I'm in the market for a new set of china plates etc.
However, what happens is one of many parts will get broken or at least chipped badly in just a few years.
Does anyone sell long life designs - nothing fancy, plain is good (thinking hotels and restaurants must demand sets that they can get new parts for?)
It's either that or buy a backup set and keep that in the loft!
Try a catering range from Nisbets
They have a shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, or the mail order service is good.
whatever you buy, it will be discontinued ahortly afterwards.*
However if its a popular style, you might find sellers on ebay to keep you stocked up. I inherited my parents china, bought new in 1958, and have added to it, to keep the numbers up, over the years.
You've had the main suggestions. There is one more. There are some designs that are produced very similarly by different makers, and you can use one s et to top up another without anyone noticing. If anything it enhances the s et when the pieces are mostly the same but the smaller details vary.
NT
Do what I do, get all white
We are using most of the long gone MIL's set of Indian Tree design,
It seems to have been around for decades and is still available . May be too tea shop for many but a perusal of some catalogues and seeing how long a design has been around could be an indication if it will last, some may change a bit though . I think Port Merion has had some subtle changes to its ranges over the years. OTOT hand how common are your breakages going to be and how old are you, buy enough spares to cover the gap to where you no longer care. Also given that most people now use a dishwasher expecting a set to remain as it was when new for a years without some fading may be a hope too far. Visiting friends for meals it is obvious some use the same plates daily and only bring out others as required rather than rotate them by some being less bright than others.
G.Harman
Different whites don't always match.
However if you stick to all solid colours you can mix things around so one person has a blue plate and brown bowl and someone else has a brown plate and green bowl.
Melamine ware is quite long lasting.
Owain
Many have bespoke designs that are batch made to order. There is a warehouse in Southampton that has stacks of designs for P @ O and Cunard cruise ships. They get sent from there regulary to Ports all over the world if the vessel isn't due back for a while such as on a World cruise.
G.Harman
Why bother with replacements - are you going to have formal banquets on a regular basis? Its rather like having a best set of cutlery that sees the light day once in a decade or more and is a complete waste of money! When you die your relatives will only regard these prized possessions as house clearance fodder.
I purchased a whole lot of French "china" from The Range shop at the same price as crap English and China stoneware type plates/bowls. It's thin and a least a third of the weight of the equivalent cheap offerings (less than £1 per dinner plate). After a year only one plate has chipped due to being dropped into the sink for washing.
IMO, again price doesn't equate to quality and something relatively cheap without a recognised brand name in the UK isn't necessarily rubbish.
It's a different world this is. Are you in the south? Our pots are more-or-less all different. I don't think we've ever bought any plates or owt. They're just ones we've got when old rellies have cocked their clogs. Also I found some nice mugs last year amongst a load of flytipping I was sifting for clues as to who'd dumped it all. It's the same with cutlery. We have items stamped WRCC (that means they were pinched from school), some really weird ones with pictures of long dead monarchs (God knows where we got them), and some stamped WD with a broad arrow. I have three carving-type knives. One was a Christmas present years ago and it's a good knife; takes an edge easily. One used to be my mam's. One was my dad's, it was a dagger really; he said it was for filleting fish but actually he always had it down the side of his car seat in case he was attacked. I sharpen my knives on the oilstone from my dad's workshop. I have a chopping board that my dad made for my mam as a baking board when they set up house in 1947. Like everything Dad made it's grossly over-engineered.
Bill
you can get replacment stuff on ebay and some replacement sites.
I'm still running on most of a denby marrakesh set I bought 20 years ago
snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com wrote on 03/01/2018 :
Fine for camping / caravanning, maybe even for BBQ's, but not really that nice to have in the dining room. They are very light weight and do scratch with regular use.
Buy a few extra pieces.
Two principal factors affect the durability of tableware. The basic strength of the stuff (as measured in fundamental units, kgf/cm² or whatever), and the design (thin, thick, rolled edge etc). Basic strength is controlled by composition and by porosity, which in turn is usually related to firing temperature.
The strongest is bone china, often simply called porcelain in this country by the retail trade (but true porcelain is something else). Because it is strong, it can be made thin, so is light in weight, translucent and elegant, if that's your thing. But the raw materials are expensive, especially as it contains half it's weight of cattle bone, hence the name (and no, you can't get BSE from it, as was once asked!). There is a classic Wedgwood publicity photograph of a double-decker bus supported by six bone china teacups!
Next strongest is what I call true porcelain, mostly made on the Continent, especially Germany. Both bone china and porcelain are non-porous because of their compositions and high firing temperatures, a fact that contributes greatly to their strength and chip-resistance (German porcelain is fired at typically 1400°C, bone china and other types of 'soft' porcelain at about 1280°C). Bone china is whiter than German porcelain, which tends to have a very slight grey tinge, almost imperceptible except when they're compared side-by-side, due to their respective compositions.
Then you have the huge range of earthenware tableware, known as pottery by the retail trade. Probably the most common and the cheapest, as it uses cheaper raw materials than the previous two, and is fired to a lower temperature, usually no more than 1100°C, and is porous and less strong as a result. But so-called 'stoneware' is a variety of pottery fired to a higher temperature, and is less porous and stronger as a consequence.
Design also plays a part. What is known as hotelware is generally thicker, heavier and stronger than domestic ware, because it gets rather rougher treatment in use. One of the commonest modes of failure is rim chipping, where the edges come into contact with other things, are subject to very high impact stresses, and chip or break. This is combatted by making the rims a bit thicker than the rest of the piece, known as a 'rolled edge'. I can't believe that much earthenware is made without rolled edges these days.
We have used Denby tableware for many years, and bone china for posh occasions (increasingly rarely these days!), but I do recommend Denby (I have no connection; I've not even visited the factory, and AFAIK they don't use any materials from my former employer! They have their own unique deposit of clay close to the factory, I believe). It's a bit heavier than ordinary earthenware and is properly described as stoneware. It's remarkably tough and chip-resistant (although like most tableware, it will break if you drop it; DAMHIKT!) and comes in a range of designs.
IME melamine does not last well, it scratches, chips & after several years breaks. Only a good choice for people that frequently drop their china. If you want indestructible try stainless steel.
NT
At least one petrol chain was giving away plates* in the 70's after a purchase of an amount fuel . Can't remember it was before or after they decided that everyone needed a glass, probably because we all needed to take a stiff drink at the sharp price increases.
I'm surprised as a thrifty Yorkshireman running a van you didn't accumulate enough crockery for the whole family, or did you opt for the treble Green Shield stamps option and give them and the books to the Kids at Christmas and tell them that sticking the stamps in was a type of game.
G.Harman
or, good old fashioned enameled ware.
Duralex, IIRC, not to be confused with rubber goods with a similar name. Had the traditional tableware industry worried several decades ago because it was cheaper to produce and I think stronger than conventional earthenware. But decorations were naff, worse than awful, and to the tableware industry's relief, it never caught on.
Thank you :)
I've also found Wedgewood mentioned elsewhere as being able to get spares for at least some of their ranges long after. Some ranges have eye watering prices, but some less so. We're simple folk - we don't need a soup bowl, pasta bowl and cereal bowl - one type does us just fine. 2 plates, one small for cakes and toast, one full sized for dinner. Cups and mugs and job done... That's the problem with the random hotchpotch of crap we have now - it's stuff from several different sets, nothing matches, nothing stacks well due to varying sizes and types, takes up a huge amount of space as a result.
That has merit (dishwasher can't bugger up the pattern for one!), but I couldn't quite sell it to SWMBO :-|
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