How were earthenware platters used originally?

These platters held joints of meat, poultry and large courses at the centre of dining tables. Servants brought them from the kitchen to present food before individual carving. Larger chargers also served as decorative wall plates or fruit stands in wealthy households during the Georgian and Victorian eras.

Can I use antique platters for serving food?

Most antique earthenware platters tolerate gentle hand washing, though old glazes can develop fine craze lines over centuries of use. Modern dishwashers and harsh detergents damage the soft lead glazes and nineteenth-century pigments. Many collectors prefer to use them for dry foods or display them on sideboards rather than exposing them to heavy daily dining.

How do I date a blue and white platter?

Potters marked the backs of many nineteenth-century pieces with impressed names, registry diamonds or pattern titles. Stylistic clues like transfer-printed borders, body weights and the shade of the blue pigment also help place a dish in its correct decade. Creamware bodies generally point to the eighteenth century, whilst dense ironstone and heavier Victorian bodies indicate production after eighteen-fifty.

What is the difference between creamware and pearlware?

Creamware has a warm, pale yellow tone created by a transparent lead glaze over a buff-coloured earthenware body. It was perfected by Staffordshire potters in the seventeen-seventies. Pearlware uses a whiter body and a glaze containing a small amount of cobalt to produce a faint bluish tint in curves, designed to mimic Chinese export porcelain.