What is a charger used for?

It's a large flat dish, made for display as much as for serving. Chargers account for a substantial run of titles, and they're the biggest things in the category. The largest sampled examples state 63cm, 71cm and 73cm across, with dealers reaching for words like monumental. Japanese Imari is the group they turn up in most.

Why are bowls and tureens listed as dishes?

Because the heading follows the trade, and the trade files shallow serving wares loosely. Around 126 dishes are listed a year on Sellingantiques and 150 dealers have offered them, one of the widest dealer bases of any ceramics form. So covered and footed shapes come in with the open ones. Bowls, chargers, platters and tureens all appear under the same word.

Which factories turn up most often?

Worcester, in its various periods, is the single largest presence, taking in First Period, Worcester porcelain and Royal Worcester. Beside it sit Japanese Imari and Arita, and English blue-and-white transferware in ironstone and pottery. Behind those come Derby, Caughley, Bow, Chelsea, Coalport, Ridgway, Spode, Davenport, Rockingham, Swansea and Nantgarw, along with Chinese export and Continental porcelain and faience.

How old are these pieces?

The dealer date field runs 1700 to 1960, and broad estimates outnumber precise ones. "19th Century" and "18th Century" between them beat every decade bucket, with "Victorian" and "Georgian" used as dates too. Where a decade is stated it tends to fall between the 1880s and the 1930s. A bare "19th Century" is the dealer's period estimate rather than a year.

Are there dishes older than 1700 here?

Yes, filed simply as "Before 1700" or "17th Century". Sampled titles include Kangxi, Wanli and Ming pieces and a 16th or 17th-century Swatow dish. Older still are a 14th to 15th-century Sukhothai stoneware fish dish, a 12th or 13th-century Persian Kashan lustre bowl and a 10th-century Nishapur buffware bowl.

What are the unusual Victorian table forms?

Specialised dishes that no longer have a modern job. Game pie dishes in caneware and majolica, sardine dishes, stilton bells, tongue dishes, brawn dishes with a bull's head cover, egg crocks and cress dishes. Novelty and figural pieces recur as well: Continental fairings modelled as costumed frogs and a lobster, a Minton crab tureen, a fox dish, a squirrel dish, and covered cauliflower dishes.

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Antique Dishes

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Flat and shallow ceramic serving wares, from small pickle and pin dishes to meat platters and display chargers of two feet and more, made to set food out at table or to hang and show.