20th anniversary gifts: china, and the law about what you eat off
Twenty years is china. Other materials on this list are regulated on what they may be called; china is regulated on what it may release - and a plate and a cup are not measured the same way.
Twenty years is china. Cotton, crystal and gold all reach this list carrying rules about what they may be called. China's rules are a different kind of thing: they govern what the object is allowed to release into your food.
A plate and a teacup are different things in law
Ceramics that touch food are covered by The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2012. Regulation 10 sets limits on how much lead and cadmium may migrate out of the glaze, and it does not set one limit - it sets three, by the shape of the object:
- Things that cannot be filled, and shallow things under 25mm deep - a plate, a saucer, a flat dish. Lead 0.8 mg/dm², cadmium 0.07 mg/dm².
- Everything else that can be filled - cups, bowls, jugs, a teapot. Lead 4.0 mg/l, cadmium 0.3 mg/l.
- Cooking ware; packaging and storage vessels holding more than three litres. Lead 1.5 mg/l, cadmium 0.1 mg/l.
They are not quite absolute caps. Regulation 10(5) of the same instrument lets a single article exceed a limit by up to 50% and still comply, provided at least three more of the same shape, dimensions, decoration and glaze are tested and their average stays within the limit, with none of them over by more than half. It is a batch tolerance, not a loophole - but it means a figure is a test result about a production run rather than a promise about the one cup in your hand.
Look at what changes between the first two: not just the number but the unit. A plate is measured per square decimetre of surface, because what matters is the area your food sits on. A cup is measured per litre, because what matters is the volume sitting in it. The law is reasoning about how you actually use the object.
That is worth knowing for a twentieth-anniversary present, because the classic gift is a display piece - and a decorative plate that was never intended to come into contact with food is not caught by these regulations at all. If it is going on a wall, that is fine. If it is going under a slice of cake, it is a different question, and the answer is on the box or from the seller.
Where china sits on our own list
Ceramic turns up three times in the British run: bronze or pottery at eight, willow or pottery at nine, and china at twenty. The earlier two offer a choice; twenty does not. The list treats them as separate presents - earthenware early, the fine stuff two decades in - while the food-contact rules above make no such distinction. A hand-thrown pottery mug from year eight and a bone-china teacup from year twenty sit in the same legal category and are tested the same way.
What the list is tracking is not the material's chemistry. It is what a couple can afford and are ready to own: a mug you can drop at eight, a service you would not, at twenty.
One thing we could not establish. "Bone china" has a British Standard behind it, and the figure quoted secondhand is a minimum proportion of tricalcium orthophosphate in the fired body - but BSI standards are paywalled, we have not read the primary, and more than one number circulates. So we are not going to print a threshold we cannot check. If a seller quotes you one, ask which standard and which edition.
Five gift ideas for the twentieth
A service you will actually eat off
The unromantic truth about display china is that it is dusted more often than it is used. Two good place settings beat a boxed twelve nobody unwraps.
One replacement piece
Twenty years into a marriage, somebody has broken something from the wedding list. Replacing the exact piece is a better gift than starting a new set.
Something thrown by a named person
Studio ceramics put a maker's mark on the base. In twenty years' time that mark is what makes it traceable, and traceable is what makes it an heirloom rather than a plate.
A repair, in gold
Kintsugi joins broken ceramic with lacquer and gold rather than hiding the break. As a twentieth-anniversary metaphor it is almost too on the nose, and it is still the best thing you can do with a cracked piece you both like.
Something that is not china at all
Twenty years in, most couples own all the crockery they will ever need. That is a practical objection rather than a romantic one, and it is usually the right one.
Where twenty sits: between crystal at fifteen and silver at twenty-five. The full run is on the UK anniversary list.
Written by Craig Fearn, Printed Weddings.
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Questions
Questions, answered
What is the 20th wedding anniversary?
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China, on the British list. Ceramic appears three times in the run, but only once without a rival: bronze or pottery at eight, willow or pottery at nine, then china alone at twenty.
Is china that touches food regulated in the UK?
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Yes. The Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2012 limit how much lead and cadmium may migrate from a ceramic article, in three categories. Flat or shallow items under 25mm deep are limited to 0.07 mg/dm² cadmium and 0.8 mg/dm² lead; other fillable items to 0.3 mg/l and 4.0 mg/l; cooking ware, packaging and storage vessels over three litres to 0.1 mg/l and 1.5 mg/l. Purely decorative pieces not intended for food are outside the rules.
Why is a plate measured differently from a cup?
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Because of how each is used. A plate's limit is per square decimetre of surface, since food rests on the area. A cup's is per litre, since liquid sits in the volume. Same glaze, different exposure, so the regulations use different units rather than a single figure.
What does “bone china” legally mean?
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We could not verify it. There is a British Standard defining a minimum proportion of tricalcium orthophosphate in the fired body, but BSI standards sit behind a paywall, we have not read the primary text, and conflicting figures circulate. Rather than repeat a number we cannot check, ask a seller which standard and edition they are working to.
What should you give for a 20th wedding anniversary?
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Something that gets used rather than displayed: two good place settings, or a replacement for the piece from the wedding list that somebody has broken by now. Studio ceramics carry a maker's mark on the base, which is what turns a plate into something traceable later.