To my mind, having a lot of dishes in the house means I’m always ready for the holidays. And since I’m an out-of-sight-out-of-mind type, I love to have them easy to reach and on display.  I’m not much for closed cabinets, which always seem forbidding.

That makes me an old-fashioned dish-dresser person. Nothing shows off dishes like the open shelves of a hutch and nothing can quite match that type of kitchen charm.  The pine beauty I came upon recently [above], stuffed with animal motif china, includes a couple of cute Staffordshire hens in addition to other gaily striped, dotted and flowered pieces. For me, the best dressers have hooks aplenty for mugs to hang as well. I wish we could see what’s in the long, top drawer. Silver serving pieces, perhaps.

In the Suffolk (England) kitchen of the late portrait photographer Angus McBean [above] is an even more stupendous assemblage of white-ware including pieces by Wedgwood and Coalport. The larger pieces in that collection are stowed on a rather grand ebonized and parcel-gilt table with a shelf. Smaller pieces hang on a far plainer wall-mounted platerack where the hooks display a collection of small pitchers and a lemon juicer along with a few mugs. I love the way the heart-shaped coeur a la crème molds are stuck up along with porcelain strainers and even a rolling pin up to the rafters. Great wall of china, for sure.

This last photo was a real inspiration for me while I was on the hunt for my vintage Swedish dresser [second and last photos on link], which had to be repainted. It now houses parts of a 130-piece auction lot of blue and white Rorstrand china I bought in Stockholm but that’s a long story which will definitely keep until next year.  (Photos via WOI and Mary Emmerling’s Country)

Tags: Atticmag, dish hutch, dishware dresser, kitchen furniture, open kitchen storage, Staffordshire china, white-ware china