Tableware

Tableware are the dishes and cutlery used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. Tableware includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, serving utensils, and other items used for cooking as well as for decoration. The objects vary according to culture, religion, number of people, and cuisine. Middle Eastern, South Asian or Polynesian food culture may only use serving dishes, using bread or leaves as individual plates, and often with no cutlery. Special events may have higher quality tableware.

Formal dining table laid for a large private dinner party at Chatsworth House

Table laid for six at the Royal Castle, Warsaw, (18th–19th century fashion)

Cutlery is more commonly known as silverware or flatware in the United States. Dinnerware is another word used for tableware, another word crockery means ceramic tableware, porcelain or bone china. In Ireland, they are normally called delph, the word being an English language phonetic spelling of the word Delft, the town from which so much delftware came.