To ask you what the name of this type of tableware is?

[TheNosehasit]

Does anyone know what the tableware is called (if indeed it's called anything) which is usually blue sort of intricate drawings on the plates?

I know they used to be given as wedding presents years ago and our one posh aunt only brought them out on special occasions. I hated them at the time (about 40 years ago) as they were fussy and I always felt that you couldn't quite see what you were eating lol.

Now however, I've had a change of heart coupled with a touch of nostalgia. I yearn for a simpler time when the fine china was brought out and the chipped mugs were only used by family. But I can't for the life of me know what to google in order to find them! They may been a common style or they may have been a particular brand?

You lucky thing.
At that age I probably got a not matchbox car or some lego.🙄

Correction: the depictions are of China

I got a doll every year.

I am from Stoke-on-Trent. It used to be very easily obtainable at factory prices if you knew someone who worked there (and everyone did)

Love blue willow!

My current plates obsession, which I can’t easily fulfill because they won’t ship to the UK, is Calamityware - it’s blue willow style, but funny details. I think a few bits and pieces can be got on eBay etc but I think I’ll have to plan a trip to the US to properly fulfil my wishes!

calamityware.com/collections/shop-all-tableware/products/calamityware-platter-dinosaurs

The Story Of The Willow Pattern Plate

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284625253905

My parents used to have a China set where if you held the cups up to the light you could see a picture of a Geisha girl, I so wish they hadn't chucked them out.

I'm from Chester...we used to go to Stoke for a day out in the school hols.
I remember visiting Moorcroft - they locked you in!! I really wanted a vase with penguins on...it cost hundreds.

A bit much when I only had about a fiver in birthday and pocket money to last the month.

This is it

I've got this one safely packed away in the loft.
My dad bought it when he did National Service in Malaya in the 50s. They packed it in straw into a suitcase, stitched a canvas cover around it and posted it to his mum (my Grandma). It arrived without a scratch/chip. Thank god it wasn't sent via Hermes!

That is beautiful.

Why am I harking back to my grandparents' generation?

I think it's because everything seems so disposable these days and nothing is cherished as everything is easily replaced.

I think that it's a fear of change and that I want something consistent? Something that I recognise.

Yup.
It's unsettling. You want comfort.
Even if it's some plates or a teapot rather than a blanket, it does the same thing.
Reassurance.
I get that.

They're meant to be used though! Mum's set is only woven into my memories because it came out periodically. There was a certain reverence accorded to it, for sure, and when mum or dad announced we we'd be using the best china there was a little ritual of one of them carefully passing it down from the dresser, then one of them would say "we'll give it a wash before we use it", so one of us kids would be pressed into service to carefully do the drying. Yes there were a few breakages along the way, but had it sat in the cupboard unused, we wouldn't love it as much.

I'll wait until my kids are a bit older before trusting them with it, though

I use blue willow every day. When I moved in with Dh he has it. It's fxxking great. It's so easy, bung everything in the dishwasher. Fabulous. Didn't realise it was considered old fashioned and grim. Plates, bowls, Big bowls, oval serving dishes, I've got tonnes.

That's how I remember the reverence for it too! Hell could not invoke as much fury as the mere thought that you might chip one.

I don't like you.

You is mean. 😩

I'm at work. Wait till I get home and take a photo.
Actually I don't have that much. 8 plates. 5 bowls. Some small plates I think. 2 huge bowls. 2 oval steak plates. I think that's it.

Been using it daily for 30 years.

@Dreikanter I've got way too much Spode Blue Italian😳

Not only a full dinner service but tureens, jars, Several serving dishes, 2 massive vases, serving spoons, cake knives, pastry forks, tea towels, table mats, etc BUT use most of it on a daily basis.

I don't see the point of keeping stuff "for best" I bought it all to be used, in fact the dog had her breakfast this morning out of one of the soup bowls😂

Just pop this here for my fellow millennials... 😂

Thank you for starting this thread. I have a wave of nostalgia whenever I see my parents "best" china. It is chelsea pattern Pyrex which was a wedding present in the late 60's.

I was wondering what on earth to get them for Christmas but have just found an oblong roaster in that pattern on Etsy. Mum broke hers more than 30 years ago when she decided to defrost the freezer by pouring boiling water into the roaster then putting it in the freezer.

Oh my goodness, Johnson Brothers Eternal Beau (I always preferred Summer Chiintz)