This is just a plate. It’s an ordinary plate: off-white with some tiny flecks of colour in the glaze. The colour is not very noticeable. It’s one of a pair, and there is also a pair of matching bowls. I’m certain there were some matching side plates once upon a time.
They’re plain without being too plain. They seem just plain enough to be neither fashionable nor unfashionable—although, to be honest, I have no idea if trends in crockery really exist.
In September 1989, I bought the plates from a branch of Safeway in Shrewsbury. I was heading to university, and two plates, along with the bowls, side plates and a couple of knives and forks, were coming with me. They were used almost daily during the four years I studied.
I don’t know where the side plates went—maybe I imagined them—but I still have the dinner plates and bowls. They have remained in regular use ever since, packed away and moving whenever I moved house. If I had to guess, I’d say they were used weekly. There is a more recent set in daily use, but these were always handy and slightly bigger, capable of holding a full portion of fish and chips from my local chippy.
Today, PY discovered a crack in this plate. It’s unusable and about to break but, before it gives up, I thought I’d take a picture.
It has outlasted the Safeway supermarket brand in the UK, which is an odd fact but one I feel the need to note. More than 30 years seems pretty good going.
I wonder how long the other one will last?