Can you really use your vintage china — or find vintage china — for a special Father’s Day dinner? Oh yes, you can! There’s still time to tweak your table setting for Father’s Day, coming the third Sunday in June. Fathers don’t usually have the same interest in dishes that mothers do. Even so, adding [...]

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Remember those large round china plates that tend to end up at the back of your china cabinet? The ones that look like they’ve hardly ever been used, because they haven’t been? When I hear Chef Alton Brown talk about multi-taskers, this is the piece of vintage dinnerware I think of: the round platter or [...]

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Remember the tag line, Love Leads to Lenox, used in print advertising during the heyday of department store wedding registries? Lenox fine china and crystal were so associated with weddings, that if you were in love, registering a pattern and, ultimately owning Lenox, was deemed inevitable. Today the fine china market has softened, and Lenox [...]

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Ben Seibel, that is. Small towns in the American Midwest might not be the first place you’d think of to find modern design classics. But Ben Seibel Design dinnerware has been around for more than 50 years, and you never know… On the dish trail last week, we found a bit of Ben in one [...]

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There’s always more to love when it comes to dinnerware designed by Ben Seibel. One of those patterns is Lazy Daisy, from Iroquois China Co. of Syracuse, New York. The Iroquois “Informal” line is just that, both in shape and decor. Lazy Daisy was one of the first patterns made in this funky, 1950s dinnerware. [...]

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Over my kitchen cabinets, I have a display of chicken things. Mostly dishes, but a few other pieces as well. I have some other chicken-related things around the house as well. I’ve just chosen to collect because they’re fun, and then… My grandfather raised and showed bantam chickens for many years. He passed before I [...]

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Springhill is the pattern name. This vintage dinnerware from Corning is decorated with charming daisies: white-on-white daisies, yellow centered, in turn adorned with green ribbons. Centura is the brand name of the dinnerware made by Corning, before it turned to Corelle. The substance is called “pyroceram,” which started life as a material to use for [...]

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The thrill of the hunt never seems to go away. And I found some beautiful vintage Noritake that I’d first noticed a few weeks ago. Since it was still around when I went back, it needed to come home with me. At least, temporarily. The relish dish caught my eye first, because relish dishes do, [...]

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So….the cooler weather puts us in mind for a cup of hot tea. When the neighborhood is fragrant with woodsmoke to take off the September-like chill, a mug of steaming tea goes down nicely! My British brother-in-law showed me the way to make a good cup. First, fill the cup about 2/3 full with freshly [...]

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Remember the days of swivel bar stools covered in red Naugahyde, Dixie cups and burgers in a basket? That’s where restaurant wares take us, whether modern or vintage. Back to Happy Days… Syracuse China has been known for many years, for restaurant ware china in the vintage market, and for its modern cousins. Many people [...]

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