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| Power Style Wellness Connections |
Anne Luvisi
It is a gray day outside. But sitting at a table set for tea with Anne
Luvisi talking about china patterns and such brightens the
afternoon. We are surrounded by some of the most beautiful
gifts to be found in Louisville. Anne talks about her love affair —
nay, obsession — with dinnerware.
“I definitely landed in the right place,” she says with a laugh as
she sweeps her hand around the tables set with Herenden china
— gently decorated tea cups and saucers and plates just waiting
for a cuppa and a scone.
As manager of Dolfinger’s in Shelbyville Road Plaza, Anne gets to play with china and
crystal and silver all day long. She says she has the china gene or as her late
husband, Christopher Luvisi, called it “The china syndrome.”
“My grandmother had a walk-in closet off her dining room that was filled with china. At
six years old I would go in there and play. I loved it.” So much for the sandbox.
At home she admits to having eight sets of china which she keeps at the ready in her
kitchen. “What is the sense of eating off of paper plates? How can you learn to
appreciate food and nice things?”
So for dinner, her son, Conner, 16, and daughter, Catherine, 13, announce with glee
which dinner plates, dessert plates, and tea cups and saucers are to be used for
dinner and evening tea.
Some of their choices: Hadley bowls for chili; Brentwood ironstone by Wedgwood that
is white with navy blue shamrocks around the rim (fitting since Connor attends Trinity
High School); Minton’s Haddon Hall bone china for more formal affairs; Spode
Christmas tree china which is casual, warm and cozy. “When the children were
younger, I decided that it would be fun to get for them to use between Thanksgiving
and Christmas.”
And then there are the plates and platters that decorate Anne’s walls. Blue and white
transferware; pink and red bread and butter plates; red and white transferware
platters. Even the front hall has hand-painted wallpaper by Cowtan & Tout depicting
large platters and dinnerware. No room escapes her passion.
One of her favorites used to set the table is her colorful dinnerware Persepolis from
the French manufacturer Gien. “It is pretty and durable,” she says. “It can be casual
or you can dress it up.” She laughs when she remembers her mother’s china. “It
screamed the Fifties. Franciscan Silver Pine. It has a turquoise background with silver
rim and silver pine branch with a pine cone. It is Doris Day china.”
A mini lesson on dinnerware: A basic set of five — dinner plate, salad plate, bread
and butter, cup and saucer. From there, the sky and the pocketbook are the limit.
Depending on the pattern, a choosy hostess can purchase rim soup bowls; cream
soup bowls (two handles); fruit saucers; demi tasse cups and saucers; tea and coffee
pots, sugar and creamer; trays, tureens and platters. Just think of the fun filling all
those pieces with yummy food and drink.
But one doesn’t have to go out and buy matching settings for eight.
“You can mix and match,” Anne says. Solids with florals, contemporary designs with
retro, gold with royal blues, silver with ebony. The combinations are as endless as the
imagination.
While on vacation, others may visit museums and malls, but Ann heads for antique
shops, flea markets, and when on the way to the beach, always makes a stop
in Greensboro, NC, to visit Replacements, Inc., which carries old and new dinnerware.
According to its website (www.replacements.com), the 415,000-square-foot facility (the
size of seven football fields) houses an inventory of 12 million pieces in more than
275,000 patterns. Makes one’s head swim, but not Anne’s.
“Don’t be afraid to use your good china. If you are getting married, choose and
register for a pattern you love. People want to give you what you want and something
that you will keep and become a family heirloom.”
It is a gray day outside. But sitting at a table set for tea with Anne
Luvisi talking about china patterns and such brightens the
afternoon. We are surrounded by some of the most beautiful
gifts to be found in Louisville. Anne talks about her love affair —
nay, obsession — with dinnerware.
“I definitely landed in the right place,” she says with a laugh as
she sweeps her hand around the tables set with Herenden china
— gently decorated tea cups and saucers and plates just waiting
for a cuppa and a scone.
As manager of Dolfinger’s in Shelbyville Road Plaza, Anne gets to play with china and
crystal and silver all day long. She says she has the china gene or as her late
husband, Christopher Luvisi, called it “The china syndrome.”
“My grandmother had a walk-in closet off her dining room that was filled with china. At
six years old I would go in there and play. I loved it.” So much for the sandbox.
At home she admits to having eight sets of china which she keeps at the ready in her
kitchen. “What is the sense of eating off of paper plates? How can you learn to
appreciate food and nice things?”
So for dinner, her son, Conner, 16, and daughter, Catherine, 13, announce with glee
which dinner plates, dessert plates, and tea cups and saucers are to be used for
dinner and evening tea.
Some of their choices: Hadley bowls for chili; Brentwood ironstone by Wedgwood that
is white with navy blue shamrocks around the rim (fitting since Connor attends Trinity
High School); Minton’s Haddon Hall bone china for more formal affairs; Spode
Christmas tree china which is casual, warm and cozy. “When the children were
younger, I decided that it would be fun to get for them to use between Thanksgiving
and Christmas.”
And then there are the plates and platters that decorate Anne’s walls. Blue and white
transferware; pink and red bread and butter plates; red and white transferware
platters. Even the front hall has hand-painted wallpaper by Cowtan & Tout depicting
large platters and dinnerware. No room escapes her passion.
One of her favorites used to set the table is her colorful dinnerware Persepolis from
the French manufacturer Gien. “It is pretty and durable,” she says. “It can be casual
or you can dress it up.” She laughs when she remembers her mother’s china. “It
screamed the Fifties. Franciscan Silver Pine. It has a turquoise background with silver
rim and silver pine branch with a pine cone. It is Doris Day china.”
A mini lesson on dinnerware: A basic set of five — dinner plate, salad plate, bread
and butter, cup and saucer. From there, the sky and the pocketbook are the limit.
Depending on the pattern, a choosy hostess can purchase rim soup bowls; cream
soup bowls (two handles); fruit saucers; demi tasse cups and saucers; tea and coffee
pots, sugar and creamer; trays, tureens and platters. Just think of the fun filling all
those pieces with yummy food and drink.
But one doesn’t have to go out and buy matching settings for eight.
“You can mix and match,” Anne says. Solids with florals, contemporary designs with
retro, gold with royal blues, silver with ebony. The combinations are as endless as the
imagination.
While on vacation, others may visit museums and malls, but Ann heads for antique
shops, flea markets, and when on the way to the beach, always makes a stop
in Greensboro, NC, to visit Replacements, Inc., which carries old and new dinnerware.
According to its website (www.replacements.com), the 415,000-square-foot facility (the
size of seven football fields) houses an inventory of 12 million pieces in more than
275,000 patterns. Makes one’s head swim, but not Anne’s.
“Don’t be afraid to use your good china. If you are getting married, choose and
register for a pattern you love. People want to give you what you want and something
that you will keep and become a family heirloom.”