Hello, Steve:
I was intrigued by what you wrote about the cobalt blue pattern of china recovered from Titanic. I did a little figuring, and something doesn't make sense to me. Using round numbers, the Restaurant could seat 140 diners. If there were only 190 pieces of the cobalt blue pattern ordered by White Star, then each passenger would get 1.3571 pieces of china to eat from per meal. This is obviously not possible since each place setting probably consisted of (at an absolute minimum) a dinner plate, side plate, salad plate, soup bowl, and a cup and saucer. Not to mention larger serving pieces and miscellaneous items of table ware. Of course, one also would have to consider breakage.
The likelihood that two separate patterns of china were used in the Restaurant at different meals doesn't seem reasonable to me because ships just don't work that way. Also, because of the low numbers ordered of the cobalt blue pattern, the entire number of passengers in the Restaurant couldn't be served at the same time using this pattern.
It seems more likely to me that this pattern was used perhaps in the two largest suites (B-51-53-55 or B-52-54-56), or it may have been a special VIP or Captain's table service. Use in the Lounge, Verandah Cafes, or Reception Room is also probably out because full meals were not served there, and the presence of dinner plates in this pattern indicates to me that this was used as a meal service. Of course, this is all just assumption on my part, but there seem to be too few pieces to be used in a room of any significant size. If anyone else has any theories, I'd be interested to hear them.
I'm also very curious to know how you determined that four styles of china were used in the first-class Dining Room.
Thanks,
Eric Sauder