Choosing a Dinner and Tea Set.
To the young housekeeper of limited means the choice of her table china is quite an important matter. One can get sets for seven and eight dollars, but I should not advise buying anything cheaper than a fifteen-dollar set. If a decorated set be wanted, take one having soft tints, because people soon get weary of seeing pronounced colors or patterns.
Very pretty English sets of one hundred and fifty pieces, decorated in blue, may be had for fifteen dollars. Minton sets of one hundred and thirty-six pieces, basket-pattern border, and decorated in a fine shade of blue, are offered as low as twenty-five dollars.
American china sets in colored decorations are sold at about the same price as the English. Plain white French china sets of one hundred and thirty pieces cost about thirty-five dollars. The quality and prices rise rapidly until sets costing hundreds of dollars are reached.
In making a choice from the great variety displayed there are several things to consider. For instance, what price can you afford to pay? Is the style one that will be lasting, and are the goods durable? It often happens that the decoration of a cheap set is much daintier than that of some of the more expensive kinds.
The English and American wares are thick, and do not chip or break easily; but when they do chip, the broken part soon becomes dark. The glaze on these wares cracks readily when exposed to a high temperature. In a dinner set one does not notice particularly that the ware is thick; but thickness in the cups and saucers is disagreeably noticeable, especially in the English wares. Then, too, unless one get a “stock pattern,” it will often be difficult and expensive to replace a broken piece. The dealers intend to carry a pattern five years; after that one cannot feel sure of replacing a broken piece without much delay and expense. Plain white French china can always be replaced; the glaze does not crack when exposed to a high temperature; if chipped, the broken part does not become discolored; the ware is in good shapes; the cups and saucers are delicate and pretty, so that a full set of the china is desirable, which, to my mind, is not the case with the English or American wares.
In buying the French china it is wise to get plates with rolled edges. It seems to me, all things considered, that the French china is the most satisfactory, unless there is to be rather rough handling, when I would advise the purchase of the English or American productions. In that case I would further advise that only a dinner set be bought, and that something daintier be taken for the tea and breakfast table.
Odd cups and saucers are quite proper, and give variety and brightness to the table. Odd dessert and salad plates, also, are to be preferred to the regulation sets. The dessert plates and cups and saucers that may be picked up here and there in one’s travels are constant reminders of pleasant experiences.