Posted 12 years ago
Shalalagirl
(2 items)
This 93 piece I - China set was left to me from a friend's estate. I'd like to know more about the company " I China ", as I've searched the web many times and come up with nothing about this manufacturer. There's only a small amount of patterns listed under I China on the Replacements LTD site.
It's service for 12, with one broken Teacup, and there's something odd about the plates (read about it further down). I'm guessing it's from approx. the 1950's. I could not identify the pattern, or find out any info on the maker, so I sent in some photos to Replacements LTD. I guess they "assigned" it a number for the pattern, it's ICJ15 / ICJICJ15.
This set of 93 pieces includes 12 Seven piece place settingS with 1 extra dinner plate, 4 of the dinner plates are similar but different, footed teacups and saucers, a coffee / tea Pot, a covered vegetable / or soup tureen, a gravy boat with it's own platter attached, 1 large and 1 medium serving platter, a creamer, a sugar with lid, and 1 medium sized oval serving bowl.
When you look up I.China on Replacements.com, there are very few patterns listed, and most of them do not have names, just codes / numbers assigned, and nothing is known about the manufacturer. Also, they currently have no I.China items in stock, at all, so I guess this maker did not make very much of this dinnerware.
Most of the other patterns I see on Replacements.com are gray and white, most have no colors to them.
I would really like to find out more about I.China and their patterns, even if any of you have any good guesses about it.
I was thinking about selling the set, because I've had it for over 3. years and don't have any room for it, but I'm not sure. If I did ever sell it, I would really need to know more about it. I like the pattern and colors because it's so versatile - it could go with anything, like traditional or a shabby chic style, so I'd like to hang on to it, but then again, I just don't have the room, as I already collect glass and china. It's a stunning set, 93 pieces. I have another question about this set, about the dinner plates.
Dinner Plates: There are a total of 13 DP with this set. Nine of them match the rest of the service for 12 set, but 4 of them are different, but similar. I don't know if you can see from the photo of the whole set well enough, but the 4 do Not have the I.China mark on the back, there is nothing on the back, the plates appear to be the same as far as how they are made, and the hand painting is a bit different on the 4 extra plates. The colors are very similar, some different, the floral arrangement is smaller, and instead of a rose to the right, there's a lavender flower.
I am wondering if these 4 plates came with the set, or if the previous owners bought them to match, or if they might've had them made to match the set. Have any of you heard of a set of dinnerware having dinner plates with a slightly different pattern? But then again, there is no name on the back of those 4 plates, and being that the rest of this set is service for 12, and there's only 9 dinner plates that exactly match, I thought that maybe 3 of the plates were damaged or broken, so they needed replacements. Or, maybe the 3 dinner plates were broken at the store where they were purchased, so they had to come up with 3 more plates.
It's odd, because I can't believe 3 of the plates got broken or damaged, because the previous owners did not hardly use this set, at all. Most of the pieces were never used. They originally bought the set for their Florida home, and ended up displaying it in a china cabinet, and only used 2 of the salad plates and 2 of the small sauce / fruit bowls.
If any of you have information on the I.China company, I would be glad to know, as I've researched this a lot and come up with nothing.
