Restaurant Diner Ware Glossary and Terms

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General Terms and Definitions

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Acid-gold: A restaurant or dinerware decoration in which the design is etched into the body with acid, then painted with a liquid gold which is fired & burnished.
Art deco: A style using geometric and linear shapes and designs. Started in the mid-20's and is also known as "Art Moderne".
Art nouveau: A style of design that was at it's height around 1895-1905 and identified by long, agile and flowing designs.

Backstamp: A stamp that appears on the underside of a piece that may display the manufacturer's name and/or logo, a date, pattern name, letters/numbers, or other information. The back stamp may not include all information necessary for dating and identification.
Baker: An open vegetable or serving dish, often having an oval shape.
Bisque: A piece which has been fired once for hardening and then has to be glazed.
Blank: A plain piece of restaurant/dinnerware that will be finished with additional decorating details.
Bone China: Pieces that contain bone ash for additional whiteness and translucency.
Bouillon Cup and Saucer: A two-handled cup and saucer mainly used for clear soup; similar to a cream soup and saucer, but smaller.
Breakfast Cup and Saucer: Looks like a teacup, yet larger than an oversized cup and saucer.
Brush Pottery: So named after George Brush, who joined McCoy Pottery around 1909 after his pottery company burned down.
Butter Pat: A small, coaster-like piece used with each place setting for individual servings of butter.

Casting: The process by which clay is poured into a mold and then allowed to set.
Casual china: A non-porous white clay that has been fired at an extremely high temperature.
Celery Dish: A somewhat narrow, oval piece that is designed to hold stalks of celery.
Ceramic: Refers to items made of clay, sand, etc. and then fired in a kiln. Includes pottery, china, glass, etc.
Cereal Bowl: A small bowl, typically 6"-6 �", used as a place setting piece for cereal. Also, sometimes refered to as a chili bowl.
Chop Plate (Round Platter): A a round plate typically used to serve meats, shaped like a large dinner plate and generally about 13 inches in diameter.
Cobalt Blue - cobalt oxide in the form of black powder and when fired, turns deep blue. Still the most commonly used blue underglaze color due to its ability to withstand high firing temperatures.
Compote: A shallow bowl on a stem used as a serving piece.
Coupe shape: A contemporary plate shape lacking a shoulder (verge), is flat across the diameter, and slightly rolled up at the rim.
Cranberry Bowl: An open bowl used to serve cranberries (smaller and deeper than a cereal bowl).
Craters: Bubbles in the glaze finish which break.
Crawling: Glaze that has pulled together and beads up, leaving a bare spot of the bisque. Also called separation.
Crazing: A defect in the glaze having tiny cracks between the body and glaze.
Cream Soup and Saucer: A low soup bowl with two handles; used for luncheons or dinner service.

Decal (or Decalcomania): A specially designed bearing sheet (decal) used in the decoration of dinnerware. The sheet is first applied to a piece of ware, then the paper is removed resulting in the transfer of the decoration to the ware. Kiln firing then makes it permanent.
Delft: Pottery manufactured in Holland. Has a white glaze with a blue decoration.
Demitasse Cup and Saucer: A small cup and saucer used for evening coffee.
Dessert Plate/Cream Soup: Approximately 7 inch coupe shaped plate (without circular indention) that may be used as a dessert plate or saucer for cream soup.
Diaper: Repeating shapes in a decorative pattern, such as triangles, diamonds, or squares.
Dinner Plate: Averages 9�" - 11" in diameter, main dinnerware place setting piece.
Dipping: A process of dipping ware into the glaze.
Dryfooting: A process of removing glaze from the bottom (foot) of the clay piece so it can be fired without using stilts.

Earthenware: A type of clay fired at low temperatures. The result is not as strong as china.
Embossed: Raised or recessed marks found on ware. See also impress and incise.
Embossing: A raised decoration made either in the mold or formed seperately and added before the piece is fired.

Fill-in: A decorating process where transfer print outlines are filled in by hand to create the multicolor effect.
Firing: A baking/firing process which hardens the piece of ware.
Fine china: Thin china which is made of top quality clays fired at high temperatures.
Flat Cups: Cups that have a flat base, without a pedestal, and cannot be held easily from the bottom side of the cup (opposite of a footed cup).
Footed Cups: A tea cup design where there is a small pedestal on the bottom of the piece that flares out, making the cup easy to grasp from the bottom (opposite of flat cup).
Fruit Bowls (Fruit Saucers): Also known as dessert bowl or sauce dish; about 5 �" in diameter and suitable for desserts, puddings, fruits, etc.

Glaze: A glossy clear or colored coating baked onto the body for decoration. Glazes can be colored, opaque, matte, or translucent.
Glaze Pop: Slight imperfection in ware, caused during firing process where glaze formed an air bubble and then popped, leaving a raised bump. (see Crater)
Grill Plate: A plate that has a small raised partition through the center, and one of those halves divided again making three divided portions (2 quarters and 1 half).

Hotelware: See Restaurantware.

Impress: Mark or stamp placed on back/bottom of ware.
Incise: Mark engraved or cut into the surface of ware.

Kiln: An oven in which ceramic ware is fired or baked.

Limoges: China dinnerware produced by factories in France.
Lining: a dinnerware decoration that can either be machine- or hand- applied, consisting of one or more parallel lines running around the outer edge of a plate.
Lug: A flat, horizontal, tab-shaped handles on both sides of a piece (usually bowls, i.e. "lugged soup bowl").
Luncheon Plate: Typically 8" to 9" in diameter, used for breakfast or lunch and as an underplate.
Luster: A glaze coating which gives the finished piece an iridescent look.

Mat (Matte) finish: A flat glaze finish without the gloss look.

Nappy: A round vegetable dish. May or may not have handles.

Oatmeal Bowl: A cereal bowl, usually measuring 6-6 �" across.
Ovenware: Pieces able to withstand the heat of a kitchen oven without damage.
Overglaze: A design applied to clayware after it has been fired and glazed.

Patina: A well-worn look on the surface of a collectible that has not been stripped, polished, sanded, etc. Can take on a glossy, matte, or dull looking appearance depending on the piece and the material.
Pattern: A name or designation assigned by the manufacturer to identify dinnerware design theme that includes decals, stems, shapes, handpainting, facets, etc.
Pin Holes: Small tiny holes in the surface finish of a glaze or underglaze.
Place Settings: Generally five matching pieces of dinnerware for a single place setting. The five pieces usually include a dinner plate, salad plate, bread plate, cup and saucer.
Platter: A large oval plate used as a serving piece for food items (the round platter is referred to as a Chop Plate).
Pottery: A generic term meaning the same thing as ceramics.

Ramekin: A bowl similar in shape to a souffl� dish, but smaller with straight sides. Commonly used for sauce or salad dressing.
Restaurant Ware: Heavy china dinnerware made specifically for use in hotels, railroads, airlines, ship lines, diners, etc.
Rice Bowl: A bowl that has more height, but is smaller in diameter than a cereal bowl.
Run of kiln selects: A grading term used to indicate dinnerware that appears perfect after manufacture, but which may not be completely perfect upon closer inspection.

Salad Plate: A 7"-8�" plate that can be used for salads or desserts.
Salt glaze: A semi-matte glaze created by injecting salt into the kiln during firing.
Scallop: Half circles that form a fancy 'ruffled' border around the edge of a piece.
Seconds: Pieces of ware that have slight noticeable imperfections, but do not effect it's usefulness.
Select: Almost near-perfect dinnerware pieces.
Semi-vitrified: A type of dinnerware between china and earthenware in appearance and durability.
Service Plate or Charger Plate: A decorative piece used to raise a dinner plate and add a decorative effect to the place setting. It is generally 12-13 inches in diameter and mainly used as a foundation piece, not for serving or eating.
Shoulder: The raised rim of the normally traditional plate.
Slip: A mixture of clay and water. Slip fills in pores and gives the piece a uniform color.
Stilts: Small pieces of bisque with metal or wire spurs that are used to support glaze ware during the firing process.
Stoneware: A hard, light-colored clay that is not porous, but the resulting ware is sturdier than earthenware.

Terra Cotta: A type of pottery with a color that ranges from pale orange to a darker reddish-brown. The color comes from the clay, which has been fired but is not always glazed.
Tip Tray: Are decorated metal trays generally less than 5" in diameter and were used to place coins that were left as a tip by the customer.
Topmarks: Refers to business names, logos, customer initials, etc., that are found on the top of plates, sides of cups and other places.
Translucence: The quality of fine china or dinnerware that makes it semi-transparent.
Transfer Print: A decorating method in which only one color at a time is applied.

Underglaze decoration: A ceramic decoration applied straight to the unglazed body, and then covered with another layer of protective glaze which makes it highly resistant to wear.

Vitrified: Means the ceramic body is non-porous. This gives a piece its translucence.

Well: In reference to a cup and saucer, it is the indentation in the center of the saucer. Often used to also describe the center area of plates.
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