Ceramic Plates

From commemorative designs to delicate dining patterns, ceramic plates run the gamut of decoration and style. Tracing their origins to the world’s earliest cultures, ceramic plates have evolved as their own art form.

Plates and rudimentary platters have been a means of serving food for millennia, but it was not until the advent of porcelain that the notion of highly decorative ceramic plates came into consciousness. Porcelain ceramic plates were developed by the Chinese in the 7th century and extended to Europe more than 1,000 years later.

Elaborate motifs from stylized patterns to historic landmarks became the subject for these pieces, creating a visual tradition with both heritage and honed decorative skill. Today, the field of antique ceramic plates is so diverse that it is a collector’s paradise.

Quick Facts

• Meissen was the first manufacturer in Europe to perfect the Chinese art of hard-paste porcelain.. A Meissen dinner service from the late 18th century including more than 60 plates and 6 platters sold at Christie’s New York for $197,900 in 2004
• The world record for the largest ceramic plate was set in 2010 in Beirut, Lebanon. Weighing in at more than 9,500 pounds and just under 24 feet in diameter, the ceramic creation requires interior steel supports
• Souvenir plates, or plates depicting specific landmarks, became popular in the United States at the end of the 19th century. These pieces were so popular that influential ceramic manufacturers including Homer Laughlin and Wedgwood made their own variations