A young friend is in pastry school. Because everything is online, she’s baking at home and has to post pictures of her creations. What I notice is that she uses her mothers everyday dishes and I think it would be so much better if she had a really nice white dish, or a cake plate with little flowers.
Maybe I’ll look for something at the thrift stores.
I still like my china, but now I mostly just use it for display. It is a solid white with a raised, patterned design on the edge. In my living room, I have shelves that I like to decorate with seasonal/ holiday displays. The wood is dark which makes it hard to see some of my décor. White china to the rescue. The white china stands out nicely against the dark wood and the plates make a good backdrop for other displays.
(Note - ugly paintings from ‘sip and paint’ parties can be repainted and used as a backdrop. 
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Sorry, I tried to post a photo of my living room display , but I keep getting a message that I can’t imbed a media item.
I’m afraid I have taken in old china. I love dishes! I have one set that my Grandmother remembered from her childhood visits to her grandparents. The largest plates are what we would call luncheon size today. Matching tea set and soup tureen! I also have 1/2 the set my dad bought for his mother when he was in the Navy. “Made in Occupied Japan” stamped on the back. It’s a pretty pattern that mixes and matches well with my own plainer china.
My kids want none of it, at least not now.
I was DYING for Orrefors (Prelude) when we got married but it was above our budget and we didn’t register (wouldn’t have gotten it anyway- it was the year of the cheese board and we got about 30 of those).
We own two champagne glasses which we use on special occasions, and have cheap Bed Bath type wine, champagne, highball glasses which we use the rest of the time. At the rate that they break (literally, every time we host, one ends up in the trash) I’m almost glad we never bought the full set of Orrefors!!!
I have to say to all the people who claim their kids don’t want grandma’s stuff- wait until they marry to get rid of it if you have the space to store. In my family the Boho kids seem to marry people with more traditional tastes, and the “I don’t believe in consumerism, we’re choking the planet” kids end up realizing that an inherited set of dishes is better for the environment than buying new, using disposables (like so many millenials- SO much takeout!) etc. So the 25 year old who wants nothing to do with the boxes in the basement becomes the 35 year old who shows up with a borrowed van and carts it all away!!!
@blossom I ampatiently waiting for either of my kids to pull up with even a car to take stuff away!
The cheeseboards were Dansk…and they cost $10 each back in the day. We got at least five as wedding gifts.
We didn’t register for china or crystal but my MIL felt we needed the crystal. Prelude would have been a better choice for me, but my MIL loved that Rhapsody which isn’t my thing. Plus now…the water goblets are the size of current wine glasses, and the wine glasses look like they belong in a tasting room they are so small.
We have Reidel now…all bought at Target. And mostly stemless. The kids DO want those!
DH and I received a pair of Tiffany trumpet champagne flutes from his parents to use for our wedding toast. We must have seemed suitably appreciative because they gave us additional pairs as anniversary gifts. We managed to get them to stop after 2 years. They are in the original boxes in the basement. They are in the area where we put things to get rid of “at some point” but I have no idea when that will be.
We have so much crystal! We used to live a couple of blocks from the original Crate and Barrel outlet store in Old Town Chicago. Anytime we had to buy a wedding present, we bought something for ourselves as well. We have some lovely flutes and wine glasses, in addition to our wedding set.
I think my brother took our parents’ china, but I didn’t need it anyway (I got the Danish modern dining table and chairs). No idea what happened to my in-laws stuff, unless my single childless sister-in-law has it.
Our son probably doesn’t want anything but would be afraid to throw it out. We have a casual set (Mikasa Serenity) and formal hand wash set (Gorham Manhattan). I still love them both and we use them for holiday and festive meals.
My husband grew up in the area where FiestaWare was/is still manufactured.
His grandmother worked there; as a result my mother-in-law had 3 sets of vintage FiestaWare, including a set in the orange color, when she passed away. My husband’s sisters each took a set. My husband wanted a set of Knowles China (another pottery in the area) that his Mom used for special occasions. That china is black and white with an abstract design. It’s from the 50s. We use it at our vacation place all the time.
I have 12 cups and saucers from my 70s era stoneware (that we still love and use) but who uses cups and saucers ? Seeking permission to just trash them. Local thrift stores not interested . There aren’t enough crafters who want boring white cups .
We use my mother’s china dinner plates (and sometimes smaller plates and a few of the stemware) and silverware at holidays. Serving platter too if Turkey dinner. But we almost never use the cups/saucers and other server dishes and other stemware. If I have to downsize someday, I’ll try to keep the dinner plates and silverware/chest and give away the rest of the items that take up more space.
Also I’ll try to keep (or give to my minimalist children) my mother’s large 1950s oval pink covered corning dish. She used it to bake her much loved sausage stuffing, which I now make.
@Colorado_mom vintage Corningware is worth a lot of money, especially the older patterns. That dish might be very valuable!
I absolutely love my Christmas China. My 2 aunts built the set up for me each Christmas. I have all sorts of side pieces, too, including a carafe, different candle stick holders, serving platters. It makes for a very merry table.
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Permission granted to give away stoneware cups and saucers. They take up a lot of room and there is some entrepreneur out there planning a post-Covid cafe/coffee house who wants that aesthetic and is trolling thrift stores looking right now! There is a cute restaurant near me which has switched to paper (of course) for takeout coffee for Covid, but one of the best parts of sitting in the cafe was the tiny cookie or pastry the baristas would place on the saucer when they handed you your order! Set those saucers free!
Permission granted to ditch the cups and saucers. We have a place near here that takes donations of dishes to help set up people in homes. They take plates, bowls but NO cups and saucers. At my charity thrift shop, we very often get cups and saucers only…they aren’t a big seller.
If anyone has watched “Escape to the Chateau,” the chateau is a wedding venue and the owner collects vintage tea cups to use for serving cocktails.
Even though I love my Orrefors, I don’t know that it’s worth much. A friend of mine’s sister had the same pattern. She died, and they put the stemware on sale for $10 each. The last day they went to $5 each, and my friend remembered I had it and asked if I wanted any. I was able to pick up 2 of the glasses to replace those that had been broken.
Love that show and I’ve been thinking the same - that Angela would love everyone’s old china ; )
When my mom and dad downsized several years ago, my mother wasn’t willing to part with her china, crystal and silver, even though mom knew she wasn’t hosting dinner parties or holidays in her small apartment. At the time, we were still in our large home, so it was box and sat in my basement. When we downsized it moved to my cousin’s basement. We finally decided to get a small storage unit as we gained 2 grandchildren living out of state, so needed a place to store cribs, highchairs, etc…
As I mentioned earlier, the adult children took what they wanted, my DIL taking mom old china, and my daughter taking some of the crystal bar ware. I have looked many times over the years at https://www.replacements.com/ to find what we think it worth a lot, it not. We decided to keep everything in the hopes someone in the family will want it at some point; if not, we will sell mom’s at a later date.
I bought some Christmas china years ago at Walmart on sale. It’s similar to the spode pattern. I really love . I also bought some placemats too. This year I noticed they don’t have any dishes or linens anywhere much beyond disposables.
I have a nice Lenox set I bought myself but I didn’t bother with cups and saucers at the time.
My mom’s china went to my DIL
My mother’s Rosenthal crystal was the same way with the sizing - small by today’s standards