page_title: Tableware
section_title: Table decoration
hierarchical_section_title: Tableware / History / Table decoration
caption_attribution_description: Zuckerplastik von 1880 zur Freiheitsidee (mit Gedenkjahren 1830 und 1848); Zucker-Museum Berlin (Geschenk Prof. Dr. Claus-Peter Gross)
context_page_description: Tableware are the dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining. It includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of objects varies according to culture, religion, number of diners, cuisine and occasion. For example, Middle Eastern, Indian or Polynesian food culture and cuisine sometimes limits tableware to serving dishes, using bread or leaves as individual plates. Cups are not dishes.
  Special occasions are usually reflected in higher quality tableware.
  Cutlery is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery usually means knives and related cutting instruments; elsewhere cutlery includes all the forks, spoons and other silverware items. Outside the US, flatware is a term for "open-shaped" dishware items such as plates, dishes and bowls. "Dinnerware" is another term used to refer to tableware and "crockery" refers to ceramic tableware, today often porcelain or bone china. Sets of dishes are referred to as a table service, dinner service or service set.
context_section_description: Tableware is generally the functional part of the settings on dining tables but great attention has been paid to the purely decorative aspects, especially when dining is regarded as part of entertainment such as in banquets given by important people or special events, such as State occasions. Table decoration may be ephemeral and consist of items made from confectionery or wax - substances commonly employed in Roman banqueting tables of the 17th century. During the reign of George III of the United Kingdom, ephemeral table decoration was done by men known as "table-deckers" who used sand and similar substances to create marmotinto works (sand painting) for single-use decoration. In modern times, ephemeral table decorations continue to be made from sugar or carved from ice.
  The porcelain figurine began in early 18th-century Germany as a permanent replacement for sugar sculptures on the dining table.
  In wealthy countries such as 17th century France, table decorations for the aristocracy were sometimes made of silver. One of the most famous table decorations is the Cellini Salt Cellar. Ephemeral and silver table decorations were replaced with porcelain items after its reinvention in Europe in the 16th century.
caption: Sugar sculpture (1880)
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