The family china has to go ...

When my grandmother left Austria for New Zealand, after the second war, she didn't bring much with her. But she brought the family dinner set. So beautiful. Plates, tureens ... the whole shebang. I gather from the internet that there were originally 54 pieces. Dad loved it. He remembered the day when it arrived at their home, all wrapped in straw in a wicker hamper. I loved it. But we seldom used it. Too precious. No, not valuable, but precious. But we did use it. Then John and I went away to become writers on the other side of the world, and well, what does a housewife do with a 16-place dinner set?

When father died, mother downsized. And a little weasel of an 'antiques dealer' chatted himself into her confidence and walked out with many of our prize pieces. The big tureens and vegetable servers (and our other great grandpa's oriental jugs) ... I screamed from the other side of the world ... but I didn't want to upset her...

So, now I have 16 large dinner plates, 9 'bread and butter' plates, one ?serving platter, one oblong meat dish, one gravy boat with saucer, and a dear little 2-egg carrier ...

Unused. In the cupboard. For we are just two ... and will never have 14 for dinner ...

So what is or was this set? It is Czech. Date circa 1919? When they had returned to Vienna from Hungary. (Unfortunately Nana's diaries are in Sütterlin). From the EPIAG factory, Pirkenhammer ...

Which only became EPIAG in 1918 though it had existed for over a century. The design "Parma" I can't find on any of the Epiag sites ... the number 5732? The precise pottery mark?

Sigh. I've lived with this pottery for many decades, but now I have an itch to know its veritable identity.

Oh among presumably my grandmother's nachlasse, also, was this pretty wee plate.

It looks like a Pirkenhammer, but it doesn't say so ..

So I guess its just 'in the mode of'. But it was pretty enough for three generations of my family to keep it, and it sits on my bookcase alongside other lovely things (well, I think they are) ...

Well, what am I to do with the remnants of a 16-piece dinner service? It mustn't be condemned to further decades unused ... whatever it was in 1920 (and I think it was just middle-class ware) it is now a piece of splendid elegance ... and, like my mother, I sha'n't use it. It needs to be in a classy restaurant ... any takers?