Antique Fine China Sets
Fine china—the delicate plates and serving pieces your grandmother used for special occasions—is making a comeback. Those who find yourselves the repository for all your family china might wonder if it's worth anything. After all, how many sets of antique fine china sets do you need? Some would argue that as long as you have the storage space, keep collecting. Others say you should curate your collection to the sets you love or have sentimental value.
If you're thinking about investing in an antique fine china set, you may be disappointed to learn that there's little financial gain to be had. However, if you enjoy setting tables and passing them down through generations, then antique fine china can be an excellent addition to any home.
What is fine china?
Novice china collectors often get confused by the terminology — and ask questions such as, is there a difference between fine and bone china? Doesn't "fine" china mean fancy and expensive? Usually, but not necessarily.
If you're new to collecting antique china, you'll find that once you know the basics, the learning curve is relatively short—you can become an expert pretty quickly.
Fine china
Fine china is made from a combination of minerals—feldspar, quartz, kaolin, or clay. Kaolin is a smooth white clay that was first discovered in China, hence the name for clay-fired dinnerware. The Chinese decorated their china with floral or landscape motifs to add a bit of elegance to the pieces, which the Europeans copied when china made its way west.
The origin of the clay has a lot of bearing on its overall worth. For example, while Limoges style decorative boxes can be from anywhere, "real" Limoges china is from the city of Limoges in France.
Bone china
This English pottery company Spode developed a process that used bone ash in the clay mix in the 1700s. The resulting china is softer, more translucent than fine china, and more durable.
Porcelain
Porcelain is similar to china in composition but fired at much higher temperatures. This firing makes a more robust and durable product than china, although it looks remarkably similar.
Hallmarks
If you're looking at china made after the mid-19th century, it's easier to identify the manufacturer, if not the exact pattern. That's because major factories in Europe and the US —Haviland, Spode, Wedgwood, Lenox, and Homer Laughlin — used a back stamp, stamping their names on the underside of the individual dishes. Some even include the year the dish was made.
Some significant manufacturers used symbols instead of the company name. Meissen, for example, used crossed blue swords as a back stamp. Experienced collectors can determine a Meissen dish's age by the sword's size and color. English potters used a crown or a lion to indicate the year.
Identifying China
Because ceramic china dinnerware looks old, it doesn't mean it's valuable. Spider cracks in glaze coats can happen during the firing process and not just come from age, which makes spidering a questionable identification technique.
The first steps in establishing the value of china dinnerware begin with identifying the type of china, the manufacturer, the artist, or its age. Once you know the answer to one or more of these questions, you can determine the value of your old china dishes.
Old Crows Antiques dealers love to dish on dishes
Old Crows Antiques goes one step further than just relying on the internet to determine the value of your antique china set; our dealers will help you identify your china and estimate its value.
If you're interested in selling, we'll walk you through getting the best price (or buy it right then and there). And if you're a collector, our china dealers will give you the information you need to get the best deal on any collection.
At Old Crows Antiques, we've got hundreds of antique dealers with extraordinary expertise from Tang dynasty Chinese porcelain to helping you understand why those blue Corningware casserole dishes are worth more than a Tang platter.
We've got an old-fashioned root beer bar where you can take your break from shopping and relax. So when you come to Old Crows Antiques in Littleton, plan on making a day out of it.
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