How to Find Replacements for Rare Pieces of China and Crystal

It is tradition in my family and in many others to pass on treasured family heirlooms and pieces to succeeding generations. This includes antique furniture, art works, and the family china, Crystal, and silverware. Over five generations of which I am aware our family has passed on and divided among surviving children memorable pieces of antique furniture, silverware, and china.

Recently, as a result of my parents passing, I was given my mother’s ‘good’ china which had been passed down over four generations of my family. The ‘good’ china had always been reserved for special guests and special occasions including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Anniversaries, birthdays and similar family celebrations. The ‘good’ china, not be confused with our ‘everyday’ china, consisted of eight place settings and several serving side dishes of Minton Bone china, which had been imported from England.

It is beautiful china….so thin one could easily see the image of a hand held on the underside of a dinner plate. Etched on the surface in platinum were delicate scrolls and flowers. My mother loved each piece and took great pride in caring for this china, carefully hand washing and drying each piece before storing the set in her china cabinet.

Even with such care over the years selected pieces had been damaged, some beyond repair and because this pattern had not been produced in over 60 years my mother had not been able to replace the missing pieces. Noticeably missing were one dinner plate, a coffee cup saucer and one salad plate. A second cup was cracked, but still usable……considering that this china had been used well over 85 years these losses seemed relatively light.

Still, we had hoped to find replacements for the missing and damaged pieces in order to restore the integrity of the collection.

How would we ever find a source for one long out of production set of china when there were perhaps at most less than 100 sets sold in the United States?

Our choices seemed limited to searching flea markets across the country or attending Estate sales with the rare possibility our china might on sale or spending endless hours on the telephone and Internet searching the inventories of nation wide antique dealers.

It was our good fortune to learn that there was source which could help us find the pieces we needed. A friend who had experienced a similar dilemma told us about a unique business which specialized in seeking out and buying rare china pieces which would be inspected, cleaned, categorized and inventoried for re-sale. While I found it difficult to believe at the time I was told that Replacement limited Inc. claimed to have in inventory or would be able to locate a matching piece for any set of quality china sold in America.

Still having doubts I signed onto the Replacements Ltd. website and was soon impressed by the claim that this huge Enterprise, previously unknown to me, boasted of having in excess of 12 million pieces and over 275,000 china patterns in stock in their huge 400,000 square foot warehouse. Still, I thought there was little chance they would have in stock the Minton pattern I needed as this pattern had been discontinued 60 years earlier.

Using the web site I clicked on the “China” tab (Replacements also maintains a large inventory of silverware, Crystal and decorative collector items such as china figurines)…and was taken to page on which an alphabetic listing of china manufacturers is listed. Finding and clicking on “Minton” an alphabetical listing of every Minton china pattern and style number was displayed. After entering my pattern name The entire Replacements Ltd. inventory listing of pieces for this pattern was displayed.

The inventory page is very user friendly starting with a descriptive paragraph describing the pattern referenced and including the pattern name, style number, manufacturer, and date of manufacture. A description of any decorative designs on the china is given and to ensure proper pattern identification a photograph of a dinner plate is shown.

The inventory listing is simple, but provides all needed information to include the item description (dinner plate, saucer, etc.), size of the piece, quantity on hand, and price. For most items a photograph of the actual piece in inventory is included.

I was surprised to find for my pattern, which had been out of production for 60 years, over 240 items in the Replacements inventory.

The inventory lists separately flawless/undamaged pieces, which is the majority of inventory accepted and stocked by Replacements from a much smaller inventory of pieces with slight or noticeable imperfections. The slight and noticeable imperfection pieces are discounted 25 and 50% respectively.

As a footnote to the inventory listing Replacements provides a list of pieces manufactured by Minton (or others) but not currently available in the Replacements inventory and advises that buyers are currently searching for those pieces. If these pieces are of interest to a buyer, Replacements will on request advise the buyer by email as these pieces become available.

From the Replacements inventory I was able to replace my missing 10 1/2 inch dinner plate for $41.99, the missing salad plate for $17.99 and the missing saucer for $5.99. I have no idea what the original price of this Fine English Bone China was, but considering the years which have passed and the difficulty in finding replacement pieces I feel these prices were a true bargain.

For those interested in replacing broken Crystal or lost silver flatware Replacements offers the same inventory service as described above for china.

I have found Replacements LTD to provide an excellent and much needed service. If you feel you have need of this service I recommend starting with their informative and easy to navigate web site, If you should have questions not addressed on the website a customer service number is listed there and answers inquiries seven days a week.

Whether you have a current need or not I recommend a visit to this website. It is an adventure.