I wanted to start out explaining why I love my business. My business is to help my customers find, add to or replace pieces of their china and dinnerware sets. Thus replacement china is and has been a household word. It started about 11 years ago with the purchase of a small set of dessert dishes. I knew nothing about them. They were French porcelain, manufactured by Gien. They were obviously of high quality material and the artwork was stunning.

I was so pleased when the woman to whom I sold them expressed such complete pleasure with them. They were just what she was looking for to serve her 'famous cheesecake.' She was ecstatic and I got a glimpse of the effect I had helped to create. These were the perfect dishes for the purpose.

Each was decorated with a different lovely lemon slice picture in the center of the plate. It was then that I started paying more and more attention to china and dinnerware as an item for which people were searching. I started researching, selecting and purchasing fine china and dinnerware and started posting them for sale. The response was gratifying. People were happy to find their discontinued china and to have the pieces they were missing or to expand their sets to meet their everyday and holiday needs. And here I find myself about 11 years later, now with my own internet store "http://chinaanddinnerware.com" where customers can come and browse and buy new or discontinued china and dinnerware.

On the subject of china and dinnerware, when you think of dishes, you might initially think of the sink full of dirty ones that you might be ignoring whilst reading this article or view them as common or mundane. They can be viewed as just something we use to eat, a matter of necessity.

I firmly believe that they can be proven to be much, much more. Fine china can be a statement of ones financial and social position or a part of a creation of an ambiance or motif within a home or a fond reminder of simpler happier days and Sunday dinner with the family.

Earthenware pots and plates date to the very beginnings of civilization. Shards of pottery are gathered by archeologists from digs in China, Iran and Korea dating to 10,000 years ago. Porcelain, a form of pottery using finer material is supposed to have developed in China within the past several thousand years.

Thus the names china and fine china. Fine china is generally made of porcelain although Bone china was introduced by English potters who lacked the fine clay to manufacture porcelain china. In medieval times common people ate from wooden or metal trenchers and if you were fortunate enough to be royalty you could afford to have fine china and porcelain imported for you. As society changed and people became more and more able to afford the things in life that might be considered niceties, some of the first things the wealthy purchased were china and glassware for their daily and entertaining needs.

It became a sign of wealth to own fine china and dinnerware and the Arts of Entertaining and Dining came into vogue. Owning these porcelain objects became not only a sign of wealth but allowed the women of the household an opportunity to show their artistic side. By the patterns they chose and their fine table displays of beautiful dishes and the many course meals beautifully prepared and displayed a woman could exert control over her domain.

Hostessing parties came into vogue and made a huge statement about women of the day. Fine china, china and even casual dinnerware still is today a treasured part of our daily lives and familial histories. As sets of china are passed on from generation to generation they become family treasures and heirlooms. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to help many people over the years to complete sets passed on to them so that they may continue to enjoy their family memories.

Fine china and dinnerware have also become and integral part of home decorating. In earlier days one did not have much with which to decorate a house and to make it a home. As china and dinnerware became more and more available as did the ease of buying a home people became more and more decoration conscious. It was all a part of showing not only wealth but ones creative ability to make a house into a home. China and dinnerware are now an integral part of kitchen and dining themes. It allows us to decorate our homes to suite our tastes, lifestyles and needs, whether for daily or special occasions.

Many people display their beautiful china. China cabinets sit, contents waiting for those special occasions and holidays to adorn tables, homes and meals. People love showing their familial feelings and yearnings by giving their families beautifully set tables with wonderfully delicious and artistically served meals. I know my own Mother still enjoys giving her family those large home cooked meals for the Holidays as her way of bringing the family together to celebrate life, love, familiy and the special holidays sentiments.

Even though times have changed quite a bit and the amount of dinnerware available to choose from has multiplied several thousandfold it has not changed the fact that many women still start out their new lives with their new husband and the prospect of a family of their own by searching out, choosing and acquiring fine china or dinnerware through gift registries.

It has been and may always be that fine china and dinnerware will be a basic component to new generations starting to create their own families and traditions.