Vintage Wednesday: What does this do?

You're poking around an antique store and you find a little pile of tiny plates. Could they be part of a child's tea set? Possibly. But if they match a corresponding set of china, it's more likely they're an individual butter plate - sometimes called a butter pat or a butter chip. The plate is usually about 3 inches in diameter with some type of motif on it. They were used (and sometimes are still used internationally) in a formal table setting to hold individual pats of butter - placed in the upper left corner of the place setting.

You might think these were part of the explosion of china in the Victorian period - we've discussed before how those Victorians loved their china and created pieces to satisfy every possible food combination - but it seems butter pats were actually popular throughout the 1800s. Staffordshire potteries made English butter pats readily available. However, the king of butter pat production is reputed to be Haviland who is estimated to have produced over 60,000 patterns with matching butter pats.

Collecting butter pats has apparently exploded in recent years and they can be easily found on ebay or Ruby Lane if you're interested in starting a collection of your own. The variety of colors and patterns will certainly satisfy even the most picky of collectors. So the next time you pass by one of these tiny plates, you'll know: That's a butter pat!