Should we be using our 'best' china?

I have a beautiful set that belonged to my grandmother - it is of course hardly used. Lots of children about and it is at risk of breakage. Shame really - it brings back memories of Sunday lunches with "Seaside Grandma" as a child.

I am thinking of getting rid of the Coalport Revelry tea service which was a wedding present (now divorced). Due to afternoon tea becoming popular again, a catering company might find a use for it. There is no way I shall ever use it again as it is blue and white with cherubs! What were we thinking?

We were also given a huge set of Denyware which we used every day until it was all broken. I am glad it was used and enjoyed.

Use it, I recently inherited SO Mothers Wedding dinner service.
The tea set, and serving dishes had long gone but I got dinner plates, side plates and soup plates, 12 of each.
I knew I was getting them as she had told us that she wanted me to have them as she knew I would use them.
I have and will.
In fact I get great pleasure in setting the table with china given by a lovely lady.

I would love to come round for tea and give you a reason to break out the best china. We don't even have a matching set here!

If you are ever in Brussels there is an open invitation.

Use it and enjoy unless of course it is Sevres Porcelain or Bow China

It's amazing how even everyday products go in and out of fashion isn't it.

Not exactly the best china, but cut glass wine glasses - now I am on my own and I don't think son & dil would appreciate them, I use them every day and put them in the dishwasher. If they get broken, well at least I have enjoyed using them.

I have used my 'best' dinner service every day since we bought it in 1979. I've been able to replace broken pieces from a replacement china shop on the Internet.
Some of the plates are a bit scratched now and I don't know if people notice or think anything when they come for a meal or visit, and I don't care either. They come for the food and the company.
I also have a very pretty tea set which was a wedding present in 1970 and I enjoy using that too.

I've recently started using 'best' china. It was made to be used after all and I enjoy sipping peppermint tea from a china cup. I have some of my mum's dishes and a handle on one recently cracked and has been stuck together - with difficulty - and whilst I was sad that it happened I was pleased to be using it. One way round the problem is to buy a trio or a dish from a charity shop where it doesn't matter so much if it gets broken. I must admit I don't like matching tea or dinner services - a trio is the most I would go for though we collected Amari / Omari patterned sets before we got married and to my amazement still have a few pieces left after 46 years!

I agree - life's too short to not use the nice stuff. When my husband's aunt and, later, his parents died, we found lots of lovely bedlinen and nightwear still in its original packaging. They had been using sheets that had been split in two where they had worn away, and sewn back together with the outside edges in. Even older sheets were cut up and used for tea towels.

I have a large bone china dinner service (twelve place settings) which doesn't get very much use at all now - Christmas mostly, when it makes the table look superb. Ditto a Spode Copeland 'Italian' tea service which never sees the light of day. They take up an awful lot of room in a wall unit that I for one am anxious to get rid of. Where does it then live? Dilemma. Whenever we go to auctions, there are always large quantities of good quality bone china dinner and tea ware which usually don't make a lot. For example, a thirty six piece, hand painted Crown Derby service, with an estimate of forty to sixty pounds, probably won't make its top estimate. Likewise, a complete service of Wedgewood 'Colchester'; top estimate eighty pounds. They always go; I expect it's a good source of supply for people running china matching services, but generally speaking people don't want elaborate china that can't go in the dishwasher.

We can't as we don't have any "best" China. If we had it would have lasted a awhile I expect. When we first got married we bought a dinner set from Woolies. Lasted for years, we were sick of the sight of it by the time we got shot of it and not a piece had been broken.

We use all our china and glassware and I have given/thrown away anything that was not matching/ chipped/hated. I'm the same with clothes - wear it all.

We saved things for best for 30 years then I thought about it, the amount of space it all takes up, the pleasure I get seeing the dinner service and glasses out being used and we decided we would use everything. Often !

Our girls don't want it, it's not to their taste , everything looks nicer served in style so why not. It's not a priceless heirloom , just China and glass.

Use and enjoy, I inherited my mother's china and silver which had been put away in a cupboard as long as I can remember. I use it all when appropriate, friends around my age love china cups and saucers with afternoon tea or morning coffee. My daughters may or may not want it but at least it has given pleasure to people.

I have a lot of Denby and Midwinter and use them all the time. They are now fashionably retro, as are those flower sprigged China tea services .

I have an inherited Davenport tea set which my Mother used to use for meetings at home, I do not use it as apparently it dates from around 1820!
Mum also had green denby which was past on to our son, and as he lives not far from the factory he and his wife have added to it with factory seconds in coordinating colours.

I collected a Doulton set, and have used it for for occasions, but you are right it should be used more. I have Portmerion which I enjoy using all the time, so spoilt really. However, I do love all the beautiful Christmas China that is available now. I was told that in North America people have special Xmas sets which they use each year from Thanksgiving until New Year.

Only china I have is a set from John Lewis bought with my vouchers but I do use all the time the beautiful hand decorated cotton pillowcases and sheets I collected from mother, all unused. They all have lovely little sprigs of lavender flowers on them and they have been much admired. I say use anything you like, don't worry about present fashion otherwise except for the odd cup or so to keep for sentimental reasons, get rid of it.

On a similar note........I have a complete boxed set of gold plated cutlery, no fish stuff but everything from cream and sugar spoons to soup ladle and cake slice, 12 piece setting. We bought it in early 1980's and only used it at Christmas. Then at the Millennium we decided to use it every day sdo it is now in its own kitchen drawer and the two of us use it every evening to eat our dinner........off common white plates bought many years ago which can be bought singly!!!!!!!!!!!

We don't have a 'best' set any more, though I still have the remains of it to use when we occasionally have large numbers. We just have a set I know I'll be able to get replacements for (Portmeiron) which we use for whatever occasion. Saves cupboard space!

For ages we had a massive set, 12 of everything plus tureens etc. which came from the in laws' house - It was MiL's 'best' - maybe even from her own mother - and I don't think I ever saw it used. We never used it either - TBH it wasn't at all to my taste - and a couple of years ago the whole lot went from storage in the garage to a charity shop.

Yes!! we should be using our best everything!

My dinner service is never used. 8 years ago I inherited what was left of DHs grandmother's Rosenthal dinner service. This is fine for the small groups I now cook for. Usually we go out for special occasions. I love it and would sell my own but never that one.
I work for a charity which has household articles and dinner services go for 10 Euros, sometimes less. Nobody wants them. Its disheartening. Even the refugees don't want them, probably don't have the cupboard space for them.

I'm surprised at that, Margaret, since TBH I wasn't sure any charity shop would want our massive cast off. But they said yes please, so I suppose somebody would have wanted it. And even if it didn't go for more than a few £ it was a lot better than taking it to the tip and chucking it all in the ceramics skip.

My parents and my SiL both had sets of Denby Green Wheat - anyone else remember that? I still rather like it, which is more than I can say for a lot of 70s stuff - all that brown and orange! But my SiL still had a lot of her old GW stashed away when dd and her then boyfriend bought their first house and didn't have so much as a teaspoon (had worked abroad for years) so they were only too glad to have it. Over 5 years later they still have and use some of it.

We've just had our living/dining room floor done and had to completely empty the large wall unit which holds my mum's dinner service complete with tureens and coffee & tea pots which I carefully packed away. I occasionally use it but I also realised that the tea service which is also in there was one of their wedding presents back in 1948. It's very pretty but I'd never dare use that. I agree it's a waste and we should get it out more often. That said I also have my own tea service my mum bought me and that doesn't come out either. I wonder if we're reluctant to use these things as we're more likely to use a dishwasher these days and worry they'll be ruined? Heaven knows what'll happen to them when we're gone