What Makes Fine China More Special Than Everyday Dishes?
If you’ve only ever purchased casual dinnerware before, you may be more than a little taken aback by the cost of fine china. Just why is it more expensive than regular dishes? What makes fine china more extraordinary than the dishes you already own? Believe it or not, there are multiple factors that make fine china truly special.
Lenox's Iced Pirouette is bone china with platinum and mica accents.
One of the main reasons fine china is so pricey is that it’s made of top quality materials. In order to be considered fine china, the dishes must be made of either hard-paste or soft-paste porcelain, or bone china. Each of these three types of porcelain is prized for both their tough strength and their beautiful, translucent appearance. Porcelain’s glassiness and whiteness make it a stunning backdrop for colored glazes or intricate, hand-painted patterns. Yet the fragile look of porcelain is somewhat misleading. Porcelain is hard and strong and has low permeability and good thermal shock resistance, meaning it won’t crack when exposed to rapid temperature changes. While it might be more expensive to make dishes out of porcelain, the strength of the material means that your investment will be in dishware that’s built to last for many lifetimes. In fact, we refer to these porcelain dishes as fine china because the Chinese were the first to craft things from porcelain. Early porcelain from China that is centuries old can still be found today, which is surely a testament to the strength of fine china.
The artful design on this Gilded Tapestry fine china from Lenox is well worth the investment.
Fine china’s porcelain makeup isn’t the only reason we consider it to be so valuable and special, though. We also prize fine china for its artistry and thoughtfully designed aesthetics. This is also part of why we look consistently to certain makers and purveyors of fine china for the best of the best. For instance, Lenox is one of the most respected American china companies. When the company opened in 1889, it was called Lenox’s Ceramic Art Company, and it offered one-of-a-kind china objects. It was no factory, but an art studio where a small group of talented employees produced hand-crafted, hand-painted items that were often custom-designed for discerning clientele. When fine dining at home became popular around the turn of the century, Lenox began selling fine china of the highest quality and most fashionable design. Though the company has grown over the years, their reputation for artful patterns remains strong, justifying the high value of their fine china. These are beautiful sets of dishes that will be beloved not just by their original owners, but by generations of relatives who will be thrilled to receive their forebears’ Lenox fine china each time it’s handed down.
Yes, we eat off of china, and so we need it to be durable and well-constructed. Yet we also display it proudly for all to view when it’s not in use. In this sense, fine china is unique. It isn’t just functional, but can also serve as an objet d’art. You’d be hard pressed to say the same for regular stoneware or melamine dishes. They might be cute, but they’re hardly worth showing off when your guests are over. Fine china is an heirloom—to be willed to your children and grandchildren—and that’s something worth investing in.