If you've ever picked up a little crescent-shaped dish or a plate the size of a coaster at an estate sale and wondered what on earth it was for, you're in good company. Victorian and Edwardian dining was a production. A well-set table could hold a dozen pieces per person, and there was a special dish for nearly everything.
Here's a field guide to some of the oddest ones, what they were made for, and how to use them now.
We have 7 pieces of odd tableware in the shop right now, starting with an antique bone dish with a lady and cherub scene for $22.
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Why so many dishes?
Mass-produced porcelain, glass and silver plate became affordable in the late 1800s, just as the middle class was eager to show off good manners. Etiquette books laid out elaborate rules, and manufacturers happily invented a dish for every rule. Owning the "right" piece for celery or sardines was a quiet sign that your household knew how things were done.
Bone dishes
What it looks like: a crescent or kidney-shaped dish, usually 6" to 8" long, often matching a dinner service.
What it was for: it sat curved around the top of the dinner plate to hold fish bones or chicken bones, so they didn't clutter the plate. Fish courses were a fixture of formal dinners, so bone dishes were made by the thousands.
Use it today: a ring dish on a vanity, a spoon rest, or a spot for olive pits and cherry stems at a party.
Butter pats
What it looks like: a tiny flat plate, usually about 3" across, sometimes square or shell-shaped.
What it was for: each guest got their own small pat of butter on their own little plate, set at the upper left of the place setting. They were made to match china patterns, which is why so many survive in sets.
Use it today: earrings, rings, tea bags, or a group of them hung on the wall as a little gallery.
Celery vases and celery dishes
What it looks like: a tall glass vase like a spooner without a handle, or later, a long narrow oval dish.
What it was for: celery was a fashionable luxury in the 1800s, expensive and hard to grow. Showing it off upright in a pressed-glass vase in the center of the table was a status move. When celery became ordinary, the long flat celery dish took over.
Use it today: flowers, paintbrushes, or breadsticks.
Toothpick holders
What it looks like: a tiny cup, vase or figural novelty, often in pressed glass, about 2" to 3" tall.
What it was for: exactly what it sounds like. Pressed and art glass toothpick holders are a big collecting field of their own.
Use it today: matches, cotton swabs, a single bloom, or as a tiny planter.
Open salts and individual shakers
What it looks like: a tiny bowl (a salt cellar) or a pair of miniature shakers placed at each setting.
What it was for: before free-flowing salt arrived in the early 1900s, salt clumped, so it was served open in little dishes with a tiny spoon. Individual shakers at every place setting came later and stayed popular for formal dinners.
Use it today: spices, sprinkles, a mini succulent, or as a sweet bridal shower favor.
Toast racks
What it looks like: a small silver or silver plate rack with upright dividers, like a tiny dish drainer.
What it was for: keeping toast standing upright so the steam escapes and it stays crisp rather than soggy. A British breakfast table essential.
Use it today: the perfect letter and mail holder, or a place to stand cards and napkins.
Souvenir and specialty spoons
The Victorians had spoons for sugar, salt, mustard, berries, sardines and more. Then in the 1890s a souvenir spoon craze swept America, with spoons made for nearly every city, fair and landmark. Many were sterling or good silver plate with figural handles.
Drippings jars and grease keepers
What it looks like: a lidded crock or canister, often stoneware or enamelware, sometimes labeled "Drippings" or "Grease," and sometimes with a built-in strainer.
What it was for: waste not, want not. Generations of cooks saved the fat from bacon and roasts in a jar by the stove, then used it to fry eggs, season greens and make gravy. It's the one piece on this list that never really went out of style in country kitchens.
Use it today: bacon grease, of course, or as a utensil crock or sugar canister.
See it in person: odd tableware in the shop
Each one is a single piece, so when it's gone, it's gone.
How to tell what you have
- Check the shape and size. Crescent and small around 7" usually means bone dish. Flat and around 3" usually means butter pat.
- Look for a matching pattern. Specialty pieces were often sold to match a dinner service, so the pattern can tell you the maker and era.
- Turn it over. Many pieces are marked, but plenty of German, Austrian and Japanese export porcelain was not. Unmarked doesn't mean newer.
- Look at the decoration. Heavy raised gold, raised enamel flowers and romantic cherub or lady scenes point to roughly 1890 to 1915.
Shop odd Victorian tableware
- Antique porcelain bone dish with lady and cherub scene, heavy gold trim, c. 1900-1915
- Silver plate novelty toast rack that spells TOAST
- F.B. Rogers individual salt and pepper shakers, set of 6, in original box
- Rogers & Bro silver plate Texas souvenir spoons, set of 3
- Vintage stoneware "Drippings" crock with a cobalt blue bird
- Antique sterling silver teaspoon with a winged caryatid figure handle
- Antique Rogers & Bro A1 silver plate fiddle handle ladle with a fluted tulip bowl
More pieces, including butter pats, are on the way. Check back, because this list grows as new finds come in.
Keep browsing:
Vintage kitchen & dining →Brass & metal →Vintage home decor →
Keep reading: Silver Plate vs. Sterling · What Are Demitasse Cups? · Georgian vs. Victorian
Which odd little dish has you stumped? Tell us what it looks like and we'll help you figure out what it was for.