Vintage Restaurant Ware

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Restaurant ware, also called hotel china, refers to plates and bowls, cups and saucers, and smaller items such as creamers and monkey dishes that were made especially for use in commercial settings. Potteries such as Buffalo, Jackson, Shenango,...
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Restaurant ware, also called hotel china, refers to plates and bowls, cups and saucers, and smaller items such as creamers and monkey dishes that were made especially for use in commercial settings. Potteries such as Buffalo, Jackson, Shenango, Wallace, Syracuse, Tepco, and Homer Laughlin are some of the best known manufacturers of restaurant ware, which is generally heavier than dinnerware produced for the home. Some of the most collected types of restaurant ware include airbrushed pieces, Western and floral themes (wagon wheels and palm trees are equally popular), and plates bearing an establishment’s logo. In the United States, the proliferation of restaurant ware paralleled that of railroad china, both of which became widespread in the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the efforts of entrepreneurs like George Pullman and Fred Harvey. It was a time when railroads tied the nation together, knotted here and there by growing cities and luxurious stopovers. Guests staying at, or merely dining in, the hotels that catered to this new cohort of domestic travelers were often treated like royalty, to encourage these early adopters, as we might call them today, to spread the word. One of the earliest companies to make dinnerware for the growing hospitality industry was the Syracuse China Company. Founded in 1871, Syracuse introduced a new line of heavy, chip-resistant dinnerware called Round Edge in 1896. For its part, Shenango Pottery produced nothing but commercial china from 1909 until 1935. Around the same time, in 1932, the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad hired Buffalo Pottery Company to make a special set of china in honor of George Washington’s 200th birthday. Sporting lavish gold rims, the plates in the set featured a reproduction of Gilbert Stuart’s “Athenaeum” portrait of George Washington in their centers. Reportedly, each large service plate, which Buffalo sold to the C&O for $66 per dozen, had $5 worth of gold in them, which means...
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