Noritake china

My great-aunt gave us her Noritake china as a wedding gift and my aunt and I just went and picked it up Friday night. We brought along the wedding pictures for her to see, as well. I think she enjoyed our visit. The china is absolutely gorgeous, and worth more money than I would ever consider spending on plates. It was a very generous gift and I'm very excited about it. :) Here are some pictures.

It has dinner plates, salad plates, soup bowls, dessert bowls, and cups and saucers for 14, so it's a pretty big set. I also got three nice serving platters of different sizes, two deep dishes, a gravy boat, salt & pepper shakers, and a cute covered dish.

I also got a teapot (which is just about the cutest thing ever) and a creamer and sugar bowl.

Here's a close-up of the pattern.

I asked my great-aunt what year she bought it and she couldn't remember so I got the pattern name and number (Salisbury 9723 if you're curious) from the back of the plates and looked it up today. It's discontinued now but was made from 1979-1982 so she probably got it somewhere in there. She said a bride had ordered it and then when it came in couldn't afford it so the owner of the place where she ordered it from called my great-aunt to see if she wanted it. My great-aunt said it's only been used once or twice so it's in excellent condition.

I did a little internet research on Noritake and found out it's been around since the early 1900s when Japan started selling it in the US. Noritake is actually the name of a suburb of Nagoya, Japan. Just an interesting fact for the day. :)