Lenox Gilded Tapestry Sugar Bowl with Lid - Elegant Porcelain Sugar Container for Tea & Coffee Service, Perfect for Afternoon Tea Parties and Formal Dining

Love this plate. Love this set. Even more beautiful than pictured.Love these dishes!The Lennox Gilded Tapestry pattern is really nice. The colors pop, and together the setting plays well with a vernal color town highlight with robin egg blue counter colors on the main plate and the tea cup. Exceptionally well executed. The quality seems solid, though they claim to be dishwasher safe there's no way this is getting anything but a hand wash treatment from me. Also, the set is made in the USA. A whole lot to like, but only if you have deep pockets. The price tag is killer high for a 5 piece set, and I know many will say " but it's fine China", which is debatable because its actually Bone China with the word "fine" tossed in front of it to justify the price. Really nice, but priced to elitism.Part of what your paying for is the fact this is Bone China (so, not a Vegan product), and about 20% of bone china firings break in the heat, another 5% doesn't "set" right, not having that translucent quality you expect from Bone China. Since cow bone is the primary bone used to make Bone China the raw materials are not that hard to come buy. You only have to have 5% bone ash to be titled "bone china", but let's assume Lenox would be 30% (I couldn't find any info on the actually bone content and I doubt they are using human bone ash - which would be super expensive to acquire). The time to make either Fine or Bone China over dinnerware is slightly longer and requires more labor, so - about 90% mark up would be to additional costs of manufacturing compared to base dinnerware. You can get a high quality 16 piece Corelle set for about $70 - $80, making the five set value about $25. This 5 piece set has exceptional decorative features, is a good buy at $70, a stretch at $95, but anything more than that and you are paying a premium "just because".By the way Bone China is no stronger than either China or Fine China, it juts looks different. Fine china, in white, pops a bright white and is delicately thin. Bone China has a warmer tone. The term "Fine Bone China" is a marketing ploy. They are both high end China work, one with bone ash, one without.If money is not a concern of yours, this is a quality, simple, elegant 5 piece set. If money is a concern of yours, it's overpriced -- especially so at the full freight $140+ for five pieces.When I opened the box with this place setting in it, it almost took my breath away. There was a collective "ooohhh" from everyone watching........ And, yes, all in the family had come to gather, as this package was much anticipated. It is really much more impressive in person than it is pictured on this product page. Hard to imagine that, I think. But the matte finish of the border, combined with the raised gilding inside the border, combined with the shiny and bold white field at once subdues the busy border yet makes the entire look pop with both elegance and excitement. The combination of matte, raised and shiny is a stroke of design genius, I think!This won't be a design for everyone, and it won't work with some foods, (it won't take to spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce, for instance). So, before choosing this pattern, run through this exercise: Consider the foods that you want to serve on your next set of dinnerware, and in your mind's eye, place them on this pattern. See if it works or not. Believe me, from experience, it is an important exercise of make-believe. A plate that looks gorgeous on the page, may look totally different with your favorite foods on it!Over the years, I have evolved to serving simpler dishes, and I've learned how to choose foods that compliment each other in color as well as taste. The "busy" border on this place setting will not be a problem for me to work around. In fact, for what I serve, these three borders work to enhance the overall look with food on the plates.What is very important about these dishes? Two things:1.) Made in America! Actually, made in North Carolina. And I would love to tour the factory. The workmanship is superb. The bone china, the thick sturdy glaze, the exactly placed decal-work and gilding. Yes, it is breakable and if you drop it, kiss it good-bye. But it really does take a good amount of wear and tear without chipping or cracking. Also--and this is important--the glaze on Lenox dinnerware resists knife cuts. Cheap dinnerware chips, cracks, knife cuts show, and they craze easily. I never have that problem with Lenox.2.) You may not realize it until you host your first large dinner party, but these "newer" Lenox dishes have a feature that you won't see on your family's heirloom dinnerware: These are dishwasher safe. Do not underestimate that important feature when deciding whether to buy new china or save yourself money by shopping estate sales or other "used" sources. (I am speaking seriously from experience.) You cannot put older, precious dinnerware in the dishwasher.A few things to note: Take a plate with you when you go to buy tablecloths, napkins, placemats: You will be surprised how many different colors will go with it. But choose warm colors, not cool. And it looks better on solid colors, not white, and definitely not patterns (unless it is just a weave with variations in one color). I have achieved totally different looks with a warm beige and a bright burnt orange. All warm beiges, tans, browns, golds, oranges work very well. Matching with the turquoise might be harder to do.I personally love this setting with oriental foods, and find that it matches with several of my artisan-made Japanese glazed bowls. Easy to work with chop sticks, too.I love Lenox. When I got married, I totally wanted to register for Lenox but they were so expensive ($110-150 per place setting) that I didn't want to put my guests through that. I still secretly have coveted it, and I've been married 28 years!So I was beyond thrilled to get to review this pattern. I loved the idea that the plates didn't match and looked eclectic and mixed together. The turquoise and gold looked amazing in the photo.In reality, not so much. They are still beautifully made and arrived in one piece (if you knew my UPS guy, you'd be amazed!). But instead of mixing together well, they look a bit off. The dinner plate is lovely, and the saucer is lovely. But the middle plate and the bread plate don't have any turquoise on them at all and the pattern goes from sort of watercolor blots to actual leaves. It's not a pretty mix. The cup itself is also more ordinary than the usually dainty teacup. It has a lot of white on it and none of the colors on it really coordinate with the rest. It seemed like a good idea, but in execution I think they should have had a bit of turquoise on all five pieces and much less of the orange on the bread plate.I'm not sure how I'll do these. I love the dinner plate (or is it called a charger?). It's perfect. But that's the only piece I love.This setting is a small and very delicate plate and tea set. The design is beautiful and the gold shimmers. The colors are very rich and the overall effect is quite lovely. It is nice to have one tiny setting like this and comes in a small black box.