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Vintage Homer Laughlin Dinnerware
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Founded in 1873 on the banks of the Ohio River in East Liverpool, Ohio, the Homer Laughlin China Company takes its name from one of the two brothers (the other answered to Shakespeare) who established the firm. First called The Ohio Valley...
Founded in 1873 on the banks of the Ohio River in East Liverpool, Ohio, the Homer Laughlin China Company takes its name from one of the two brothers (the other answered to Shakespeare) who established the firm. First called The Ohio Valley Pottery in 1874 then Laughlin Bros. Pottery shortly thereafter, the company's name was simplified to just Homer Laughlin in 1877 when Homer bought out Shakespeare. By 1897, when Homer Laughlin sold his business to his bookkeeper and a few others, his name was deemed important enough to the company's future that the new owners felt no need to change it.
For the potteries of post-Civil War America, it was not a foregone conclusion that they'd ever be able to compete with the fine porcelain and sturdy stoneware imported from England. Indeed, some potteries disguised the American origins of their products by stamping the bottoms of their cups, saucers, plates, and bowls with a simplified British coat of arms that included a royal lion. Eventually, as the quality of American ceramics improved, these lions were replaced by American eagles. Homer Laughlin put an eagle on the base of his wares, too, except he depicted his eagle attacking a supine lion, an emphatic statement of what Laughlin thought of his British competitors. Before long, East Liverpool was known as "Ceramic City" and the "Staffordshire of America," thanks largely to the rapid growth of Homer Laughlin's company.
From the beginning, Homer Laughlin supplied fine china to the best hotels and restaurants in the country, as well as to railroads. After it expanded across the river to the West Virginia panhandle town of Newell in the first years of the 20th century, Homer Laughlin secured contracts to create dinnerware for the US Navy, whose officers ate off of Homer Laughlin china during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam.
For the most part, the design sensibility at Homer Laughlin throughout its first half century was safe and traditional, with pattern names like American Beauty, Rococo, and Golden Gate. But that changed in 1927, when Homer Laughlin hired the great British designer Frederick Hurten Rhead, who had just left the company that would become Shawnee, to update its catalog. Rhead's first dinnerware line, Yellowstone, does not appear especially radical to 21st-century eyes. After all, its plates, platters, and casseroles, some of which were developed for Woolworth's, were decorated with red roses and yellow chrysanthemums, but the shapes of these pieces were octagonal instead of round. Sounds simple enough, but this small change forced Homer Laughlin to expand its manufacturing facilities to satisfy the demand.
Yellowstone would hardly be the last time that Rhead would play with the shapes of his dinnerware pieces. In 1932, he released Century, whose square and rectangular forms were decorated with everything from stereotypical scenes of Mexico and the American Southwest to clusters of fruit. The Century shape would be used again in 1938 for a solid-colored line called Riviera, but by then, Rhead had become even better known as the designer of Fiesta, which was conceived in 1935 and released in 1936, the same year as a shape called Tango. That initial Fiesta run featured 34 pieces in five colors. It was so popular that Homer Laughlin created a very similar line in 1938 for Woolworth's called Harlequin. More traditional, if more atypical of Rhead, was OverServe, Virginia Rose (both 1933), and Kitchen Kraft (1937), which seemed a return to the charms of simple floral decorations. Rhead worked for Homer Laughlin until death in 1942.
Continue readingFounded in 1873 on the banks of the Ohio River in East Liverpool, Ohio, the Homer Laughlin China Company takes its name from one of the two brothers (the other answered to Shakespeare) who established the firm. First called The Ohio Valley Pottery in 1874 then Laughlin Bros. Pottery shortly thereafter, the company's name was simplified to just Homer Laughlin in 1877 when Homer bought out Shakespeare. By 1897, when Homer Laughlin sold his business to his bookkeeper and a few others, his name was deemed important enough to the company's future that the new owners felt no need to change it.
For the potteries of post-Civil War America, it was not a foregone conclusion that they'd ever be able to compete with the fine porcelain and sturdy stoneware imported from England. Indeed, some potteries disguised the American origins of their products by stamping the bottoms of their cups, saucers, plates, and bowls with a simplified British coat of arms that included a royal lion. Eventually, as the quality of American ceramics improved, these lions were replaced by American eagles. Homer Laughlin put an eagle on the base of his wares, too, except he depicted his eagle attacking a supine lion, an emphatic statement of what Laughlin thought of his British competitors. Before long, East Liverpool was known as "Ceramic City" and the "Staffordshire of America," thanks largely to the rapid growth of Homer Laughlin's company.
From the beginning, Homer Laughlin supplied fine china to the best hotels and restaurants in the country, as well as to railroads. After it expanded across the river to the West Virginia panhandle town of Newell in the first years of the 20th century, Homer Laughlin secured contracts to create dinnerware for the US Navy, whose officers ate off of Homer Laughlin china during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam.
For the most part, the design sensibility at Homer Laughlin throughout its first half century was safe and...
Founded in 1873 on the banks of the Ohio River in East Liverpool, Ohio, the Homer Laughlin China Company takes its name from one of the two brothers (the other answered to Shakespeare) who established the firm. First called The Ohio Valley Pottery in 1874 then Laughlin Bros. Pottery shortly thereafter, the company's name was simplified to just Homer Laughlin in 1877 when Homer bought out Shakespeare. By 1897, when Homer Laughlin sold his business to his bookkeeper and a few others, his name was deemed important enough to the company's future that the new owners felt no need to change it.
For the potteries of post-Civil War America, it was not a foregone conclusion that they'd ever be able to compete with the fine porcelain and sturdy stoneware imported from England. Indeed, some potteries disguised the American origins of their products by stamping the bottoms of their cups, saucers, plates, and bowls with a simplified British coat of arms that included a royal lion. Eventually, as the quality of American ceramics improved, these lions were replaced by American eagles. Homer Laughlin put an eagle on the base of his wares, too, except he depicted his eagle attacking a supine lion, an emphatic statement of what Laughlin thought of his British competitors. Before long, East Liverpool was known as "Ceramic City" and the "Staffordshire of America," thanks largely to the rapid growth of Homer Laughlin's company.
From the beginning, Homer Laughlin supplied fine china to the best hotels and restaurants in the country, as well as to railroads. After it expanded across the river to the West Virginia panhandle town of Newell in the first years of the 20th century, Homer Laughlin secured contracts to create dinnerware for the US Navy, whose officers ate off of Homer Laughlin china during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the war in Vietnam.
For the most part, the design sensibility at Homer Laughlin throughout its first half century was safe and traditional, with pattern names like American Beauty, Rococo, and Golden Gate. But that changed in 1927, when Homer Laughlin hired the great British designer Frederick Hurten Rhead, who had just left the company that would become Shawnee, to update its catalog. Rhead's first dinnerware line, Yellowstone, does not appear especially radical to 21st-century eyes. After all, its plates, platters, and casseroles, some of which were developed for Woolworth's, were decorated with red roses and yellow chrysanthemums, but the shapes of these pieces were octagonal instead of round. Sounds simple enough, but this small change forced Homer Laughlin to expand its manufacturing facilities to satisfy the demand.
Yellowstone would hardly be the last time that Rhead would play with the shapes of his dinnerware pieces. In 1932, he released Century, whose square and rectangular forms were decorated with everything from stereotypical scenes of Mexico and the American Southwest to clusters of fruit. The Century shape would be used again in 1938 for a solid-colored line called Riviera, but by then, Rhead had become even better known as the designer of Fiesta, which was conceived in 1935 and released in 1936, the same year as a shape called Tango. That initial Fiesta run featured 34 pieces in five colors. It was so popular that Homer Laughlin created a very similar line in 1938 for Woolworth's called Harlequin. More traditional, if more atypical of Rhead, was OverServe, Virginia Rose (both 1933), and Kitchen Kraft (1937), which seemed a return to the charms of simple floral decorations. Rhead worked for Homer Laughlin until death in 1942.
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