What would you do with a load of inherited china?

[Youknowaboutthepaint]

There's a tea set but most of it is ornamental, figurines, candlesticks, vases etc.

It appears to be good quality stuff from around 1830/1850. Individual pieces have sold on ebay for between £100 & £600. I've no idea if ebay will be indicative of the actual value, but there's too much of it for me to think of selling it that way.

Anyway, it's been in the family for a long time, no one wants to use or display it, everyone's a bit scared of being custodian for fear of damage, but also selling seems a bit mersonary. Once it's gone it's gone, no more heirlooms 😆 It appears the combined value could be significant, but no one "needs" the money, it's not going to change anyone's life.

WWYD?

Donate to a Museum? Local to where you are or the pottery area it came from?

I would keep something that I wanted to display or use and then take the rest to an antiques dealer

Everyone select a favourite piece, then sell the rest and give the money to the deceased favourite charity

Give everyone a chance to take what they want and send the rest to an auction house .

Perhaps the family would agree on keeping a memento and nominating a charity?

I collect china much to the dismay of my eyerolling dd's. I assume they will get one of the charities I support to take it all away when the time comes. A fellow collector will appreciate the addition to their hobby and the charity will benefit from funds. Win Win.

We had this issue OP with DW's godmother who left her china to DW. Massive collection. We kept one or two pieces we really liked and sent the rest to an auction house. You have to pay commission, but if you follow their advice as to reserve prices etc, you can get shot of it all in one go.

DW didn't make a fortune, but she got a nice little sum.

Send it all to an auction house

Donate it all. Sounds like a lot of additional ‘stuff’ and I would hate to have to house it all.
if you’re sentimental, keep one piece and invite anyone else to do the same.
Car boot sale might shift it quickly, do charity shops want that sort of stuff?

Send it to auction. Easy to do and nice cash in hand.

Ask at your better local charity shops. Some have experts on hand to price things properly or take to auction. A year or so ago I took a really ugly (in my eyes) tea set and a few bits and bobs to a hospice shop. They sold for over £70.

I dumped it 😢 sounds mean but I didn’t want it, moving home during lockdown, charity shops closed at the time. I was determined not to move items to our new home that we didn’t need.

If no-one wishes to use or display it, you might as well have the monetary value - and if you are not bothered about having that either, donate to a charity shop so that they can sell it. Keep just one or two items each as a memento.

My step-mother was a big collector of china (amongst other things) so this is what we did. It's better than sticking it all in the loft for the next 30 years

yes do this.

Then split the money and move on. A collector will probably buy it and cherish it.

I have started a nice collection of totally mismatched Spode that i am getting from charity shops and just thank my lucky stars that whoever donated it (I am assuming when someone dies) just sent it there. Spode 1970s coffee pot for £0.50 anyone? Ebay says similar would be around £30 so not huge prices but if you have alot of it why not send it to auction and enjoy the proceeds?

Sell it. My childhood was overshadowed by 'don't break that', 'don't touch this' 'use a coaster' and on and on and on. I am mercenary when it comes to "stuff". People and memories are the important things.

Each keep one item if you want it for the memory. Sell the rest at an auction house.

If you take good photos of each piece including the underside you can email the photos to the auction house to get an idea of value.

Auction or charity shop or a mixture of both.
Having said that, my DD and her friends are conscious of reuse and cost when setting up home so would be very grateful for useable things ( but not figurines).

via an auction house. My China set, which is german and from the 1920’s/ 30’s, came, via my MIL, from the auction house.

I LOVE it. Someone out there will love your stuff.