What Is Chintz Porcelain?

Body

• The semi-porcelain body is finer and whiter than pottery, fired at a higher temperature for a harder glaze, making the design visible and the product durable. Some companies applied chintz patterns to bone china in limited quantities, but bone china chintz patterns have not been collectors' favorites. Bone china is fine porcelain made with bone ash and feldspar, fired at a higher temperature than semi-porcelain.

Decoration

• Chintz is the decoration on the semi-porcelain or bone china body, not the body itself. Chintz designs gained popularity in the 1930s and most designs are transferware, transferred by a printing process. The chintz designs are colorful, all-over patterns of flowers, sometimes with other motifs like birds. These cheerful porcelain pieces were just what the American homemaker needed during the Great Depression. It was affordable, colorful and entirely different from American dinnerware.

History

• Royal Doulton receives credit for the first chintz production in 1912 with the "Persian" pattern. Crown Ducal was producing chintz patterns by 1918. Grimwades or Royal Winton is one of the names associated with chintz. Grimwades produced "Marguerite" in 1928, although it had produced numerous patterns with less popularity as early as 1913. Much of the early production was toilet ware such as ewers and basins or small ornamental pieces. Crown Ducal made "tennis sets," or cups with snack plates, as early as 1922. The English manufacturers made complete dinnerware sets in the 1930s. Grimwades often added hand-painted gold accents to the chintz patterns, Muriel M. Miller explains in "Collecting Royal Winton Chintz."

Collecting Chintz

• Dinnerware companies decorated chintz for bungalows, not palaces. Production had to be economical for the manufacturers to profit. The companies made many different pieces in the same pattern. "Chintzy" is a slang word for "cheap," but chintz porcelain is not cheap as of 2011. Collectors look for serving pieces or unusual pieces to complete sets. Teapot collectors love chintz beverage servers to add color and style to a teapot collection. Chintz fades easily and does not withstand acid foods, so be cautious with using your chintz dinnerware for the table or placing it in the dishwasher.