apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I hope you are not in a hurry to find your set. I too went through the same situation where everything nice seem to be out of my price range even the stores you mentioned. It took me a while to find 'that perfect set' and it might not be for you but I started checking out the local Goodwill stores and I found a vintage partially incomplete set of white china for 12 by Raymond Loewy made by Continental China in 1952 for a total of $40.00. I sterilized the set by pouring hot water just to make sure...

The "Extreme Craft" blog had a feature on this Zeisel stuff a month or two ago. It's very sensuous, and I like it, but I don't know if I'd actually buy it for my own house.

(At least one of the pieces reminds me of the central area of Bosch's "Eden" in the "Garden of Earthly Delights" triptych...

The last time I encountered these beautiful Eva Zeisel dishes was at the Los Angeles Modern Auction in 2000. I did my best to bid on these wonderful 52 piece set which only had a pre-estimate value of $200-$250 sold for $2,250.

The re-issues at C & B are nice too but they seem thicker and some of the plate sizes are larger and of slightly different shape than the originals lacking Zeisel's delicate and fragile elegance.

A word about those IKEA whites.
I got a stack of white lunch plates and the shallow round soup bowls for a party. They are perfectly plainly nice but are unstable if anyone stabs something in them with a fork. The square ones might have the same problem, but less so - they are a little heavier.

Still, I'll take cheap thin pottery over cheap thick stuff any day. And I think they're clearing them out for $.50 a piece.

The last time I checked, the online outlet Crate & Barrel store had these white cafe plates on sale. They appear to be large and deep with a substantial rim. I plan to check them out at an outlet store nearby. Has anybody used these and if so, reactions please?

Here is the link.

www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=1730&f=1664

I don't like white dishes - way too boring for me - and when I recently couldn't find ANY dishes I liked, I decided to stay with some hand-me-down 70's dishes. But I needed bowls and these are the perfect size. I love the lip on the sides for hot soups.

I saw the Zeisel stuff in the C&B catalog awhile back and was entranced. I love the organic shapes. That said, once I saw them in person, I was disappointed. Perhaps it was just the store lighting, but the plates seemed a very dull off-white color.

the forms of the cb set are beautiful, but the color is an off creamy color and the material is cheap earthenware. i wasn't thrilled, for the money, shop ebay for the originals.

A 5-piece place setting for under $70?! Um, have y'all looked at tableware prices anywhere but Ikea? This is soooo not a high-ticket item...

For the money, I'm not positive you CAN find the originals on eBay at the C&B prices... and I'm not sure the originals are microwave/dishwasher safe, which I believe these to be...

These plates are Earthenware. That means they will craze if you put them in the microwave (or top rack dishwasher), even in low settings. You have to remember, that's the characteristic of earthenware. They also "ping" as well, since the clay is still evolving and settling down.

As for this set from C&B, they are off white...a creamy color. They are a re-issue, so they are not the same as the original EZ sets. Nonetheless, they are still beautiful pieces.

Just an update that I've had the bowls for only 4 months and one broke last night when I dropped a mug on it from a few inches away. I'm glad I didn't buy the whole set!
My dishes from the 70's are still going strong!