White Dish Collection

We hosted a family dinner at our home last Sunday, there were 17 adults and since I don't have any china settings that number in the teens I went for my old standby...my white plate collection. The story of how I came to have a collection of many different patterns and sizes of white dinner plates is one that warms my heart every time I use them.

Here is my story

The Cause: This story takes place several years ago just a couple of days before Thanksgiving.  Mr. Hubby was rushed to the hospital from work one morning with symptoms of a heart attack.  Two days later our children and I were having Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital cafeteria as Mr. Hubby recovered from triple bypass. Mr. Hubby came home a few days later and did very well with his recovery so early in December we decided to have our family Thanksgiving dinner as we had much to be thankful for.  The house was filled with family and friends sharing a delayed turkey dinner.  After dinner I was loading the dishwasher, our black lab who had a bad habit of trying to lick the dishes as I loaded them gave it her best shot.  The chain of events started when I yelled at her to get back.  I startled her and as she backed off her collar caught in the lower rack of the dishwasher and she pulled the whole rack out of the dishwasher.  Dishes and silverware went flying through the house as she ran with the lower rack still hanging from her collar. It sounded like the cupboards had come down from the wall as dishes crashed to the floor and silverware scattered under furniture, nearly all of my plates were broken or at least chipped.

That Thanksgiving disaster left me with no dinner plates to use for my annual Christmas open house as at the time I only had one set of dishes (this was a few years before my addiction to china kicked in).  I told  the girls that we being using paper plates that year as I didn't have the time to go on the hunt for a new set of dishes with Mr. Hubby still recovering.  Without my knowledge a call went out to those invited and the night of the party as each of the guests came to the door they held out a white dinner plate. Each guest had picked out either from their own collection or had purchased a white dinner plate for me and all these years later when I have a large group for dinner out come this collection.  It still warms my heart to think about each and everyone one of the plates and the dear friend who presented them to me that Christmas season.



I thought I would share just a few with you, as you will see there were many different style and brands but all were a gift of love. I've placed each plate on a silver charge in hopes that it will accentuate the individual patterns.

 This pattern is Hedge Rose by Wedgwood.  I love the delicacy of the floral boarder.

 This simple design is Weiden Bavarian China

There is no pattern to this particular dish, its a restaurant quality plate from Syracuse China.  I stopped at the factory a few years ago on my way back to Rochester NY where I was working for a week.  I didn't pick up any dishes that trip but I'm glad to have at least one plate from there thanks to a dear friend.

This overlapping wicker pattern is from Pier 1. 

I love the shape of this plate which is Royal Albert Old English Garden

This design is from what is now Macy's but at the time was Marshall Fields in house Marketplace line.

All this one says is Italy on the back.

And this simple round square plate is from....IKEA

As you can imagine each plate reflects the individual design preference of  the girls and although only a few patterns are represented here it gives you a good representation of all the styles that were so lovely presented to me that evening.

Who could doubt the friendship of someone who

would share their dishes?