Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Early 18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
Recent Sales
Late 18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
Mid-18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
Mid-18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
1920s German Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Mid-18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
Mid-18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
1880s German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Bronze
18th Century German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
18th Century and Earlier Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
18th Century German Antique Meissen Tea Pot
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Early 19th Century British Regency Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
1870s German Rococo Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
21st Century and Contemporary Chinese Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Paper
Early 20th Century German Black Forest Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Wood
19th Century English Regency Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Rosewood
Late 19th Century French Belle Époque Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Bronze, Ormolu
1750s German Baroque Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Walnut
18th Century English George II Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Brass
Early 20th Century German Neoclassical Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
1810s English George III Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Silver, Sterling Silver
20th Century French Hollywood Regency Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Crystal
1810s English Regency Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Marble, Brass
18th Century French Louis XV Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Silver
Late 18th Century English Neoclassical Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
18th Century and Earlier English Georgian Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Brass
1920s French Art Deco Antique Meissen Tea Pot
Porcelain
Finding the Right Porcelain for You
Today you’re likely to bring out your antique and vintage porcelain in order to dress up your dining table for a special meal.
Porcelain, a durable and nonporous kind of pottery made from clay and stone, was first made in China and spread across the world owing to the trade routes to the Far East established by Dutch and Portuguese merchants. Given its origin, English speakers called porcelain “fine china,” an expression you still might hear today. "Fine" indeed — for over a thousand years, it has been a highly sought-after material.
Meissen Porcelain, one of the first factories to create real porcelain outside Asia, popularized figurine centerpieces during the 18th century in Germany, while works by Capodimonte, a porcelain factory in Italy, are synonymous with flowers and notoriously hard to come by. Modern porcelain houses such as Maison Fragile of Limoges, France — long a hub of private porcelain manufacturing — keep the city’s long tradition alive while collaborating with venturesome contemporary artists such as illustrator Jean-Michel Tixier.
Porcelain is not totally clumsy-guest-proof, but it is surprisingly durable and easy to clean. Its low permeability and hardness have rendered porcelain wares a staple in kitchens and dining rooms as well as a common material for bathroom sinks and dental veneers. While it is tempting to store your porcelain behind closed glass cabinet doors and reserve it only for display, your porcelain dinner plates and serving platters can safely weather the “dangers” of the dining room and be used during meals.
Add different textures and colors to your table with dinner plates and pitchers of ceramic and silver or a porcelain lidded tureen, a serving dish with side handles that is often used for soups. Although porcelain and ceramic are both made in a kiln, porcelain is made with more refined clay and is stronger than ceramic because it is denser.
On 1stDibs, browse an expansive collection of antique and vintage porcelain made in a variety of styles, including Regency, Scandinavian modern and other examples produced during the mid-century era, plus Rococo, which found its inspiration in nature and saw potters crafting animal figurines and integrating organic motifs such as floral patterns in their work.