Plate

This is just a plate. It’s an ordinary plate: off-white with some tiny flecks of colour in the glaze. The colour is not very noticeable. It’s one of a pair and there is also a pair of matching bowls. I’m certain there were some matching side plates once upon a time. They’re plain without being too plain. And they seem just plain enough to neither be fashionable nor unfashionable (although, to be honest, I have no clue if trends it crockery really exist).

In September 1989 I bought the plates from a branch of Safeway in Shrewsbury. I was heading to university and 2 plates, along with the bowls, side plates and a couple of knives and forks, were coming with me. They were used, almost daily, for the four years I studied.

I don’t know where the side plates went (maybe I imagined them) but I still have the dinner plates and the bowls and they have been in regular use ever since, packed away and moving when I moved house. If I had to guess, I’d say they were used weekly. There is a more recent set in daily use but these were always handy (and slightly bigger, holding a full portion of fish & chips from my local chippy).

Today PY discovered a crack in this plate. It’s unusable and about to break but, before it does give up, I thought I’d snap a picture. They outlasted the Safeway supermarket brand in the UK, which is an odd fact but I feel the need to note it. 30 years seems pretty good going. I wonder how long the other one will last?