Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16
THE DINNER PLATE
EVOLUTION OF CHINA DISH FROM
WHICH WE EAT.
Memories of the Days of Pewter Table
Services and Wooden Trenchers
and Cups.

Judith Giddings in the Boston Cooking School
Magazine.
China collecting is. perhaps, one of the
most fascinating of the foolish pastimes
in which woman can indulge We should
all have our little recreations, regulated, of
course by Individual inclinat ion; and 1t
may afford some woman quite much
pleasure to discover a rare bit. of old china
as it did Maria Mitchell to discover her
comet. In fact. it seems as If had
quite enough wonders in the skies. while
the china of the old century is daily be-
coming more elusive. 1t shines, alas! in
museums and collections, where covetous
woman may stand and gaze afar: but in the
home dining room. where it may pass from
hand to hand where its curious history
helps along good cheer. and its very cracks
invite the homage due to age. it is too often
wanting
little cupboard holds, What reco1lectons
of winding country roads, of fields white
with daisies or sweet with new moWn hay.
of low weather-beaten old houses, where
visited with great aGnts and second cou-
sins, of whose existence / had been but
dmly aware till the desire for family
trophies swelled my heart. and sent me
journeying in the land of my ancestors. Did
through long accounts of rheumatism and
burials, restless-eyed. but strictly sympa-
thetic, placing a judicial value upon the
very cup and dish Hospitality set before
me? | must admit it.
The perversion of human nature seems
to walk hand in hand with china hunting;
and hitherto unknown or undeveloped ten
denotes to lie. steal. dissembe and fiatter
assert themselves when the chase is at its
hottest. 1t is with blush that | recog-
nize now. in calm meditation among my
household gods, that any 'ill-gotten' gains
are, above all, precious; and yet they but
SAVIOR of the spoils of war. around which
hovers the spirit of adventure.
Glasses of Collectors
Collectors may be divided into two dis
tinct classes: the real collector, whose time
and purse are practically unlimited whose
motto is rara ct pretosia, who can talk
learnedly of glaze and paste and compost
ton and color; and the modest seeker after
heirlooms. who, animated by family love
and tradition, often, with more sentiment
than money, eagerly welcomes the I'M
known piece, be it up to the standard or
no, who despises not the simple floral pat
ed by the true collector, if it be that some
woman of her kin cherished it in bygone
days.
Wide though the gulf between the col
is still a tie which binds-a tie, alas! which
often proves a knotty one; for of the
greatest difficulties with which a collector
of either kind has to deal is the unrea
sonable obstinacy with which the country
woman clings to her belief that all blue is
of the good old color blue" Absolutely
unframed she is, she becomes exas
peratng stumbling block; and vain is the
attempt to disillusion her. Why a willow
platter Is worth next to nothing, and one
almost the same" may bring hundred
dollars, is too complex situation
Willow Ware.
Almost every family can produce a bit of
the despised willow ware which seems to
have been always with US, and is still pop
ular in coffee houses and lunch rooms; and
many of US who know better entertain
a sort of sneakng fondness for it, with
its fascinating story
TIVE pigeons flying high.
Chinese vessels sailing by.
Weeping willow hanging DER
Bridge With three men, If not four,
Chime temple. there ii stands,
Seems to cover all the land,
Apple trees with apples on.
A pretty fence 10 end my song.
For who will deny the charm of those
childish rhymes which ring through the
years? Old Mother Hubbard and Little
Jack Horner quicken the pulse which the
worlds great masterpieces may fail to
reach.
China seems ever to have been feminine
weakness; for, as long ago as the days of
Queen Bess, find that royal collector
vastly proud of her two pieces, a porringer
of white porselyn and d cup of ''grene."
But china not in common use till well
to the end of the eighteenth century.
The revolutionary war marked it's rapid in
crease over pewter, which up to that time
had been the approved table ware To some
extent the early Americans used wooden
ware; and handmade wooden trenchers,
from which two persons ate, were used on
the table of the colonists for many years.
Wooden 'noggins,' or bowls. and wooden
cups are frequently mentioned in old in
yentories
AS may be readily seen, these plates were
not chosen with a view to artistic or in
trinsic possibilities but rather to demon
strate the evolution of the dinner plate in
a single family, embracing a period of ap-
proXimately one hundred years.
Old Floral Patterns
Most of us know that the old floral pat
terms and nondescript landscapes are of
small value save for the sentiment which
fingers about grandmothers days and ways.
But that anything so frail should have with
stood the buffetinSs of a century in itself
lends an interest to the most inartistic
piece Fame is ever an uncertain mistress,
but, as an almhouse is judged by the
powers that be" more fitting our approval
meekly pass the posy to the back shelf
And the humble posy is not so bad on any
shelf. either. For, simply as bit of color
a glass -doored chimney cupboard filled
with blue and white is a most charming ac-
cessory in any dining room. and before it's
decorative virtues even the ''esthetic
skeptic bows
An old plate shows simple pastoral
scene, known the Sheltered Shep-
herd" Its color is the good deep
blue of the Staffordshire ware, and its first
owner began her housekeeping in 1905 Her
daughter (stili living recalls other piece
of this design. Indeed. the early dinner
set was apt to be limited affair, often
helped out, as in this case by an immense
round turkey platter of pewter which
never dulled the carvers knife.
Then followed a period of degeneration
when the fine old blues were fast losing
their supremacy, and mothers plates"
were being piled up on the high shelf. TO
give place for the various inferior colors-
pink, purple mulberry and light blue. An
other plate of this period, with its monde
script character. leaves little TO recommend
it, although the color is a soft purple and
it is of remarkably light weight for its
size Still. ii is, perhaps. representative
plate of its time for common use and in
teresting in it's line of ceramic descent.