I need to get some: no food is ever eaten off of them, so the materials can vary greatly. It sets off the dinner plate nicely and when you remove the dinner plate to serve, there's no blank spot on the table.

I'll be anxious to hear from those who dine formally and use chargers, do they stay from soup to main dish, removed for dessert or stay? I have a feeling Patricia will pipe in and answer this one.

do they serve as a protector for the tablecloth ?

I've added to your questions, thanks for starting this topic.

The charger is used on the table up to the main course. It can either stay under the dinner plate for the main course or it can be removed for the main course. It is always removed for the dessert course.

It protects the table linens from food, and if food gets on it, you are supposed to remove the charger, clean it (out of sight of the guests) and put it back, or replace it with a clean one. I would think at home if it is used for formal dinners under the soup/salad appetizer courses--if it had food on it I would probably remove all of the chargers and put the dinner plates right on the table. I believe it was done because of the smaller plate size of the first courses and the increased likelihood of food on the linens...the bigger dinner plate taking up most of the space to the edge of the table.

I have never eaten a dinner with service plates at anyone's home, even if there was someone (rarely) helping to serve. If you have old family linens or something you want to protect, it might be nice. In the case of old linens though, I might consider using knife rests to keep meat juices off the cloth. The problem with all these formal items is that they take up a lot of room on the table, and are more geared toward being served by someone other than the hosts.

No food is eaten directly from the charger or service plate.

I do use them occasionally. I loved seeing them here (Judith's lovely table settings), and in many of the blogs I frequent. They add to a nice table setting. I usually use them with some of my antique dishes - I am a bit of a dish collector LOL. I use them up until dessert is served, and no, they are not eaten off of themselves.

tina

Love using chargers, since it usually means a dinner party and a fun evening. Chargers do protect the table and are removed when the dinner plates are removed prior to dessert service.

I love the chargers as they just add another layer of table decorating options. They can be pricey or very inexpensive, and there are so many choices.

Once you entertain with the chargers, you will feel your table is "naked" without them.

dumb question. Are they awkward? I keep thinking the plate would slide around on a charger. and what sized plate do you use? salad plate? dinner plate? enquiring minds want to know?

They're not awkward at all Cooper. Think of setting a salad plate on a dinner plate. Same idea. The charger is larger than a dinner plate, you use a dinner plate on top of the charger.

Does anyone else remember those gorgeous silver chargers Judith has? To. die. for.

Work in progress is right though, you can go from the pricey to cheap, cheap, cheap. For my Christmas dinner table this year, I decided to use my Friendly Village antique plates. I have several plates in one of the winter scenes, with the old red school house. I bought (at Hobby Lobby) inexpensive , heavy plastic chargers in a red shade. They had kind of a beaded edge. Hard to explain but they do not look tacky at all. The red chargers under my FV plates looked great! I used a vintage creme colored table cloth and several pieces of my ruby red glassware - the red chargers were almost a perfect match to the ruby red. It made for a lovely and festive table.

tina

I have never had or used chargers-*to me* (note, my opinion only) they are a bit pretentious in any setting and especially in a private home. I also don't particularly care to have more stuff on the table. That probably reflects in equal parts my design preference for simplicity and my redneck background :).

Ann

I use them all the time and have several different sets from casual to formal. I leave them on the table the entire meal and put all various plates on them. My plates do not slide around but the chargers were bought to go with the dishes.
The hammered copper ones have spotted from food and that's a bummer as they were expensive so I like wicker or ceramic ones better now as they are washable.

I use tablecloths, placemats, runners, whatever strikes my fancy underneath when I set the table.
I only use them when I am entertaining and I keep no dishes or linens on my table other than mealtimes.

Horchow and Pier One both have extensive varieties of chargers.

Chargers (also called service plates) are traditionally used as placeholders to begin with, with the napkin folded on top of them. When diners sit down, they're expected to put the napkins in their laps right away, and then the first course or soup plate is set on the charger. My understanding is that the charger is removed with the first course/soup plate, and the dinner plate goes directly onto the tablecloth.
But as somebody already pointed out, these elaborate rituals are best suited to dinners involving footmen, which I imagine few of us have lurking about the house...
So there's certainly nothing wrong with having the first course on the chargers already when people sit down, but it is usual to replace them with the dinner plate, rather than waiting until dessert.

I'd say this, then... if you want to do formal service, do it in the traditional way. Otherwise, do whatever you like. Fine points of etiquette change as lives change, and as long as the underlying principles remain (kindness, hospitality, graciousness, care not to offend, beauty and peace in living...), you can make your own traditions.

I replied yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared.

I don't use, or have, chargers, and in my circle they might be considered a bit odd, but that's a matter of age - many of my guests are of the generation that considers a table perfectly set when it is chock-full of crystal and matching china, and chargers are usually contrasting, often dramatically so.

But occasionally I do use what are in essence service plates. Now, in the olden days, formal service entailed setting the table with a service plate that also differed from the dinner china, but was intended to be more complementary than contrasting. For example, it might be a plate with a more ornate border. It might have been removed as the first course was being served, and definitely before the dinner plate was set down (it probably wasn't larger than the dinner plate).

This week I am doing something that is slightly, but only slightly, reminiscent of that. It's for a meal that is hardly formal at all, except that everyone will sit down together for it. In fact, I'm using Corelle Livingware - everyday dishes, if you will, but in a mixture of a pattern with a border and "Just White." I'll set the table with dinner plates with the border, and then serve the first course - local (I hope) asparagus with a blue cheese and walnut topping - on plain white salad plates, set on top of the bordered dinner plates. The main course is a fish stew, served in plain white soup plates, for which the dinner plate will serve as a liner.

What I want to know is this: when I don't set the table with service plates, how can I prevent my too-helpful guests from distributing the dinner plates to all the places the first moment my back is turned? They act as if they think I forgot to finish setting the table. I often want to serve the main course from the head of the table (not necessarily carving, but perhaps something that can't be passed around family-style), and if the guests put the dinner plates at all their places, they have to pass them back for serving.

Ah...good question, okmoreh...

You have two choices. You can stack the dinner plates on your sideboard, and don't put them at your place until you are ready to serve.

OR (and this is the preferred family style), put the plates at the places when you set the table. Then, serve the first plate, and offer the served plate to your ranking guest, who hands you her empty plate in trade. Repeat the process all the way around the table, serving yourself last.
In any case, you should serve only the main protein and any vegetables that are on the serving plate with it, and have your guests pass everything else and serve themselves, starting with the person to whom you gave the first plate.

Pretentiousness is when you do something that doesn't come naturally. When I was growing up, when I set the table (one of my jobs) my parents both always got two spoons, and my father always got a salad fork. (My mother sometimes got a salad fork,(or we all did) and depending, sometimes my parents got butter knives) It wasn't that hard to figure out based upon what we were eating.

I have had friends make fun of this, watching me set the table up to today. So, once when I had a houseguest at my parents, I left off the second spoon and salad fork at my father's place. He didn't say anything--he just went and got himself the spoon and fork. It has to do with how they eat.

It would be pretentious for me to insist on extra flatware, but not necessarily everyone. On the reverse, I had a Japanese sitter when I was a toddler, and ever since I have regularly eaten Asian food and certain other things with chopsticks, because I always have: while it might be pretentious for someone else to use them when forks are available, its natural to me.

Palimpsest, you're my favorite.

I, too, grew up in a household that set the table with a full setting for every meal. It's what we do. We used the silver for every meal because it's all we had. My mother, a southern lady in reduced circumstances, says, "I have to use the silver...I can't afford to buy stainless!"

It's pretentious if you are aiming for the effect of something not natural to you, AND you do it inappropriately, or incorrectly. But there's nothing wrong with wanting to do something different, if it's for the right reasons.
If you grew up with plastic forks and paper plates, and you want more graciousness in your life, you learn a different way and do it, for yourself and your family and friends...not to show off for a wider audience. You do it to add comfort and charm, not status. You do it to make people feel welcome and included, not to set yourself apart or above.

Traditional gracious service done in the right spirit makes everyone feel comfortable, and festive, as though you cared enough to make an effort; and is treated as background once the party begins. If somebody makes a mistake, you ignore it. I have a friend who continues to mistake the dessert fork, placed above the plate, for the salad fork, so I keep an extra nearby and replace it when I clear the dinner plates.
If the mistake is really noticeable, you repeat it yourself. A good example is the story about JFK, who, when a dignitary from an eastern country dining at the White House mistakenly drank the water in his fingerbowl, immediately picked his up and drank it, too.

When service is offered pretentiously, the supposed background interferes, and makes people UNcomfortable. It's like what somebody once said about pornography...you can't define it, but you know it when you see it.

I just want to add that I am really enjoying the addition of both bronwynsmom and palimpsest to our community. :)

Thanks:)
Its funny, my dad's attorney asked me an opinion of something the other day and I presented him with three scenarios

He said I was a typical Irish relativist...I could venture an opinion about how various things may all be acceptable under various conditions---and I never say just "yes/no" "black/white".

I appreciate the opportunity to learn about chargers. Often seen them used in tablesettings on the holiday forum, but not in real life( not much of a social butterfly) I grew up with full tablesettings too, as my Mom was determined to be a gracious hostess and for us to grow up with proper manners. I think the key is not to make anyone uncomfortable, beginning with me, so I think I can skip the chargers, and let my antique Limoges china take center stage on festive occasions! At least for now.Thanks

Chargers are not anymore formal than napkins are: they may be paper or fine cut linen and they do serve a purpose. Casual chargers can be bought at Wal Mart made of rattan and are attractive and perfect for the patio.

Thank you for all of the good discussion. I made faric chargers that contrast nicely with my china for holiday table settings, but have never used ceramic chargers. It is such a pretty, festive look that I have been considering buying some.
Diane

mistake the dessert fork, placed above the plate, for the salad fork, so I keep an extra nearby and replace it when I clear the dinner plates.

A very gracious way to handle it. I like to have the dessert utensils placed above the dinner plate, but it does tend to lead to confusion.

If the setting includes both salad forks and dessert forks it doesn't matter very much if anyone transposes them. On the other hand, if guests fail to find the dessert fork at all and choose to eat their pie with a teaspoon (because they are too polite to ask for a fork), I'm not sure that I would be so polite as to do the same.

Forks: the flatware that I use for meat meals has not only dinner forks and salad forks, but also pastry forks and fish forks (and fish knives). The dairy flatware has dessert forks and oyster forks, not that oysters ever cross my threshold.

However, neither set has dessert spoons (as distinct from soup spoons). At Replacements there are also listings for some utenstils that I don't think I've ever seen. What is a five-o'clock spoon?

Thanks for this information. It's good to know.

What I could use as a charger is actually a larger dinner plate. I would like to get some copper ones too. One day I would like to get real china. I picked up a set of 2 coffee cups, saucers, dessert plates and a tray at 75% off (maybe also an extra 50% off of that, don't remember) of Vera Wang by Wedgwood Antibes. All white, very contemporary and now discontinued. I wish I had ordered a whole set from Dillards warehouse before they ran out but I could not afford it. And still can't.

I just saw that Bed, Bath and Beyond still has some - the Vera Wang Antibes charger is just $74.99 each. Yowser.

This is what I have for a dressier look - but I never have dinner guests so everything is in the buffet.

I have some antique chargers that are quite pretty. The odd thing is their the same size as all of my dinner plates. Shouldn't they be larger?

when I first looked at the post, I thought it was going to be what to do with all the chargers we have for phones, iPods, etc.

Me, too.

I have some antique chargers that are quite pretty. The odd thing is their the same size as all of my dinner plates.

Perhaps they're service (or place) plates - usually the size of a dinner plate, but often more ornate.

Thank you, Parma! It's a pleasure to be here.

Palimpsest, I love the Irish relativist remark.

I am accused of taking after my two clergyman grandfathers, and giving a sermon in response to every question..."here's what you should do, and here's why."

But back to the subject at hand...yes, a service plate/charger is always larger than the dinner plate.

Okmoreh, you're a child after my own heart! I haven't a Victorian bone in my body, but I am mad for table silver, and love things like Stilton scoops and fish services and pastry forks.

The alleged purpose of a five o'clock spoon is tea, meaning early supper, as opposed to high tea which is the earlier, fancier one. They are often used as children's spoons. The actual purpose is to sell silver. The aforementioned Victorians, ever the proponents of conspicuous consumption, invented most of the silly unnecessary things so that I could have more pieces than you, so harrumph, and off with your head.

>high tea which is the earlier, fancier one

Hmm, when I lived in England many years ago, "high tea" was what you got when tea was all you were going to get to last you till breakfast the next day. So it meant something like an egg and chips or baked beans on toast, not fancy pastries. That was "afternoon tea."

I also have some plates that are quite pretty, and are the same size as a large dinner plate. My mother always called them 'service plates' rather than chargers (she had some larger chargers as well), so I'm thinking there's some obsolete distinction between the two. I'd love to use them for fancy meals, but like the OP, don't really know quite how.

I Googled "Service Plates" & Chargers and came up with this from Lennox:

Service plates are returning to the American dining table, but not in their traditional role. These show plates, used to mark each place at formal banquets, were once whisked away as soon as the guests were all seated. But now, because of their large size - roughly 12 inches in diameter - they are making a comeback as buffet plates and as underliners for dinner and luncheon plates. In another break with tradition, they usually don't match the rest of the dinnerware.

and from the Oneida website:

What is a BASE PLATE?
Also known as a SERVICE PLATE, PLACE PLATE or CHARGER PLATE, this item is the pre-dining showpiece of a dinnerware service. These plates come in many sizes, but are traditionally sized between 10.5"-13" in diameter, often featuring very large rims. The base plate is traditionally in place at each diner's seat when they first approach the table. It is often the most highly decorated item in an entire dinnerware service. Its function is to create a dramatic aesthetic impression, and to serve as an underliner for appetizers or before dinner drinks.

from Chefalbrich.com

A service plate, also known as a charger plate is never eaten from. It will either be removed when the first course is brought, or the different courses will be set on top of it. A set table may contain any or all of the flatware below.

and from Quamut.com:

Charger: A service plate that goes under the plate containing the first course (when the main course is brought out, the main course plate takes the place of the charger)

So - I guess whether chargers and service plates are the same seems open to debate, but how to use them seems to have a consensus.

Okmoreh

My British husband prefers to use a spoon to eat most desserts--cake or pie or ice cream or whatever--because that's what people do in England. Even after 12 years of marriage he finds it faintly amusing that I use a fork, and I find it faintly amusing that he uses a spoon. And he's darned cute when he does!

Robin

Robin, I suspect that the preference for a spoon has something to do with the English custom of slathering all desserts in cream or thin custard. As I am lactose-intolerant, I do not appreciate this as much as people in Englandland probably think I should.

Among the less-common implements of table silver is the ice-cream spoon, which is a lot like a spork, not that a maker of elegant silver would ever condescend to make sporks (because it would hurt the sales of both spoons and forks).

Livvyandbella, if you are comparing the sizes of antique chargers and modern dinner plates, it makes sense that they are the same size. Antique chargers were likely larger than antique dinner plates at the time. Over the years our appetites, portions, plate size and waistlines have all gotten bigger!!

Just went back and read what I said about tea, and I did say "high" when I meant "afternoon." Thanks for catching that, writersblock.

Well... the menu has changed slightly. Now it consists of a first course of asparagus, the main course consisting of a fish stew, a salad course consisting of, um, salad, and a dessert.

The main course does not really require a fork at all, nor does the dessert. The first course and the salad require forks.

The question is: which forks to use? In the main set of flatware the choices are:

- salad fork
- dinner fork (it's continental size, so a rather large fork)
- dessert fork (slightly smaller than the salad fork).

There are not enough extra of any of these to use the same kind of fork twice.

My inclination is to set the table with salad forks for the first course, plus dinner forks that would be used for the salad. However, if you think that two salad forks, or two dinner forks, should be used, I have another set of flatware that could be called upon. (Actually I have SIX other sets of flatware, but the other five cannot be used for this menu.)

Also, given that the actual dinner plates will still be on the table when the main course is cleared (they will have served as liners for the soup plates), do you think it is OK to serve the salad directly onto them? I have enough plates of other kinds and sizes that a separate plate could be used.

And, will my guests think that I am totally bonkers?

In people's houses I tend to eat what is put in front of me with the utensils given to me. Anything short of them having the dog lick off the plates in front of me is fine.:)

I would imagine using the same fork all the way through wouldnt be a problem, but I would use one for the entire dinner and then one for dessert. Particularly with dessert, that stuff doesnt have to match anyrhing:)

They are so pretty sitting in a cabinet. Now with all this information I will have to take them out and set the table.

Hmm, when I lived in England many years ago, "high tea" was what you got when tea was all you were going to get to last you till breakfast the next day. So it meant something like an egg and chips or baked beans on toast, not fancy pastries. That was "afternoon tea."

Right you are! We have a number of posh hotels in this area that offer what they mistakenly refer to as "high tea" instead of "afternoon tea." I think they must believe that the word "high" connotes a more fancy-schmancy experience, but it's definitely the incorrect term.

I once embarrassed myself horribly by picking up the charger from a banquet table and attempting to carry it to the buffet line with me. A woman I was seated next to lightly touched my arm, and said, "Oh, no dear - that is the charger and it stays on the table." I was mortified! Dumb hick!

I have chargers that unfortunately do allow dinner plates to slide around. I love my chargers and how well they complement a china pattern I inherited but didn't really like. Once I put them on the chargers, I was in love! To fix the sliding issue, I bought doilies small enough to stay hidden. It has worked wonderfully & my guests appreciate the creative approach.

Pal, my brother-in-law lets his pups lick the plates. I have to leave the room.

Diane

Pieta: Hi, I use chargers and doilies, daily, exactly as you described. I read that was one of the uses that doilies were originally designed for. To use between plates to stop wobbling and to be placed under fingerbowls to prevent water damage.

Chargers and doilies are definitely not the " useless " affectations some assume, and lets keep a bit of tradition on the family. Oh, use Dollar store doilies, and just throw them in the wash and dryer - vintage ones are lovely but do not like modern washing techniques.

Cannot find the citation on Net, must be in one of my books. Robert

Hi Powermuffin: I would take my own plates to the brother-in-laws, or drop in to the animal vet's for shots and deworming after dessert. Or, meet at a convenient restaurant.

Why? Don't you wash your dishes??

Can I use a charger plate to hold unpeeled fruit? I am wanting to display this on my kitchen island

Resurrecting this one! My first ever set of charger plates are on order in time for Christmas Day ... and now I’ve realised that I don’t actually know what to do with my crockery, when. I’ve seen all the photos with the crockery (dinner and salad plate) on top of the charger, with the napkin on top or to the side... but what are the actual mechanics of getting the salad onto the salad plate and the Turkey dinner onto the dinner plate?? Do I clear the crockery when people sit down and give them a fresh, pre-plated salad? Or not have the salad plate out to start with. (The salad will not lend itself to self serve...). Then the starter is done, I clear the salad plates... and I’ve got cold dinner plates left on the charger. Do I just clear them and pop them in the oven or warming drawer while we carve the Turkey? I was planning on plating up the Turkey then letting guests add the trimmings, so the also need to be able to hold their own plates without gloves... help!