Vintage View: Old china

Kya deLongchamps encourages us to buy a little old china as an alternative Christmas gift this year.

Considering the amount an Irish buyer is prepared to throw down on a fairly ordinary Christmas present for an extraordinary friend or loved one — I’m amazed more people don’t choose a lightly-loved vintage thing.

Buying an antique or old object is a wild card it’s true. These elderly survivors don’t come by the yard, but they do reflect a golden glow back onto the giver. There’s a journey, a hunt, some bold, intimate presumptions of their recipient’s taste — and even being completely cold and self- involved — vintage wares offer superb value.

Let’s take one of my favourites — the tea or coffee set. Now, there’s a choice from the late 1800s right through to the 1970s to please any sip-sip, afternoon diva. Floral romantic fancies from the war years, bold geometric prints and textures from the era of groove and dainty, genuinely antique, Edwardian beauties.

Find an even incomplete set, wrap each piece tenderly in pastel or recycled buff tissue paper, and box them up — now that’s impressive compared 2 CDs, a back scratcher, and a book token.

Starting at the iced fancy end of things, Limoges, Royal Doulton and Royal Crown Derby are just some of the names in china and porcelain, popular as tokens between genteel families and individuals in the mid-late 1800s.

If you find a lovely single-footed antique cup and saucer, wrap it up with perhaps a gorgeous artisan tea, (loose leaf if you want to be really exacting).

Hand painted Victorians, featuring scenes, figures or bosomy roses are a gorgeous touch and speak quality. English and German cups aping violently expensive ‘insect porcelain’ may have a little winged creature flitting on the inside of the cup.

Minton has some particularly exquisite examples with twisted bough and butterfly handles — lovely to prompt a future collector’s interest.

Low, dish shapes recall the 17th century and Georgian tea dishes, with more upright barrels serving as chocolate cups, especially if your intended likes their cocoa of a winter’s night.

For someone with a liking for the dainty cabinet piece with a difference, Noritake (f.1867) from Nagoya in Japan has a huge following for its invention and quality, and pieces turn up regularly in antique shops and charity outlets.

Nippon Toki until 1981 and then renamed Noritake, these pieces have a fragile, egg-shell feel, and are sumptuously hand painted in watery eastern scenes and classic period styles, following their more exalted porcelain inspirations.

Vast quantities of western style tea sets and dinner services were exported into Europe and the United States, until the war slipped the cup from the lip. Expect to find chintzy examples with a white ground for as little as €25 for six cups/saucers/tea-plates and a pot.

Look out for bolder art deco and nouveau style sets and lustrous glazes, including the designs of Cyril Leigh.

The 1930s-50s was a time when every family had a tea-set, often two or three sets to answer the class of occasion, and these are now stacked in auction houses, antique shops and junk shops across the country.

I think Royal Tara’s eclectic colourful tea-rose, and the mumsy, gilded Arklow sets, are some of the very best and starting from as little as €45 a set, are nostalgia to set an Irish heart humming.

Don’t get talked up past €60 for even a perfect set —they are plentiful. The current trend is to mismatch pieces, using items in a very similar shape and colour family. Just ensure the cups sit tightly in the recess on the saucer.

Forgotten China is an online store up-cycling this family of ware into pendants, necklaces, and cake stands. Stands start at €15, and their swan neck desk lamp blossoming with a vintage tea and saucer at €180 is really fun — and better perhaps, as a joint buy.

Coming forward to the Late Mad Men period, (alright I made that era up), my choice would be Portmeirion (f.1960), an original Welsh brand and still in production, (new ware available through John Lewis and the Ballymaloe shop).

The work of Susan William-Ellis is full of hippy-dippy chic, and I own quite a few Totem pieces which cost me next to nothing, but everyone asks about them when we take them out for a run.

With its cylindrical form and primitive raised pattern, Totem is still fabulous and available by the heap on eBay. It’s matt, black ground in designs including Aztec, Greek Key and Phoenix (John Cuffley), feature a high coffee pot with lofty cone style lid that would do as a present all by itself, as a working or decorative piece.

Choose examples with as little surface ware and crazing to the glaze as possible.

Condition is important for any ceramic ware, but I would not preclude buying a nice set with the odd hairline crack to a tea-plate. Chips on cup rims don’t sit well with anyone and tea and coffee does stain if left on china finishes for too long. Don’t assume it will scrub out.

It’s a good idea to include a little card with advice for caring for an old set. For example, gilding and hand painting can be ruined forever by one trip through the dishwasher. Don’t stack the cups inside each other, however quaint this may look, as one rattle can break a rim or handle.