Even in this day of electronic reading I still like a good book and continue to accumulate actual volumes. This Christmas I received a fat little book called dishes*, by Shax Riegler. It is a full of pictures of dinner
plates, ranging from early Chinese porcelain to current designer ware, and is irresistable. One of the first gifts I can remember receiving was a toy tea set and ever since then I have loved dishes. According to the book, I'm not alone in my infatuation. Dish collecting has been the preoccupation of many people since the invention of porcelain, and the vast variety of patterns is truly astonishing. There apparently can never be too many.
Reading the short historical notes in the book reminded me of the trip Mike and I took to Dresden, Germany a few years ago. Mike had to attend a supercomputing conference and took me along. While he was working, I wandered through the many elaborate museums in the restored heart of the city. I learned that in 1710, August the Strong, Elector of Saxony, founded the Meissen porcelain works nearby, the first European source of porcelain that previously had to be imported at huge expense from China and Japan. August used the massive profit from the sales of his 
Meissenware to finance a very over-ornamented lifestyle. A whole museum in Dresden is devoted to porcelain, which was used for many decorative items besides dishes, some of it truly ugly. Judging by what I saw in several of the exhibits I attended, August and the designers of the time were masters of wretched excess. Partly it's a matter of changing taste and fashion, of course, but how many items of daily use really need to be encrusted with gold and jewels? Can you imagine smearing gravy over your rubies and diamonds? It was fascinating to observe how something as common as plates are today could ever have been objects of such intense interest and elaboration.
Since the days of Meissen's monopoly, ceramic dishes have proliferated across the Old and New Worlds. Plates haven't varied much in size or shape since the beginning, but the tides of fashion, influenced heavily by culture and economics, have washed over them endlessly. A plate makes a perfect canvas for artistic expression, which echoes and emphasizes the effort of making the meal served upon it. Its no wonder there are so many.
*Riegler, Shax, dishes. New York, Artisan, 2013.