I inherited my great, great Aunt's china & I love it (Tressmen & Voght pattern #15, it's discontinued, but Replacements.com has plenty of pieces). My family has lots & lots of china as they loved to entertain. The same Aunt Honey had probably 10 different patterns- mostly just luncheon & tea sets. I use the set a few times a year & think of her every time.

I have my Great Grandmother's china, and I love to use it for hosting events like baby showers because it's very feminine and there are 12 place settings!

I inherited my great-grandmother's dishware. It's over 100 years old. My mother ate off of it as a child, and broke a lot of it. When I was a kid, we used it for special occasions. I broke a few pieces myself, and my husband has managed to break a few. And there are still about 80 pieces! It's very fragile, and many pieces are damaged. I suspect it's not actually china, but that doesn't make it any less cool.

It's a nice set, and it's cool to have something that old and with so much family history, especially since I never knew anyone from my mother's side of the family. But 80 pieces of dishware takes up a lot of room, and it almost never gets used, since my husband and I are not formal dinner party people. I have used it during holidays and other occasions, but it hasn't been used for a few years now.

Actually, I said yes (with dread) thinking that my Mom inherited her mom's dreadful "good" china, as the oldest child/daughter, and I'm also the oldest child/daughter, so, someday... BUT I think my mom graciously, wisely, and stylishly passed it on to her younger sister, who will no doubt pass it on to her only child/daughter. They will do it right with that stuff. They live in the kitchen, have giant kitchens, and host big family get-togethers where people can appreciate the china for the memories, not the looks. Which is just fine. Think I dodged a fragile, expensive, space-hogging bullet there!

I meant to write "they live in the country" with big kitchens, but yeah: they live in the kitchen.

I really hate the term 99% because it implies that you are poor. I know plenty of people in the "so-called 99%" (meaning they make an AGI of less than $311,000 per year) who live pretty affluent lives.

Anyway, now that the venting is out of the way. :-)

My parents and one grandmother are still living and God willing should still be around for a while yet. My mother and grandmother's "good" china consists of a set of Pfaltzgraf.

When my wife and I moved into our last apartment her mother gave us her "nice" dishes which came from Grand Union in the early 80s. They are brown and have ships on them. I like them and we're going to keep them.

We did get "nice" china for our wedding but I don't see us using it any time soon. Maybe Thanksgiving.

I have the few remaining pieces of a set my maternal grandmother bought, as well as a set of Haviland my paternal grandmother found in a barrel in the basement of a house they rented. Both are very different from one another, and cherished because they remind me of and link me to my grandmothers.

Our family dishwware that is used on holidays and other special occassions is the old Francsiscan ware "apple" motif and I love it. Its the original pattern that was made in the UK and my mom and dad added many serving pieces over the years as their budget allowed. I am honored and thrilled that this will bestowed upon me when the time comes.

You need a few more options on that poll!

1. No, I inherited someone ELSE's family china - blue and white Currier & Ives via garage sale and later additions from thrift stores.

2. No, I am still eagerly waiting for my mom's gorgeous blue and white wedding china and the green and white Norwegian china.

3. No, all my grandparents and parents are still alive, but I'm hoping to be the lucky recipient. I think I'm the only vintage-china-lover on both sides of the family. Inherited trait from my great-grandmas, along with the pathological need to feed people enormous amounts of food.

My mother has lots of china that she bought and some from her mother and it will all go to my sister when she dies. That's fine with me, as their taste is similar and mine is very different. I'm so glad it worked out that way; it'll be a pleasure for my sister to have it and a relief to me not to have it (nothing wrong with it, just not my taste and I've got plenty of china already).

Our "inheritance" is a bit different; my mom and I both collected the work of a specific local potter for many years. When we closed down her house and she moved into smaller quarters, she passed her collection on to my husband and me, and we were more than happy to accept it.

Oh, and we use it every day.

We're getting some fancy french original eggshell china from my mother-in-law. I'm not a huge fan because it's missing half of the china because she's really rough with it. Teacup is missing a handle, several plates have chips, etc. All the pieces are there, just all roughed up. I don't see us ever pulling it out because it's horrid looking, but the set is heirloom (great-grandmother's original set).

There is a set of china my great-grandmother left to me, but I've never lived in a place where I could really make use of it (I life in San Francisco and don't have a lot of extra storage or display space), so my mom's held on to it. I think it's lovely even if it isn't my style, but I have to admit that I'm not sure exactly what to do with it.

My mom has been collecting Depression Glass and mid-century kitchen ware for about twenty years now, and we often go antiquing together; those pieces aren't exactly family china but I think any of those that I end up with will mean as much to me as any other family heirloom could.

While there is no longer a complete china set in my family, at least not to my knowledge, there are numerous various beautiful serving pieces and silverware sets. I am lucky enough to have received my grandmother's silverware, and although it is not very old (bought in the 50s for her by my grandfather and their children), it is still special to me. I have several random teacups/saucers, small serving pieces, and cut glass bowls. All different and gorgeous. I am a teeny bit jealous, though, that my brother and his family will get a spectacular blue fruit compote set...
I still dream about happening upon a great set at an estate sale, thrift store, rummage sale, etc. In the meantime, we have pretty decent dishes! ;)

I inherited my grandmother's 24 serving china service. It's a very simple pattern, no frills, which is why I like it so much. It's also a common set apparently so replacements shouldn't ever be hard to find or pricey to buy.

If the thread will allow a tiny bit of bragging, I not only have been selected to inherit my mother-in-law's beautiful waterford china, but my own grandmother left to me a beautiful set of 1930s crystal drinkware (different sized wine glasses and such) that has a beautiful pattern etched into it. I can't wait until I have an apartment that would allow me to keep such lovely things on hand, and in use!

My father bought a 12-serving set of Noritake that I've loved since I was little. One of the best gifts my roommate got me for Christmas one year was having the 4 broken pieces repaired without my knowledge! It's not quite the family china, but it's what I have. Then--I inherited my step-grandmother's china (which I do not love), but it's not "family" china either, exactly. I've ended up keeping it but haven't used it (yet).

The only family China we had was the Spode Christmas dishes I grew up with. However, after making several moves within a few years, most of them disappeared - given away or lost, who knows?

All four of my grandparents are still alive, so it hasn't been passed to my parents' generation yet. I did recently get engaged, though, and my fiance is in possession of a china set that I believe was his great-grandparents' and has been handed down upon reaching adulthood or marriage or something. It's certainly not the sort of pattern I would have picked out (too much pink), but it's well-contained within a china cabinet that his great-grandfather built, and it is kind of cool to have a piece of family history like that around. We'll never use it, though, because it's very fragile, and I'm clumsy, and I never really cared about having china anyway. So I'll be quite happy with using the dishwasher/microwave-friendly sunflower-bedecked dishes that I picked out myself!

As an only child, I'll inherit my parents' china, which is Royal Albert. They have a tea set in Old Country Roses, and their dinner service is a different, green and white pattern but I can't remember the name. It's old but pretty and I'll be happy to have it, although I'll have to somehow get it from Ireland to England without breaking it, and probably buy some new furniture to house it all. They also have quite a lot of Waterford Crystal and some nice silver cutlery which will also be mine one day. My parents are in their seventies now, but I hope I don't inherit anything for a long time yet :)

love the picture with this post - especially the one on the left that makes me want to collect mismatched pink china.

But, upon reflection, the mismatched pink china wouldn't go at all with anything in my life. I do not live in an old vicarage in Worcestershire with a large garden where I have tea parties etc. I am actively getting rid of stuff to simplify my life.

I still love the picture.

I've given most of my mother-in-law's china to my daughter already. The rest is a burden. Can't get rid of it, never use it, don't want to burden my daughter with it. I'm waiting for the right opportunity to give it to some beloved person who actually wants it.

I'm still using my own china.

My Mother and my Aunt got married in the same year and had the same china in different colors. My mom had the blue and Auntie has the red. My mom broke all or most and threw the rest away (fine with me, the blue was ugly). Auntie has all the red (at 88 years of age), it is stunning, and it goes to her grand-daughter (also fine by me).

What I DID inherit, was two full sets of Silver, one plate and one sterling. I've been trying to get rid of the plate for years but can't seem to find a way. I love the sterling and will keep that to pass down to my son and his family should he ever grow up and have one.

My husband and I are swimming in an embarrassment of riches. We were gifted with dishes from both sides of the family, with the only stipulation being that we had to like them and use them.

My grandparents gave us my great-grandmother's crystal as an engagement present and their wedding china (they married in 1947) and silver (her grandmother's) as a wedding gift. I'm the family historian for my generation, so I'm always being given family pieces for special events, along with the stories and documentation. Although we haven't used it yet, the china has really beautiful, graphic roses on it that really pop against our green dining room and dark furniture.

Most of my husband's family considers anything like this to be "old stuff", and they want new instead. My husband's grandmother cried when she found out I wanted to know all the stories behind her treasured pieces, and gave us her carnival and cut glass collections for our engagement and wedding respectively.When we redid our kitchen, we designed a bank of glass-front cabinets so that we could both display and use these pieces. Our entire color scheme for the kitchen was designed around her glassware and my great-grandmother's pale blue crystal.

I don't think I'll be inheriting any china. My grandmother did give me an Old Country Roses tea set that she bought in Scotland when she went for my parents' wedding. I haven't been able to find it since we moved two years ago though, and I'm worried that it might have accidentally gotten put in the donate pile. It breaks my heart to think so, though. I keep hoping it will turn up in the basement.

I also had my parents' old Corolle dishes, but I haven't been able to find those since we moved either. Not china, I know, but I'd love to be using them as every day dishes right now (instead of the cute vintage set I'm using, which we seem to break one or two of every week).

Just last year, my mother offered up her "old" set of dinnerware that she got when she was first married. My grandfather took her to the green stamps store (!) and they picked it out. It's now totally mid-century and I love it.

Our is not a china set family.

My husband stands to inherit some turn of the century china originally purchased by his great grandparents. I haven't seen it, but I hear it's good stuff.

I do own, thanks to my first wedding, a 16 place Syracuse China Corabel (1947-1967) set, green Depression glass salad plates, and platinum-rimmed goblets and wine glasses. The antique shop that stocked them was more than happy to create a "registry" for my guests, and my guests were more than thrilled to purchase an entire place setting for $25. I received the whole set :) It's not Fine china with a capital F, but the stylized mid-century graphics make me happy; the platuinum rims make them "parent appropriate" ;)

While arranging my china cabinet a few months ago, I noticed that the Syracuse dinner plates are 9-3/4" diameter, "tiny" in comparison to my every day Crate and Barrel dinner plates that barely fit in my upepr cabinets. Is it any wonder portions have increased?

My mom and aunt got the same wedding china. The aunt gave my mom her china - it was in MUCH worse condition that my mom's - the flowers in the center and edge gilding worn off, etc. I don't want any of it. It's such a classically tacky rose pattern with ripply, gilded edges.

I do want the silver service my Mom was given, though with her being unemployed, I'd "buy" it from her as a way to gift her some $ without feeling like she's taking a handout.

If you have inherited a set of china and crystal that is not appealing to you, does not have good memories associated with it, and would not be useful to you, what is the appropriate thing to do with it? We have some items that are of nice quality (so shouldn't just be chucked in the Goodwill box), but I'm at a loss as to how to properly get it out of my hands and into the hands of someone who might appreciate it more than me.

Both of my parents' families somewhere along the line were china and silver having people. My mom's family (maybe three generations ago) had a bell under the dining table to ring for the servants with back stairways and some beautiful antiques. Needless to say, we have a lot of china. My twin sister and I are the only grandkids on my father's side, and my mom was the most responsible daughter on her side, and, lucky for me, my sister is not really interested. My mom has already started passing things on to me little by little. I have a full set of sterling silver (except what in the world am I supposed to do with those monogrammed shrimp forks?), most of a set of a plated one, and four full place settings to start. These are the dishes we always had thanksgiving dinner on, with my aunts and later, all of my girl cousins washing and drying by hand later in the evening. While we no longer live the way my great great aunt did, I am very grateful to have a piece of her life here with me.

Jacquielin,

Monogrammed shrimp forks are great for cocktail parties or coffee/tea parties. Use them for hors d'oeuvres or cheese cubes or little dessert items (fruit salad, strawberries, tiny cupcakes)--anything you might use a toothpick for.

Just be careful not to throw them out by mistake when you're cleaning up.

"Inheriting the family dishes" is a bit posh for what happens in our family. Old useful stuff gets passed on to family and friends when we upgrade, then they upgrade and pass on their older stuff to their distribution chain and so on. One of our relatives has really nice stuff and updates often, most hang onto things a lot longer. I have a summer shack where the old linens, dishes, furniture etc ends up and that's the end of the line for most of it.

As the only daughter and oldest child of the only daughter and oldest child, I think the silver and china will be coming to me. My grandmother's china (white with bold golden wheat; can't identify it now) was used only once a year, at Thanksgiving. It's nice, I have a few pleasant memories, but it doesn't match my style. She also had a silver set, which I think belonged to her parents; it was also only used on Thanksgiving. Mostly I remember the days she spent polishing every piece before we could use it -- I don't think I could properly use something so high-maintenance.

My mother also had wedding china; I just looked it up and it appears to be Lenox Lace Point. Maybe it's just because the pattern's discontinued, but I'm absolutely shocked china's so expensive. Hers is displayed in a china cabinet, but we've literally never eaten from it. It's a nice enough pattern, but I like it as someone else's, not as mine. And I would be way too terrified of dropping a $50 plate here, a $200 bowl there. . . .

I actually prefer their everyday plates in both cases. My grandmother had thick, heavy, gorgeously glazed blue ceramics, and my mother has simple white Pfaltzgraff with a braided edge. I'm not sure what happened to my grandmother's when she died, but I suspect Goodwill. My mother's is getting pretty beat-up, and probably won't be worth keeping in another 30-40 years (I hope!). Meanwhile, there's a reason my dinnerware is (lovely but indestructable) Corelle.

Hopefully I won't inherit for a long, long time, but when I do, I have no idea what I'll do with it. It's all nice stuff, but bulky to store, and not something I would ever realistically use. I have a feeling that whatever happens, there'll be a lot of guilt involved.

Aha -- I think Fine Arts Golden Harvest is my grandmother's. Not ugly, just not me. I'm glad at least it isn't too pricey to use.

Mom had melmac. Long ago trashed.

I don't remember what either grandmother had, it didn't come to me, and I think I'm glad.

My dishes are IKEA black porcelain and a mixture of thrift store finds. (I especially like to collect six inch dessert plates with a strongly Japanese flair -- they make cheesecake look splendid!)

I am not a sentimentalist. And there is finite space in my cupboards for dishes. So i will choose my own, thanks, and not be constrained by the choices of earlier generations.

If I had vintage family china to get rid of, I would likely donate it to a charity to sell to support a woman's shelter or something of the sort. Or advertise it on Craiglist or eBay to sell, if I needed the income.

@katalyst
I once saw a "diet" book that had that sort of conceit--I was just browsing and thought the title looked interesting so I think I just read the intro, and it was talking about how cabinets used to be sized to hold standard sized dishes (which were either 8 or 9 inches in diameter) and that now that dinner plates have gotten so big, cabinets need to be bigger and, well, Americans have gotten bigger. And I suppose it would have gone on to advocate using smaller plates as a device to effect portion control or somesuch.

I'm not about to inherit any china myself, but have recently invested (haha) in some of ikea's bone china skyn collection--but only the 9in "side plates" and bowls, because I think 9 inches is plenty, really (haha).

(Although, I do wonder if ppl are just Doing It Wrong--I wonder if the increasing size of dishes isn't a response to/intended to encourage larger portion sizes, but may have been meant to provide a larger space for food to be displayed beautifully on? Whenever I go to higher-end restaurants that don't serve absurd portions, the plates are still huge.)

I inherited my grandparent's Bavaria "The Baronial" China set. It's classic - off white with a simple gold ring. Most of it is in fantastic condition and it's moved 3 times with me, but I've never used any of it, gold just really isn't my style. I don't have any memories of using it, but it means a lot to my mother so I have held on to it.

Yes we inherited (well nobody's dead yet) a set of nice fancy china when we got married. It's been 2 year and we've yet to take it out of the box but someday I hope to use it. Not quite our style but not terrible either.

I have the most beautiful silverware set in storage (at my grandmothers). It has mother-of-pearl handles and the utensils are tiny - one day I'd love to use them for a fancy tea party.
When I was first offered them they looked grungy and tarnished, but my grandmother polished them all up for me. They're stunning. I'm so glad I said yes.

I inherited my parent's wedding dishes, when I moved out. My mom had wanted to upgrade to a nicer set of dishes. I wouldn't necessarily call these inherited dishes formal china. But they're a good set of casual dining plates. They have been through several moves, without breaking, plus they can be put in the oven, microwave, and dishwasher. I have since gotten my own set of Fiestware, but I can't seem to get rid of my parent's wedding dishes. I still use them as back up plates.

I love the china I inherited from my grandmother. My only cousin (female), my brother and I split the china we liked between the three of us, and we donated the sets we did not like as much. That way, even if we didn't love the patterns, the once-loved items could go to a home where they could continue being loved.