Fine China, Finer Gossip

I wasn’t even supposed to be looking for plates. But there I was, elbow-deep in a dusty estate sale in Narragansett, when this perfect little stack of white porcelain practically winked at me from the corner of a cabinet. There were delicate bowls too, each with the faintest silver rim and just enough hairline crazing to make your heart skip a beat.

The woman running the sale whispered that the original owner hosted "legendary" dinner parties — think Mad Men meets Mystic, Connecticut. Local politicians, jazz musicians, two divorces (hers, not theirs), and apparently a lot of shellfish. If these plates could talk, they'd spill better tea than I ever could.

I packed them carefully into the car with zero intention of using them. But then one day, I pulled them out to serve pie for a friend who was going through a breakup. She cried into her fork and said, “This plate feels like it cares.” And just like that, they weren’t just beautiful — they were useful, too.

Now I use them every time the occasion needs a little bit of reverence… or drama.