What Color of Dishware Works Best?

[B Edulis]

Robert, I would be delighted to join the tour! I've been a Wright fan for years but had no idea that he pioneered the rimless plate. How interesting. As I look at my copy of the old Hennessy catalogue I also notice how flat American Modern plates are, they only curve up in the outer 3/4 inch. The Zeisel T+C plates, by contrast, are almost bowls, I suppose the better to use for buffets in those 1947 Greenwich Village lofts that were evoked in the advertisements for the dishware.

Also, regarding the idea of "reproductions": both Wright and Zeisel dishware were originally mass produced. Why can't they be produced just as they were originally? If they were, wouldn't they be the same dishes? As if they had been in continuous production? Another company (the Orange Chicken) reproduced a couple of Zeisel T+C pieces in limited colors: the smurf s+ps and the syrup jug, and they look identical to my eye. Also, Zeisel is still alive (in her 90s) and I've assumed that she approved these new productions (she attended the premiere the Orange Chicken). Doesn't that make them legit, if not the same quality?

Stellabella -- my apologies -- I realize that I lied, lied, lied about serving food on patterned dishes -- When I had a country place, until a coupla years ago, we used souvineer and commemorative dishes to set the table (what has happened to my memory?). It looked great! There are some beautiful old Staffordshire designs as well as hooty mid-century and later designs. Nobody ever wanted to eat looking at Dick and Pat's faces, or Ike and Mamie's! I know that many of these later plates are not supposed to be used for eating, but we did anyway, none the worse for wear (us or the dishes). Since then, I've packed many of them away, but also used a bunch as tile when I tiled my bathroom.

Regarding actually using old, collectible dishware -- I do! Even tho' T+C is mostly beyond my budget these days, what is a dish if it's not being used? I've decided that I actually like the small signs of wear that my T+C has been accumulating (and it does - it's very soft ceramic). It's that wabi-sabi thang -- the beauty of the imperfect. I think, with that particular line, crazing and little cracks add character...

[Robert Schonfeld]

Also, regarding the idea of "reproductions": both Wright and Zeisel dishware were originally mass produced. Why can't they be produced just as they were originally?

Although no original molds exist for RW's dishes, many measured drawings do, and very close reproductions of shape can be made from existing pieces. Glazes are another matter. Some, like the Casual glazes, are easier to reformulate, while others, such as the American Modern, are much more difficult. Wright was an experimenter and was always fooling around with formulae. There's no patience, nor economic room, to do that these days.

Irony of ironies, the new dishes are made in China, land of perhaps the greatest ceramics ever made.

[helenas]

When do we go?

And have you seen the the article about Alain Vavro in the april issue of Food Arts? The article has couple of pictures of his gorgeous tableware. He also created some collections for Villeroy & Boch.

[Robert Schonfeld]

All set to organize a tour of the RW exhibition. In order not to bother those not interested, would all who would like to come please drop me a line via the messenger. Please indicate preference for evening or daytime, weekday or weekend. I believe the museum is open Tues nights. That, or early Sat afternoon is best for me. Bonus: admission will be waived.

[sng sling]

The breadth and depth of knowledge in eGullet is an ongoing amzement to me.  Thanks to all for the quick survey on American fine "plate-ery".

Living in a Japanese/Western family, we have a slightly different perspective.  We have several sets of Western dinnerware -- everything matches or coordinates -- Fitz & Floyd, Noritake (black/white/gold) an old Centura white set and some clear and colored glass plates and bowls for salads and soups or pastas.  The Japanese cupboards have dozens (literally) of plates, dishes, cups, and bowls.  Colors and shapes vary with the food and season -- e.g., square food on round plates, round food on square plates, etc.  It's been great fun and an education for me (the Western half) that mixing and matching adds another dimension to eating.  We use the either the Western or Japanese ware for Western food, but the Japanese food generally goes only on/in the Japanese ware.  I'd second the observation that solid black can be an interesting pallete for food -- some Mashiko-style plates work well with brightly colored veggies.

[stellabella]

priscilla--sounds gorgeous!  i have one fiesta rose plate--my favorites are cobalt, persimmon and chartreuse, and my least favorite the black.  i'd have to say if there's one color i do not want to eat from it's black.

b edulis, i am about to faint trying to imagine the bathroom tiled with plates--if at all possible, someday please post a photo of it for me.  

i'm plotzing

help me

[Liza]

Stellabella, it's totally plotz-worthy. AND there's a built-in kitty litter box.  

[Priscilla]

Wow B Edulis, (difficult to keep myself from typing Bedulis), that is a brilliant concept, tiling with plates.

I have seen broken dishware incorporated into broken-tile mosaic construction, and wondered if plates so used broke of natural causes.  But I guess even if they were broken apurpose they are better off than they would be languishing in a thrift store.

In use I never fret much when something breaks.  There are so many beautiful dishes in the world I think of it as making room for something else.

Priscilla

[stellabella]

priscilla, you and i sound like kindred dish spirits.  i actually like my ma-in-law's visits as i know something is bound to go crashing to the floor--ah! time to pick up another odd fostoria glass!

as for plates, when i break them, which is rare, as ironstone and fiesta don't want to break, i throw the shards in an old coal bucket on my back porch; the bucket is already half full of shards from my yard--my husband and i disagree about their origin--he thinks they came in with fill dirt, but i think they were thrown out by the people living in the house in 1900.

but the most intense shard orgy of my life occured in the summer of 2000 on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.  We stopped for an afternoon in a small village on the water, and because the tide was low my neice and took a walk in the muck.  the beach was strwen with thousands of shards of ancient irnostone and other crockery.  I gathered two bagsful and carried them into the local tourist info office

"Why is the beach covered with pottery shards?"  i asked the grey-haired woman behind the counter.

she looked at me the way anexasperated school marm looks at the class dunce.  "I have no idea," she said, "as no one has ever asked such a thing before."

my best guess is that broken dishes were used as ship ballast, and/or the broken dishes were thrown over board while boats were docked.

i got some fabulous peices.  i plan to use them to make tiled stepping stones for my yard some day.

[B Edulis]

Prisilla, thought you'd never ask! I'm so proud that I did it all myself, too. The backsplash is made with shards and the shower stall with whole plates that are inset. The plates you can see include one from an orphanage, depicting actual 1920s orphans, one celebrating the 1969 moon landing, another for Luray Caverns, and one commemorating "One Bell System -- It Works! Undersea Cable." The toothbrush holders are cup handles turned sideways set into the back splash. I suppose that plates are more appropriate to kitchens, but, well, I don't know about you, but I think about food all the time......

 

[Priscilla]

B Edulis thank you for providing those photos.  Beautiful work!  Very inspiring.  Any particular dishware you utilized?  (Other than the commemoratives.)

I'll be redoing my stove's backsplash soon, and while I am grout-averse in cooking areas, tiling is of course an option.  And I ask myself, is broken-plate tiling an option?  Hmmmm.

That offset-hardware sink is very cool, too.

Priscilla

[stellabella]

B Edulis

I'm still plotzing.

Thank you for the photos.

Once I considered starting a thread about Egullet bathrooms, but I thought that would be totally inappropriate.  In my observation, people with funky kitchens often also have funky bathrooms.

Why is that?

Great work.

[B Edulis]

Thanks! It was really so much fun to do. The sink is offset because I had to get the skinniest one I could to fit the narrow cncrete countertop.

The ceramics that aren't plates are broken tile. But one big thing I found out is that it's often hard to work in place. If you're doing a backsplash, cut 1/2 plywood to size then arrange and stick the pieces on it. Fasten it in place and do any edging you want to do, then grout it. Maybe it's obvious, but I had to do the whole shower border on a makeshift scaffold.

[Priscilla]

B Edulis, revisiting your very good advice about NOT tiling a backsplash in place, but on pre-cut plywood. Check. The idea of the pre-cut, movable project-in-progress is certainly freeing, isn't it--opens up even more possibilities.

Also, since this discussion, serendipitously, I scored a dozen really large off-white plates, English supervitrified hotelware, and have been using them when they seem indicated. Don't think they'll be permanently elbowing out the disparate pinks and patterns anytime soon, though. But oh my don't people like 'em.

Also, Stellabella, I misrepresented. I do have a piece of Fiesta, in rose, one of those teeny pitcher reproduction creamers. A gift from my mother, who thought I was wrong to discriminate against Fiesta.

[marie-louise]

My name is Marie and I have a problem with dishes. I'm trying to decide on which colors to add to my never ending Luna Garcia collection. Advice gratefully accepted-they are having a sale today & tomorrow. The colors are here: http://www.lunagarcia.com/lunacolors.php and as you can see from this picture: http://www.lunagarcia.com/index.php?cPath=23 they mix and match very well.

Thanks!