Do you know what these dishes were for?
Have you ever found these crescent shaped china dishes at a thrift store or flea market and wondered what they are? These dishes are called bone dishes and they are not to be confused with bone China.
These small little china dishes had a crescent shape so they could nestle along side a dinner plate in the late 19th and early 20the centuries.
Victorians were known for being kind of over the top. There was a tool and a dish for everything. When eating any meal of game, guests could place the bones from their chicken or fish onto the little dish instead of their actual dinner plate.
It was basically a polite little wastebasket on the dinner table.
*Victorian depiction of early 19th-century Christmas celebration, with servant carrying pudding to dining table by Charles Green
I pick up antique and vintage bone dishes anywhere I go. I love the crescent shape and all of the beautiful patterns.
Some restaurants and towns had souvenir bone dishes with location names and images on them.
*White ceramic bone dish has gilt trim and large color transfer of the Palace of Manufactures from the 1904 World's Fair: Missouri History Museum
While you could totally use these as a bone dish at your next dinner party, I love to use them on my dresser and nightstand as a catchall for jewelry, trinkets and more. Perhaps my favorite suggestion is to use them as cat food dishes!
Do YOU bone dish? If so, what do you use them for?
