Tableware

Tableware items are the dishware and utensils used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. The term includes <a href="/facts/Cutlery/LfV0Pwzv">cutlery</a>, <a href="/facts/List_of_glassware/f1t3WkTr">glassware</a>, serving dishes, serving utensils, and other items used for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of objects varies according to culture, religion, number of diners, <a href="/facts/Cuisine/jrGcSHAK">cuisine</a> and occasion. For example, Middle Eastern, Indian or Polynesian food culture and cuisine sometimes limits tableware to serving dishes, using bread or leaves as individual plates, and not infrequently without use of cutlery. Special occasions are usually reflected in higher quality tableware.
Cutlery is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery usually means knives and related cutting instruments; elsewhere cutlery includes all the <a href="/facts/Forks/mgePxNcw">forks</a>, <a href="/facts/Spoon/6EvbJtf2">spoons</a> and other silverware items. Outside the US, flatware is a term for "open-shaped" dishware items such as <a href="/facts/Plate_(dishware)/pFgNKkDs">plates</a>, dishes and <a href="/facts/Bowl/jEfbsyws">bowls</a> (as opposed to "closed" shapes like jugs and vases). Dinnerware is another term used to refer to tableware, and crockery refers to ceramic tableware, today often <a href="/facts/Porcelain/deuLm3sb">porcelain</a> or <a href="/facts/Bone_china/WKjWoP3v">bone china</a>. Sets of dishes are referred to as a table service, dinner service or service set. <a href="/facts/Table_setting/uCtnNacJ">Table settings</a> or place settings are the dishes, cutlery and glassware used for formal and informal dining. In Ireland, tableware is often referred to as delph, the word being an English language <a href="/facts/Phonetics/ljAVT8fv">phonetic</a> spelling of the word <a href="/facts/Delft/SRnQf7FL">Delft</a>, the town from which so much <a href="/facts/Delftware/CoXc5qcR">delftware</a> came. <a href="/facts/Silver_service/uqvrNoeL">Silver service</a> or butler service are methods for a butler or waiter to serve a meal.
Setting the table refers to arranging the tableware, including individual place settings for each diner at the table as well as decorating the table itself in a manner suitable for the occasion. Tableware and table decoration are typically more elaborate for special occasions. Unusual dining locations demand tableware be adapted.

Tableware open-in-new

Tableware