The Very Modern Misconceptions of Vintage China!!

I often think about vintage china, it's quite frankly on my mind a lot of the time, what I want to find? Where can I buy it? What can I write about it? What matches with what? My main thought is this, people have misconceptions about vintage china. Firstly people think you hire it when you want to have an Afternoon Tea tea party. Secondly, it's only for posh or smart occasions.

I often bring my Nanny and Granny into my posts and blogs, maybe because I'm of a certain age. When we visited the 'best' china came out, (you wouldn't get out the day to day pattern worn plates) whether that was for the obvious high days and holidays, like Christmas and Easter, but it also came out for our Sunday lunches of crispy roast potatoes, vegetables with beef, pork, chicken or the dreaded turkey.

We'd also have tea, where we'd have salad, with cold meats, quiches, eggs and all the other great salad accompaniments, beetroot being my favourite. Do you remember the pain of eating a cold salad and then drinking a hot cup of tea?!! My favourite part though was the cake. All homemade, the Victoria sandwich cake on a glass comport stand, rock cakes, fairy cakes on china serving plates I can still taste my Nanny's homemade fruit buns, I'm convinced it was the plastic bowl that she mixed the ingredients in. Having the best china out wasn't being posh, it was about keeping it for those nice occasions when it could be appreciated and add that something to the meal.

My Nanny and Grandad lived in what a young child drew, two windows either side of a central main front door, with three windows upstairs; they lived in a farmhouse. The kitchen had its dresser for the crockery and a refectory table in the middle with benches either side to sit on. I still have one of the table cloths from those days in the mid '70's.

The main point is this, the great thing about fine English bone china is that it's perfect for dressing up a table for a sophisticated event, but is as comfortable serving food on a stripped pine table in the kitchen with a gingham table cloth or even without, for a casual lunch, tea or supper.

From my first sentence, in the first paragraph of this blog you can clearly see that vintage china is a nostalgic obsession of mine, it got under my skin very quickly once I started buying it. That obsession I think has come from the 'clink' of bone china hitting against each other, like the sound of footsteps or a car on gravel; that came from going to chapel, sitting inside and hearing that crunching noise and thinking, who's coming through the door. I have a gravel drive. I was given my first teaset as a birthday or Christmas present, it was a child's set. My mum bought me a teaset (full size) at a antiques fair at Goodwood in about 1992. I've always had an obsession with old stuff. Much of which I still have.

I'm going to digress here, browsing Instagram a few weeks back, I stumbled across a post about vintage stuff, what came out of it is that people don't want the bland, stripped back décor now, the want comfort, nostalgia and colours back in their homes. Young people are discovering and buying beautiful things, at very good prices from charity shops, not tat that is thrown out in a couple of years that was bought from particular high street shops.

My little, yet wonderful (The) Vintage Tea Service and has grown organically from just offering vintage china for afternoon tea parties into dinnerware, with a collection of dinner plates, starter, dessert and side plates. This also means that I provide the cutlery too.

Not modern monstrosities that many event companies use at weddings, but beautiful King's Pattern, starter knives and forks, main starter knives and forks and of course dessert spoons and forks.

Not only do I hire out the crockery and cutlery, I have an extensive range of vintage and crystal glass dessert dishes and vintage dessert spoons, and serving spoons too.

My third view about the misconceptions of crockery is that it's expensive to hire, it's not. It's expensive to buy, whether that's new crockery or vintage. Hiring is best, nobody need know you're hiring. You can hire time and time again. For the expense of buying it, you could hire a few times a year and still never meet the cost of hiring the crockery and cutlery. And I do the washing up.

The next misconception is that vintage china is fuddy duddy. I know that this misconception is subjective, because it's all about taste, but I think we all have an idea of the fuddy duddy designs.

To me fuddy duddy can depend on the producer, quality, design and era that you choose from. I tend to find these best eras are the 1930's to just before the 1960's. If you look through my China Boutique.https://www.thevintageteaservice.com/thechinaboutiquehire One of my favourite brands produced incredible designs right up until the end of the 1940's and some great into the '50's and I just think, 'What were you thinking?'

I provide a beautiful range of harlequin colours, florals and many other beautiful designs. I don't provide fuddy duddy china; I search for the prettiest. If I wouldn't hire it, I won't buy. Below is a little selection.

The same also applies to my dinnerware. Gorgeous designs and wonderful quality.

The final misconception is that vintage china is fragile, it is though surprisingly resilient, unless you're dropping it on a hard surface and then your 'misconception' would be correct. One of my first clients, set-up her table and didn't want to let her guests use it, she just wanted them to look at it. They did enjoy tea on vintage china. I'm the most clumsy person, the harder I try to be careful, the worse I get.

If you're thinking about hiring vintage china for a wedding or event, or a relaxed lunch at home, dinner, tea or supper, it will add a beautiful look and feel and can be colour coordinated . The tagline for The Vintage Tea Service is, 'Let nostalgia create new memories.' With vintage china, it certainly will.

CATERING SERVICE

I work with an incredible caterer, Marisa. Marisa set-up and owns Little Mouse. Together we have put together an Afternoon Tea package of vintage china and a four course afternoon tea. That's how we came together. However, Marisa offers a full catering service, from canapés to cakes, and everything in-between. A vastly experienced chef, with superb attention to detail (see below). Little Mouse is just perfect for The Vintage Tea Service.

And desserts too...

A delicious sundae

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MAKING AN ENQUIRY

If you'd like to enquire about an event you're planning and hosting with The Vintage Tea Service for china and cutlery hire, you can drop me an email at: info@thevintageteaservice.com, alternatively you can complete one of the online forms via the website. I'm also available on social media, where you can drop me a dm.

All enquiries and quotes are non-obligatory. The onus is always on you to decide if The Vintage Tea Service is right for you.

If you would like to have catering, just mention it in your initial message to me.