With the rise of hosting at home, the dining room is enjoying a quiet revival. Whether you have a dedicated room or a defined area in a kitchen, a separate convivial space to eat, socialise and entertain is a comeback we welcome – not only for the chance to perfect any tablescaping skills but for all the delightful vintage treasure out there fitting for a dining room.
Leaving formality in the past, along with ordered, matching sets of cutlery and crockery, the fun in shopping vintage is in the freedom to curate an eclectic look that celebrates a hodgepodge collection and shows mix and matching at its very best.
As collections grow and build over time, scouring one flea market or vintage fair to the next, the excitement lies in the hunt and the hope you'll find that perfect condition vase you've been searching for, or stumble across the last chair you need to group around the table.
Here's a deeper dive into five of the most sought-after vintage collectables for your dining space – and the history behind them.
Ornate cutlery
After World War II, the popularity of silver cutlery waned. People were unwilling to spend large amounts of money on solid-silver utensils and lacked the time or staff to help care for them. Newer, cheaper options – such as stainless steel or silver-plate – became the standard choice for most families and yet, for the vintage collector, it can be tricky to tell between the three.
One of the difficulties is the sheer range of symbols and marks on vintage cutlery, or that many pieces aren’t marked at all. There are also thousands of decorative patterns to pick through; the US firm Reed & Barton, for example, has more than a hundred designs in its archive alone, covering stainless-steel, sterling and plated examples.
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Whichever metal you opt for, however, vintage cutlery, with its intricate, lacy patterns, can look beautiful and add elegance to a table. A single place setting from around 1900, for example, can often include up to 15 ornate pieces, so there’s no end of shapes and patterns to choose from.
What to look for
- Sterling silver should be marked ‘sterling silver’, ‘ster’ or have the numbers 925 stamped on it. Silver-plate should be marked E.P.N.S., ‘plate’, ‘silver soldered’ or other initials starting with ‘E.P’. Stainless steel usually carries the words ‘stainless’ or ‘Sheffield stainless’ but may also have the numbers 18/10, 18/8 or 18/0; stainless steel bearing 18/10 is the highest quality of the three.
- It’s impossible to generalise about value – most is worth very little and the higher values depend on maker (such as Tiffany or Gorham) as well as condition, rarity and type of utensil. Collect what feels nice to use and hold – good cutlery is often well balanced and has a nice weight to it.
- If you prefer lines of mid-century design, recent designers such as Robert Welch and David Mellor are becoming hugely collectable.
SylvaC vases
The hallmark of this company’s better-known Art Deco designs are the myriad creatures that appear on them, with dogs, rabbits, fawns, squirrels, garden birds, storks and swans all playing their part on the vessels. In fact, on first viewing, the uninitiated would be forgiven for overlooking the vase function and assuming these pieces were purely ornamental. Lying at the base of a tree, scampering up the hollow trunk (which serves as the flower receptacle), or even improbably perching inside a mushroom, the wildlife characters give them plenty of personality and kitsch appeal. (Interestingly, the company was also known for its Toby jugs and mugs.)
Founded in 1894 by two Williams, one Shaw, the other Copestake, at the Sylvan Works in Stoke-on-Trent, the heart of The Potteries, the company later took on the name SylvaC. As well as its pieces rich with animal life, the firm is strongly associated with its mantle types – wide and shallow to fit a shelf, they are shell-shaped and come in white, cream and soft pastel colours or in a yellow or green hyacinth-leaf design. They have a classic, elegant quality, as do some of the simpler bud vases and wall pockets.
The company produced a breadth of styles including some plainer decorative kinds in the 1960s and 70s: wide forms including posy logs or troughs; some tall, slim shapes with embossed floral designs; others mostly plain featuring a band of motifs around the base.
What to look for
- To ensure a piece is not an imitation, check for the SylvaC stamp on the base (capital S, capital C) along with the model number and ‘Made in England’.
- Even rare vases can be picked up for as little as £12, while a sought-after design such as the hyacinth mantle in a rare shade (mint-green) was recently sold for £50 on Ebay.
- A large Art Deco SylvaC shell vase was recently priced at £165 (Hemswell Antiques).
- Although orange and green are the colours most often associated with SylvaC, the firm produced vases in a variety of shades.
- Boot sales and charity shops may be a good starting point as SylvaC has become collectable but is not rare.
Ercol furniture
During World War II, the Ercol furniture company was asked to manufacture 100,000 kitchen chairs as part of the government’s ‘Utility Scheme’, a drive to create low-cost, well-built pieces using industrial techniques. Surprisingly, Ercol’s chairs were not only sturdy and inexpensive to make but they were also beautiful, stylish and – with their splayed legs and organic shapes – reflected a move towards more modern tastes.
Throughout the 20th century, Ercol continued to make furniture that was robust, skilfully engineered but contemporary in its design, using pale timbers such as elm and beech. These design characteristics not only make the company popular with fans of a vintage aesthetic but also homeowners who love the Scandi look, with its clean lines and natural materials.
Either way, you can achieve the vintage style in one of two ways – by sourcing original, 20th-century pieces at auctions and specialist dealers, or by buying modern re-issues of past designs (above), which are still made in the Ercol factory today. Classic iconic pieces include the Love seat, Butterfly chair, Plank table and, the design that started it all, the Windsor chair.
What to look for
- Ercol furniture should be stamped or labelled. You’re unlikely to find a fake, but sellers often incorrectly describe generic mid-century pieces as Ercol. The most common marks are blue squares (used from mid-1950s to the mid-70s) or gold circles (mid-70s to mid- 90s). A comprehensive list can be found in Lesley Jackson’s book Ercol Furniture in the Making.
- If you think a piece may be genuine but has lost its mark, Ercol has digital versions of its catalogues.
- Light-coloured Ercol – such as elm or beech – tends to be more collectable than the dark (which are either oak, walnut or stained).
- Ercol chairs from the mid-1950s onwards (apart from those with a solid wood seat) should be webbed. Some earlier examples used tension springs.
- The most collected piece is the 1958 Butterfly chair, with its elm seat and beech legs. Vintage pieces start at around £250; the reissue currently retails at £600.
Homemaker ceramics
The young working-class couples who bought their dinner services from Woolworths in the 1950s and 1960s would probably be more than a little surprised at the prices the crockery commands nowadays. The modern style that jumped off the shelves for that generation hasn’t lost its appeal, and a 19-piece Homemaker teaset could set you back as much as £600.
First manufactured in Staffordshire in 1957 by Ridgway Potteries (established in 1792), one of the largest producers of china at the time, the Homemaker surface pattern was created by Enid Seeney to decorate the Metro pieces designed by Tom Arnold. Because these pieces were rimless (resembling the American coupe-style plate), they required an all-over design, and Seeney created ‘Furniture’, a pattern of fine-ink drawings depicting contemporary domestic items such as sideboards, cutlery, plant stands and lighting – fashionable and aspirational creations by some of the most celebrated mid-century designers, including Robin Day.
With its distinctive halo of white against a loosely lined background, the pattern has a dynamic feel and was considered too radical until, by chance, a buyer for Woolworths spotted a prototype coffee set and put in a large order. The fact that Seeney’s design became a classic is all the more impressive given that her career in Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery industry spanned just seven years.
What to look for
- Some pieces are very affordable: a dessert bowl will cost around £10; a cup and saucer, or milk jug, up to £20; a coffee pot up to £130.
- The red-and-white and green-and- white colourways were produced in limited runs and, as a result, are highly sought after – a plate was bought recently for more than £300.
- It’s worth scouring secondhand shops, flea markets and boot sales for one piece in particular – the rare and valuable bon-bon dish.
- In 1966, the range’s design changed from Metro to Cadenza, meaning that, while the pattern remained the same, the shape of certain pieces was tweaked.
- You can roughly date Homemaker ceramics by checking which of the five different backstamps they feature (although it was also produced without stamps). The early ones read ‘Homemaker 'Made in England’ (and one of them – used up to 1962 – adds a note about the colours being permanent). The fourth and fifth backstamps (1962 onwards) are more elaborate, featuring a logo and additional text including ‘Ridgway Potteries Ltd’ and ‘Made in Staffordshire’.
G Plan sideboards
Ebenezer Gomme started his furniture business in 1898, but it was his grandson Donald’s G Plan collection 55 years later that gained the firm the most recognition. Produced in response to the lack of well-made furniture in post-war Britain, it combined cutting-edge design with a smooth, machined finish aimed at those with a desire for the Modernist aesthetic. Many of the items were made using veneers as well as solid wood, so they were affordable for most homemakers.
The company produced a wide variety of sideboards that, like other mid-century pieces, were streamlined, but had distinguishing features including a curvier outline and sculptural handle shapes. Brandon, the first design, was available in a light oak. In 1962, Danish designer Ib Kofod-Larsen was brought in, satisfying the growing appetite for Scandinavian furniture, with its sleek lines and minimal decoration. The company’s more exclusive collection, G Plan Danish, was made from teak and rosewood, and the doors and drawers of its sideboards have square handles.
Later models included the two-tone Tola and Black, and the taller, narrower Highboard, created in 1964 for the smaller home.
Inspired by Italian as well as Scandinavian styles and designed by Victor Bramwell Wilkins, the Fresco range was launched in 1966, and included a sleek sideboard whose iconic two-metre model gained the nickname Long John.
What to look for
- A label is one identifying feature that will distinguish G Plan from a similar design. Models produced between 1952 and the early 1960s were embossed with a gold stamp. If in doubt, ask a dealer to highlight other G Plan features to authenticate a piece.
- Vinterior has vintage G Plan furniture for sale, while Pamono sells G Plan sideboards and other pieces, and details their design and production.
- G Plan Fresco sideboards sell for between £400 and £2,000, depending on size and condition.
- The Brandon model can be picked up for as little as £150-£200, depending on whether it is made from veneers or solid wood.
- Sideboards with drop-down doors double as cocktail cabinets (and feature adjustable shelves).
- Ask the seller whether the doors, drawers and any other features are in good working order, and if any repairs or restoration work have been done. If necessary, request details and photographs.
- Read more on vintage and antiques:
- 5 sought-after vintage collectables for your bedroom - including the iconic Anglepoise lamp
- 5 vintage glassware pieces that are always in demand
- 5 most sought-after vintage quilt styles, according to antiques dealers
Read more about vintage and antiques in our CL specials, available here.
I'm a smallholder, Country Living columnist and expert in rural living, residing in North Yorkshire.
