If you loved the look of your “good china” and wanted to enjoy it every day, but couldn’t afford to replace broken or chipped or worn-down pieces all the time, displaying it was safer than using it every day. You could eat off the same old plate, whether it’s a damaged part of the set or something else entirely, while looking at the pretty ones you’re not having to wash (or even dust often, if behind glass). Then for big fancy gatherings you’d have enough nice ones for everyone.
Edit: Looking at OP’s picture brings me memories of long-ago college parties, so it’s a similar reminder of good times with good friends that old grandmas might get from looking at their china case.
Btw, why was i tradition to display tableware? Parroting of rich folks when ceramic was expensive?
If you loved the look of your “good china” and wanted to enjoy it every day, but couldn’t afford to replace broken or chipped or worn-down pieces all the time, displaying it was safer than using it every day. You could eat off the same old plate, whether it’s a damaged part of the set or something else entirely, while looking at the pretty ones you’re not having to wash (or even dust often, if behind glass). Then for big fancy gatherings you’d have enough nice ones for everyone.
Edit: Looking at OP’s picture brings me memories of long-ago college parties, so it’s a similar reminder of good times with good friends that old grandmas might get from looking at their china case.
When she was a kid, every year for her birthday my mom would get fancy silverware from her parents, that’s it.
One year it would be the tea spoon, another year the snail forks …
Of course she was not allowed to use it before she would get married. The idea was that she would get a full set when she is 18.
old people want to flex that they could host an impromptu party for royalty. its some old world bullshit.