For many, once-cherished porcelain sets are now collecting dust. It's a shift being felt around the world, from a home in Winnipeg to one of the oldest porcelain manufacturers in the world.
Packed away in a box in the corner of a Winnipeg basement – carefully covered, wrapped in paper, steeped in memories – are gold-trimmed, hand-painted treasures.The story of this porcelain set starts on a farm in southern Indiana in the late 1800s.
Lena cherished those dishes, though it would take her more than a decade to collect the full set. Now, more than 100 years and three generations later, Lena's china set is sitting in storage in Watson's basement, Lena's great-great-niece. Watson says those memories all revolve around family gathering around a table set carefully with the fine china.Deb Rowinski lives just outside Warren, Man. She too inherited her grandmother's porcelain set.
"Kids just aren't into the stuff anymore. You know, they are very happy to go buy… white plates," she said."They don't seem to want to carry on the traditions anymore, which is fine it's just a bit sad." "They look at porcelain and they see these beautiful things, and they are. They're luxurious, and that's what it was all about. It was an idea of luxury in your house," she said.
Any gander through a thrift store or antique shop will uncover stacks vintage porcelain dinner wares – Old Country Roses or Silver Birch by Royal Albert, My Fair Lady by Coalport, American Ivy by Pope Gosser – the list goes on.Antique appraiser Mike Huen, owner of Mike's General Store in Winnipeg, says as more people look to sell their old porcelain dinner sets, the value has plummeted.
"You know the days we would meet on a Sunday afternoon with grandfather and grandchildren and everyone in a big family – it doesn't happen as much today as it used to happen 50 years ago or 30 years ago," Dr. Tillmann Blaschke, CEO of the company, told CTV News in an interview from Meissen, Germany. Though the era of porcelain is changing – it is not over. As Hannah Nowack puts it,"china is definitely having a moment."
At Park Line Coffee in Winnipeg's South Osborne neighbourhood, owner Janis Urniezius has been using porcelain plates since she opened the shop five years ago. "It's really hard to just dump it and it's sad to see that happen too," Urniezius said."It's nice to try and give it a second life."
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