Most of us can set a table with the basics: dinner plate, bread and butter plate, salad plate and fruit dish. But there is a world of tableware beyond the basics. Adding some of the lesser used vintage tableware pieces to your formal or informal dining table brings an unexpected bit of vintage etiquette and frolic at the same time. Here are six of our favorites table add-ons, most of which find their roots in the Victorian era, when table setting was elaborate and almost a competitive sport.
Figural water lily salt cellars, c. 1900 by Whiting Mfg. Corp of Providence, RI/photo Flower mag.
Salt Cellars
Whether they are large to be shared with the table or small to fit by each diner’s place, salt cellars are small dishes that come with small spoons for serving…wait for it…salt. Usually made of pressed glass or crystal, porcelain or metal, they range from opulent to simple. We fancy mix and match salt cellar collections because then you have the fun of hunting them down one at a time.
Antique ironstone butter pats from HayMeadowVintage on Etsy, $48
Butter Pat Dishes
By far the most adorable of the vintage tableware pieces genre, butter pat dishes are for serving a pat or two of butter at each place setting. They date back to Victorian times but have many modern iterations. The Super Secret International China Usage Task Force will not find you and confiscate your butter pats if you use them in off label ways, so allow us to suggest they also make handy tea bag plates.
Set of 6 crescent bone plates from VeryVictorianStudio on Etsy, $66.
Bone Dishes
There are more of these finding homes on dressers as trinket dishes than there are holding bones and other plate discards on holiday tables. Small crescent shaped dishes to snug in to the left of the dinner plate, they are not overly large and are for holding small bones from a fish, not brontosaurus ribs a la Fred Flintstone.
Metal knife rests from VieilleMaison on Etsy, $48.
Knife Rests
Originally there was one knife rest for the carver to protect the tablecloth from the greasy knife. But you know those Victorians, if one was good, more was better, so knife rests began appearing at each place. They are still commonly used because though progress has marched on for many things, but getting nasty stains out of tablecloths is still pretty much a job for good soap, persistence and soaking.
1920s Noritake spooner from MyOwnLittleCornerLtd on Etsy, $42.50
Spooners
Spooners are, not surprisingly, vessels that hold spoons. Some are horizontal, with an opening in one end for the handle of the spoons. And some are vertical, tall enough to hold teaspoons without them flipping out. They’re usually used for coffee and tea service.
8 Steuben glass fingerbowls from gam246288 on eBay.
Finger Bowls
These are the least commonly used vintage tableware pieces. Small bowls, filled with water are used to dip your fingertips after dinner but before dessert to clean up before things get seriously sweet. They usually have an underplate of some kind to prevent spillage onto your tablecloth.
You don’t have to set a fancy table to have a soft spot in your china-loving heart for these vintage tableware pieces. Many people collect pieces because they are can be quite decorative and are hard to resist. Are there butter pat dishes in your future?
If you love china, you might enjoy our collector’s love story about Fiestaware.
