Porcelain Eggs

An assortment of porcelain eggs is available at 1stDibs. Each of these unique porcelain eggs was constructed with extraordinary care, often using ceramic, porcelain and metal. Find 67 antique and vintage porcelain eggs at 1stDibs now, or shop our selection of 8 modern versions for a more contemporary example of this long-cherished furniture. Porcelain eggs have been produced for many years, with earlier versions available from the 18th Century and newer variations made as recently as the 21st Century. Porcelain eggs bearing Art Nouveau or Neoclassical hallmarks are very popular at 1stDibs. Many porcelain eggs are appealing in their simplicity, but Royal Copenhagen, Herend and Rozenburg Porcelain produced popular porcelain eggs that are worth a look.

Porcelain eggs can differ in price owing to various characteristics — the average selling price at 1stDibs is $569, while the lowest priced sells for $36 and the highest can go for as much as $11,800.

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.