a look at this lot, it should give you some idea.

www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=susie+cntemps&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xsusie+cooper+red+printemps.TRS0&_nkw=susie+cooper+red+printemps&_sacat=0

I have a whole dinner service that my MiL gave me (I don't like it so have rarely used it) and she is thinking of taking it back and selling it on ebay. However one just like it came up for sale, and it is still there - three years on! For £25! It is pretty horrible but she still likes it - just doesn't want to use it!

I don't use my Noritake dinner service much these days, although we used to have it out about four times a year for dinner parties, plus the crystal glasses. DD thinks bone china dinner services are very old hat! She has plain white from john lewis. DS has denby. We go to antique and collectables auctions sometimes and there are always large quantities of bone china, and often complete dinner services going. They don't go for a lot of money. I have a spode italian tea service i hardly use anymore, although the teapot was pressed into service at the weekend.

Just remembered that I inherited a Susie Cooper 'red printtemps' dinner service. I love it and would use it if I thought it wasn't valuable.
Does anyone know anything about that range? I know that some Susie Cooper is valuable and some isn't.

Absent grandma, I have in the past thought about selling the arabasque but I really do still like it. (Maybe that's just sentiment).
Both of my DiLs have been offered it but apparently it's still not 'cool'.

All the potteries are closing, I know some of them only closed quite recently. One I used to buy mugs from relocated to China, for cheaper labour, and then ended up making cheap mugs with really horrible slogans on them rather than the beautiful large bone china floral mugs I used to buy. It's very sad - but Wedgwood is still going strong, online. Some of the more individual department stores still have good stocks of china, there is one in Sudbury and another in Bury St. Edmunds, but there is far less choice. You are better off going to an antique salesroom and hunting through the piles of it they often have. A friend of mine owned a lovely china shop in Kent - it closed down three years ago, everyone buys cheap sets from supermarkets or Wilko's now.

I do use the pretty cups if I have friends round for tea and cakes. I have twelve of them, but I shan't part with them. I shall lend them out for village events. I far prefer mugs.

I have a set of Haddon Hall which comes out at Christmas and Easter, some of it is still in the original boxes. Here's a cup and saucer. How many people still use cups and saucers? My everyday china is Denby Intro in purple. I too love the Denby store, and want new crockery every time I go there.

Denby!!!! B...y predictive text!.