Denby pottery under threat, have you bought some to support them?

[Stopsnowing]

My mum had Denby and it was indestructible. But now I hear they are under threat and have put out an SOS.
https://www.denbypottery.com/pages/save-denby?_gl=113xe0u1upMQ..gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhobLsPGykwMVbpBQBh2sNhibEAAYASABEgJiavD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAD88OOOIrq_FVCUS-mNNXnw6tUk
had assumed they would be around for ever but have now treated myself to a set that I was planning to get way in the future after I had the kitchen redone.

I don't think the designs have moved with the times or kept up with the competition. Also you can get much prettier (IMO) vintage Staffordshire pottery for a song in antique shops. Denby is quite dull and clunky and there is very little difference in appearance between their wear and cheap stuff from Ikea or a supermarket.

No! Who could be bothered? Not to mention that it's terribly wasteful. Most of us expect to keep a good quality dinner service for at least 20 years, I think.

Indeed. And it doesn't last longer if you have slate/stone floor.

If you drop something, it doesn't bounce whether it cost a tenner or five times that.

No it doesn’t assume that. Unlike boots you don’t have to buy a full set in one go.

Nor are they for “posh” people. I grew up poor, my parents always taught us that you buy the best you can afford at the time and then it lasts for longer. However they didn’t regard large items like crockery and furniture as fashion disposables to be replaced with the latest InstaFad.
I would no sooner replace a dinner service every year or so to keep up with the Jones than I would buy a fast fashion sweatshop dress for single use on a random night out. What on earth do people do with all the old sets? Landfill? Or Landfill via the charity shops who can’t sell cheap quality china?

I started out with just a couple of plates and bowls, added to them, bought some seconds, some second hand and had a sizeable set within a few years. I never went out and spent three figures at any point. I have nonetheless saved a lot of money when plates or bowls hitting the floor survived instead of shattering.

Brexit makes that much more difficult, sadly.

Thank you! This is my wedding set and I've been meaning to replace the chipped bits but hadn't got round to it. Just put in a big order.

We have the classic blue set. We’ve had it for 20 years. We need to buy a few things to replace broken items.
Lots of it has chipped or broken over the years though. We had 4 noodle bowls, they’ve all broken. I’ve replaced lots of plates and a few have big chips out of them just now. I don’t think we’re particularly careless but I’ve not found it to be as indestructible as I thought it would be.

We have 12 place settings of Greenwich, collected over 30 years, some from shops, lots from factory outlets. It's worn very well, survived 4 house move and 2 shipping containers.

I had a lovely square oven dish which I dropped on a concrete floor and couldn't replace and the fruit bowl is glued together. I've had 2 teapots, they are good pourers. My dad has a teaset, I might get it out and use it.

It's never dated, it looks as good now as it did in the late 90s. I'll buy a couple of additional settings which should see us through our lifetime 😆

I'll be sad if it goes, of course it's more expensive, it's made here.

We bought our housein the middle 90s with a 95% mortgage, a second charge due to a loan from DH's employer which meant we owed 103% of the value and had negative equity on DH's previous property to repay.

Family bought us one cup and saucer or one plate for our engagement. We definitely didn't have more disposable income.

It's quite twee and dated, even their modern stuff. I wouldn't consider it a British classic

Denby certainly holds up better from knocks and bangs than cheaper non stoneware plates .

I think those ones will probably continue and be available, but they're not to my taste.

I already have several items from a different range. I have however decided to get more in the design I have from the cookware side, so it still makes me happy but is less obviously part of the set on a day to day basis. I do use my Denby items pretty much every day.

Well, not sure about it being the old people in those cars. Around me it's the youngsters in the posh and new powerful cars. Granted, they may be on HP though but it's a status symbol. Older folk I find don't worry about status of cars. My late FIL who lived in a London house all his life and could afford a new car had a 25+ year old Rover metro.

I don't think can really generalise.

There will always be outliers but it is a fact that housing costs now on average are higher in proportion to income than they were 30 years ago.

I wonder whether they are affected by people getting married later and the massive trend for people to ask for donations to a honeymoon rather than getting the house set up. Even 20 years ago it was normal to get a nice dinner set as a wedding gift but now people seem to always ask for a meal or trip to see a temple or whatever.

I don’t have the crockery as such but have used the clubcard vouchers to buy a lovely sauté pan, cutlery for dd and I hope it keeps going

i ordered some pasta bowls from their white porcelain stuff

dd has Denby in her house

hope they keep going

I still use Denby blue linen dinner set every day. I must have had it for at least 20 years. I bought a vileroy boch set to replace it but didn’t have the heart to part with the Denby as there wasn’t a mark on it.

That is so true, as well as inheriting a Denby dish from my granny, I also inhereted a Kenwood mixer. It is 40-50 years old. It works perfectly.

the pottery is made in China!
The beautiful enamel wear in made in France.
I’m surprised at the amount of people following trends for crockery!
But people buying from the likes of Shein/Temu is the problem.The cups plates etc end up in landfill or burnt. Why are clothes etc a problem for the environment but not the energy needed for pottery.

The trend of this thread is it’s well made and people haven’t had to buy in 20+ years. A business can’t be sustained by purchases years ago. Crocs had a similar problem that they lasted too well (and weren’t very fashionable).

I’ve got a set which was a wedding present over 20 years ago. Had 12 of everything as didn’t want to keep running the dishwasher. Bought extras from a Seconds shop so has spares for if any got broken.

Still going strong and only replaced a few bits - butter dish handles fall off, but get stuck back on.

But the point is that many of us saying we like it got it over 20 years ago. Fashions do change. Probably it hasnt kept up and is seen as expensive. Yes, some people want to regularly replace smaller set of crockery and not soend more than £30 when buying in a whim in the supermarket or online. They might want just plates and bowls…not all the serving dishes, etc etc. Things do change.

Denby did so well as so many had it on wedding lists and the. Kept adding to their collection over the coming years. The market has changed.

The core models like Imprerial Blue and the lighter and darker greens (forget the names) will probably still be available as they always have been. Many of the other collections only ran for a few years and n were discontinued anyway. But Denby told you when that was happening when you were registered with them.

But people dont necessarily see their kitchenware of collectible or for the long haul. It’s prob the same with LeCreuset….you can buy cheaper copies and maybe people replace it or change colours? But is more stand alone items where pas Denby was the whole set and that’s where they made their big money, not just on people buying individual mugs they liked.

I’m getting divorced and have just splashed out on a 12 piece dinner set for my new flat thanks to this thread…

Surprised people think this is old fashioned(?)

More likely the huge costs of running kilns and ever increasing electricity cost.

In the late 80s and early 90s @Cyclingmummy1 was not an outlier she was entirely the norm. 120% “roll up” mortgages were the solution offered for unaffordable housing - a solution which left many people in debt as well as with negative equity. Earlier iterations were “low cost endowments” leaving borrowers with massive bills when they should have completed payments. Two full time workers with second jobs on the side was standard even to get an entry level home (eg studio flat).

As per pp - all the older drivers I see are driving very ordinary and often older but practical cars. The big vehicles and fancy types tend to be lease hires with much younger drivers.

I've just inherited all of my mum's Denby dinner service, it's about 30 years old but I can still buy matching mugs & pasta bowls.