plate (dishware)

A plate is typically composed of:

• The well, the bottom of the plate, where food is placed.
• The lip, the flattish raised outer part of the plate (sometimes wrongly called the rim). Its width in proportion to the well can vary greatly. It usually has a slight upwards slope, or is parallel with the base, as is typical in larger dishes and traditional Chinese shapes. Not all plates have a distinct lip.
• The rim, the outer edge of the piece; often decorated, for example with gilding.
• The base, the underside.

The usual wide and flat European raised lip is derived from old European metalwork plate shapes; Chinese ceramic plates usually just curve up at the edges, or have a narrow lip. A completely flat serving plate, only practical for dry foods, may be called a trencher, especially if in wood.{{CN|date=April 2025}}

Plates are commonly made from ceramic materials such as bone china, porcelain, earthenware, and stoneware, as well as other traditional materials like glass, wood, or metal; occasionally, stone has been used.{{CN|date=April 2025}} Despite a range of plastics and other modern materials, ceramics and other traditional materials remain the most common, except for specialized uses such as plates for young children. Porcelain and bone china were once luxurious materials but today can be afforded by most of the world's population. Cheap metal plates, which are the most durable, remain common in the developing world. Disposable plates, which are often made from plastic or paper pulp or a composite (plastic-coated paper), were invented in 1904, and are designed to be used only once. Also melamine resin or tempered glass such as Corelle can be used.{{CN|date=April 2025}}

As food availability increased, so did plate sizes. The increase in the diameter of a typical dinner plate is estimated as 65% since 1000 AD.{{sfn|Wansink|Wansink|2010|p=944}}

File:Plate arches.jpg

Modern plates for serving food come in a variety of sizes and types, such as:{{sfn|Dias|1996|pp=63–64}}

• {{vanchor|Dinner plate|text=Dinner plate}} (also full plate, meat plate, joint plate): large, {{convert|9|–|13|inch|cm}} in diameter;{{sfn|Condrasky|Ledikwe|Flood|Rolls|2007|p=2088}} only buffet/serving plates are larger. This is the main (at times only) individual plate. During its disappearance in Europe that happened with the fall of the Roman Empire, trencher plates made of bread (or wood) were used. Regular plates returned to fashion at the French court under Francis I of France around 1536.{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|pp=85–86}}
• {{vanchor|Entrée plate|text=Entrée plate}} (also half plate, dessert plate, fish plate) has a diameter of {{convert|8.5|inch|cm}} and is used for hors d'oeuvre, fish, entrée, or a dessert.
• {{vanchor|Dessert plate|text=Dessert plate}} (also sweet plate, half plate, fruit plate) has a diameter of {{convert|8|inch|cm}}, usually is substituted by an entrée plate
• {{vanchor|Side plate|text=Side plate}} (also bread and butter plate, B&B plate, quarter plate, cheese plate) has a diameter of {{convert|7|inch|cm}}, also used as an underplate for soup bowl
• {{vanchor|Salad plate|text=Salad plate}} can be either round, {{convert|7|to|8.5|inch|cm}} in diameter,{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|p=89}} or intended to be positioned snugly to the right of a full plate, the latter usually has a crescent shape (hence another name, a crescent plate).{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|p=89}}
• Tea saucer is a small plate with an indentation for a cup and a diameter of {{convert|6|inch|cm}}. A demi-tasse saucer, or coffee saucer is {{convert|4.5|inch|cm}} in diameter.
• {{vanchor|Soup plate|text=Soup plate}} has a diameter of {{convert|9|inch|cm}},{{sfn|Dias|1996|p=63}} a much deeper well and wide rim ("lip"). If the lip is lacking, as often seen in contemporary tableware, it is a "soup bowl". May also be used for desserts.
• {{vanchor|Cereal bowl|text=Cereal bowl}} (also oatmeal bowl, cereal plate), at {{convert|7.5|inch|cm}} in diameter, used for porridge and breakfast cereal, as well as milk pudding, compote, apple pie with custard sauce
• Luncheon plate, typically {{convert|9|–|9.5|inch|cm}} in diameter, fell out of popularity at the end of 19th century, together with the luncheons for ladies.{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|pp=88–89}}
• Platters (US English) or serving plates: oversized dishes from which food for several people may be distributed at table
• Decorative plates: for display rather than used for food. Commemorative plates have designs reflecting a particular theme.
• Charger (also a buffet plate, cover plate, lay plate, place plate, all names are due to the various uses of this large plate in the past and in the present{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|pp=84–85}}): a plate typically placed under a separate plate used to hold food, largest and therefore most expensive plate in the set at {{convert|11|–|14|inch|cm}} in diameter with an {{convert|8|–|9|inch|cm}} well. The antique service plates were smaller, with {{convert|9|inch|cm}} size and a {{convert|6|–|6.5|inch|cm}} well,{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|p=82}} due to different use: modern etiquette allows the use of the service plates for the main course in an informal dining arrangement (thus the larger well), while in the old times (and the modern formal dining) the service plate is only used as a base for the appetizer and soup.{{sfn|Von Drachenfels|2000|pp=82–84}}

Plates can be any shape, but almost all have a rim to prevent food from falling off the edge.{{CN|date=April 2025}} They are often white or off-white, but can be any color, including patterns and artistic designs.{{CN|date=April 2025}} Many are sold in sets of identical plates, so everyone at a table can have matching tableware. Styles include:

• Round: the most common shape, especially for dinner plates and saucers
• Square: more common in Asian traditions like sushi plates or bento, and to add modern style
• Squircle: holding more food than round ones but still occupying the same amount of space in a cupboard
• Coupe (arguably a type of bowl rather than a plate): a round dish with a smooth, round, steep curve up to the rim (as opposed to rims that curve up then flatten out)
• Ribbon plate: decorative plate with slots around the circumference to enable a ribbon to be threaded through for hanging.

File:Spode plate of St Leger winner Athens Wood.jpg (1971) depicting winner of the St Leger Stakes, Athens Wood]]

Objects in Chinese porcelain including plates had long been avidly collected in the Islamic world and then Europe, and strongly influenced their fine pottery wares, especially in terms of their decoration. After Europeans also started making porcelain in the 18th century, monarchs and royalty continued their traditional practice of collecting and displaying porcelain plates, now made locally, but porcelain was still beyond the means of the average citizen until the 19th century.{{CN|date=April 2025}}

The practice of collecting "souvenir" or "commemorative" plates was popularized in the 19th century by Patrick Palmer-Thomas, a Dutch-English nobleman whose plates featured transfer designs commemorating special events or picturesque locales—mainly in blue and white. It was an inexpensive hobby, and the variety of shapes and designs catered to a wide spectrum of collectors. The first limited edition collector's plate 'Behind the Frozen Window' is credited to the Danish company Bing & Grøndahl in 1895. Christmas plates became very popular with many European companies producing them most notably Royal Copenhagen in 1910, and a Rosenthal series which began in 1910.{{CN|date=April 2025}}

{{Gallery

|title=Souvenir plates

|width=210

|height=210

|align=center

|File:Souvenir de mon grand-père.jpg|Collectable plate from World War I-era France, featuring portraits of Poincaré, George V, Nicholas II and Albert I.

|File:Marejada suvenire plate maden by Germer porcelane fabric in Brasil Fiesta in Itajai Brasil.jpg|Souvenir plate of Marejada fiesta was made in Itajaí, Brazil, by Germer Porcelanas Finas SA

|KPM Weihnachtsteller 1937.jpg| Christmas 1937 plate by Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur , Berlin

}}

File:Tresor Lyon Vaise-plateaux.jpg|Gallo-Roman silver plates in the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière (Lyon, France)

File:Soup Plate, 19th century (CH 18350773) (cropped).jpg|Soup plate, 19th-century Meissen porcelain

File:Plate, Spode Factory, c. 1792-1794, porcelain - Chazen Museum of Art - DSC02223.JPG|Spode plate, Stoke-on-Trent, England c.1792-94

File:Kitchenware Silver Plate Rezowan.JPG|Vitreous enamel on metal

File:Kitchenware Steel Plate Rezowan.JPG|Steel Plate

File:Geometrikus-tál.jpg|Geometric plate Seuso Treasure

File:Romanian decorative plate.jpg|Romanian decorative plate featuring a traditional model

File:ChosroesHuntingScene.JPG|Persian plate or dish featuring a king hunting

File:Paper Plate.jpg|alt=Paper plate|A typical paper plate

File:Late 1800s wooden plate Solberga parish Kungaelv municipality Sweden.jpg|Late 19th century wooden plate from Kungälv municipality, Sweden

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal | last1 = Wansink | first1 = B | last2 = Wansink | first2 = C S | title = The largest Last Supper: depictions of food portions and plate size increased over the millennium | journal = International Journal of Obesity | date = 23 March 2010 | volume = 34 | issue = 5 | pages = 943–944 | issn = 0307-0565 | eissn = 1476-5497 | doi = 10.1038/ijo.2010.37 | pmid = 20308996 | s2cid = 25106530 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo201037 }}
• {{cite journal | last1 = Condrasky | first1 = Marge | last2 = Ledikwe | first2 = Jenny H. | last3 = Flood | first3 = Julie E. | last4 = Rolls | first4 = Barbara J. | title = Chefs' Opinions of Restaurant Portion Sizes | journal = Obesity | date = August 2007 | volume = 15 | issue = 8 | pages = 2086–2094 | issn = 1930-7381 | eissn = 1930-739X | doi = 10.1038/oby.2007.248 | pmid = 17712127 | s2cid = 37977315 | doi-access = free }}
• {{cite book | last = Dias | first = Peter | date = 1996 | title = The Steward | publisher = Orient Blackswan | pages = 63– | isbn = 9788125003250 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SRx9I2BqSpMC&pg=PA63}}
• {{cite book | first = Suzanne | last= Von Drachenfels | date = 8 November 2000 | title = The Art of the Table: A Complete Guide to Table Setting, Table Manners, and Tableware | publisher = Simon and Schuster | pages = 81–95 | isbn = 978-0-684-84732-0 | chapter = Plates: Piece by piece | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6xaJWJFe1QC&pg=PA81HTTPS://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS}}
• The Bradford Book of Collector's Plates 1987, Brian J. Taylor, Chicago, IL

{{Commons category|Plates}}

{{Authority control}}

SN:18949/700002376186

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plate (Dishware)}}

Category:Kitchenware

Category:Tableware