The application of steam to lathes changed a production method rooted in a ten thousand of year-old process. In England, the opening of the first Wedgwood porcelain shop in London in 1768 – one of the largest European factories, already operating from the second half of the 18th century with its production centre in Staffordshire – offered the English people a vast selection of porcelain, some of which was the result of collaboration with great designers, such as Henry Cole.

Doccia is the hamlet where, not far from Florence, the Richard Ginori factory (now Ginori 1735) was founded in 1735. Among the many models born from the long experimentation of this white gold industry – whose art directors began with Gio Ponti and ended with Alessandro Michele – the Antico Doccia set is the one that most embodies an idea of everyday, effortless classicism. It is no coincidence, then, that its success has led it to be reinterpreted within the company itself, becoming an expression of Paola Navone’s decorative interventions, or ending up being vilely copied even by large companies in the furnishing sector.    

Japonisme was a lucky contamination for the arts system. Even in tableware, the opening up to a hitherto unexplored culture changed the stylistic features of classicism that dominated tableware. The Rousseau tableware, named after its publisher Eugène Rousseau, is a perfect example of this: commissioned with drawings by the engraver Félix Bracquemond inspired by flora and fauna, it was a wide-ranging success. In this regard, Stéphane Mallarmé declared that he felt obliged to “pay homage to this admirable and unique service, decorated by Bracquemond with Japanese motifs inspired by the farmyard and fishing lakes. It is the most beautiful modern crockery I have ever come across”.

In the irreverent vision of Pinheiro, Portuguese intellectual and caricaturist as well as master potter, a vegetable as humble as cabbage is a rich dinnerware. His set of plates, bowls and tureens also embodies a synthesis of the early Art Nouveau avant-garde and the long tradition of rustic ceramics of the Caldas district, where his production is still in operation.

The result of an ante litteram marketing idea, Royal Copenhagen’s Christmas plates are the first famous example of a series of plates launched to stimulate collecting. Since 1908, this historic Danish brand has launched a new plate every year, reinterpreting the Christmas and seasonal theme with an original design. What does not change is the classic white and cobalt blue colours that have distinguished this production born under the authority of the Danish royal household since 1775.

Developed from a series of Gio Ponti’s drawings in 1926, this collection blends the gold border that distinguishes many porcelain sets, particularly those in the French tradition, with a geometric stroke inspired by classical motifs.

The result of a competition organised by the Finnish company Pressed Glass 4644, this set of plates now in production for Ittala expresses a democratic and modern vision for an everyday object. Produced in a low-cost mould, each piece of the set is distinguished by concentric ribbing that gives it strength while limiting the amount of material used. The design won a gold medal at the 1936 Milan Triennale.

Perhaps the most famous decorative plate of 20th century Italian design, Tema e Variazioni n.1 was created by Piero Fornasetti as a tribute to his muse, the opera singer Lina Cavalieri. Her light and delicate face – by now iconic, almost that of a new Mona Lisa – opens up to an interpretative game that will create a series of replicas each time played on a change of suspended context between lyricism and irony. In hand-decorated porcelain, it can also be hung on the wall thanks to the two back holes.

Thirty years after his experience at Richard Ginori, Gio Ponti’s versatility chooses an eminently graphic language for this set of plates designed for Franco Pozzi. Characterised by a wide range of abstract motifs, the plates, decorated with decalcomania, resort to strong chromatic contrasts to enliven their expressive charge.

Form in the form, La Boule by Villeroy & Boch is one-of-a-kind item. By cleverly stacking a set of plates within a spherical shape, La Boule establishes itself as a space-saving solution that combines surprise and utility and embodies the spirit of the gift product. Its creation also represented a successful technical challenge since, once in the oven, its pieces all shrank in a constant way, despite the relationship between full and empty spaces that distinguishes them. Over the years, its essential form has been enriched by various decorative interpretations inspired by current styles and trends.

Ceramic casts of different vegetables, this set of plates and bowls embodies the DIY experimentation that has hit the food sector in the last decade and created interesting short circuits with the world of design. The expressive rendering of the textures offers an interesting comparison with the level of detail of each vegetable, restoring in a synaesthetic way a broader sensory perception, capable of evoking even touch.

Plastic has entered the world of tableware since the 1960s, when the practical and indestructible melamine plates became popular in the American market and then throughout the world, both as an everyday set and as a camping and picnic set (think, for example, of GioStyle’s production). Urquiola’s version for Kartell merges the theme of tableware with that of jewellery, using the profile facets as a pattern capable of ennobling an essential everyday support. It is then the name that clarifies some additional elements on the identity of the object: Jellies is in fact based on the moulds for jellies used in the food industry. Different patterns are combined in the set enriching the tableware with interesting optical effects also thanks to calibrated chromatic choices. 

Nuovo classico dal grande successo commerciale, Hybrid nasce da un’intuizione apparentemente banale, eppure inedita: combinare la metà di due piatti diversi, giocando con un presupposto di simmetria mancato. L’ibrido non si limita a far convergere profili e motivi diversi, ma anche a combinare culture decorative agli antipodi in una sorta di nuovo meticciato aperto alla contaminazione e alla differenza.

An unusual texture, particularly porous, distinguishes Philippe Malouin’s project at first glance. But what is also surprising is the low-tech approach taken by the Canadian designer, who designed an analogue 3D printer for Dunes to create moulds from piles of sugar. Conveyed to the printer, the grains of sugar converge on its plate where they create sand dune-like structures, hence the name. Their shape is used to create a negative, which through various steps allows the creation of porcelain plates finished with a matte glaze.

How many times have we burned ourselves when bringing hot dishes to the table? The wide handle that Japanese studio Nendo adds to the edge of its plates calls into question the design of pots and pans, and as with the latter, allows you to handle a hot surface with ease, removing a small inconvenience of everyday life. The simple lines, softened by rounded edges, are complemented by a delicate choice of colours ranging from white and light blue to pink, dove grey and blue.

Emblematic of an ironically provocative and all in all good-natured divertissement, this plate from the Toilet Paper collection speaks a universal language – hence the commercial success of the entire set – playing on the instinctive reflexes triggered by code breaks regarding the use and acceptability of objects in a given context.

A classic among everyday dinner services, this white porcelain collection brought back to life after its first launch in 1971 under the signature of Antonia Astori thanks to the collaboration of Paola Navone, who extends the universe of possible decorations to other cultures, creating a form of harmonic cultural cross-fertilisation.

Wanders’ intuition often leads to repositioning decorations where we would not have expected them. This is the case, moving on to lighting, with Skygarden for Flos. It is also the case with Dressed en plein air for Alessi, where an intricate pattern extends over the wide rim of the plates as well as, somewhat surprisingly, over the back of the base. The other shift is that, despite the visual references to the world of porcelain, the plates are made of melamine, disregarding expectations but also presenting a more sustainable alternative to disposable plastic plates.

This is a set of plates that prides itself on its irregularity, the one proposed by Marteen Baas according to a formal approach that distinguishes him and that he has already experimented with in other projects on a different scale. The choice of the palette of greys is not punitive, but goes back to a Nordic aesthetic, creating interesting possibilities of comparison between different shades.

Among the various reinterpretations of the local craft tradition, the Table Nomade project revisits with graphic taste decorative patterns of different cultures without indulging in nostalgic folklore.