'coral' colored CANTINAWARE CHINA salt/pepper set

Here's yet one more little maybe- prize from one of the church rummage sales a couple weeks ago. Turns out they might have a slightly more interesting/amusing 'history' (albeit not a terribly long one) than I would have guessed. The pair was together in a plastic bag at the sale, and they caught my eye for their bright 'coral-red/orange' color (close enough to fire-engine red that they'd still work in my kitchen) and their "Fiestaware-ISH" shape and style. Even the checkout clerk lady commented that they looked like Fiesta, but by then I had actually looked closely enough at them (thru the baggie) to see that they were marked "CANTINAWARE CHINA" on their bases instead. They are about 3" tall, a little wider, and about 1-1/2" thick.

It took a little more than the normal amount of Googling to eventually find (kinda only) passing references that "CANTINA CHINA" was a line made for Target Stores in the 1990's, (perhaps by Syracuse China?) designed/styled to mimic authentic Fiestaware -- which seems to have done so rather a bit too well for the folks at Homer-Laughlin Co., apparently the actual owners of the original Fiesta patents/patterns at the time...lawsuits/etc ensued, then the CANTINA CHINA line seemingly quickly disappeared from Target stores. <oops...?>

The unfortunate detail which I failed to notice thru the plastic bag at the sale is that, in fact, whoever first owned them apparently *dropped one* sometime busting a chunk out of its side, then gluing it back together. In my own defense, the fracture/glue line is not immediately obvious, but for a couple very small spots (points of impact?) where tiny bits of the original glazing are now gone. OH, WELL -- I still think they're a fun set, they still match my kitchen, and (as already damaged goods) I don't havta worry too much about filling 'em back up and putting 'em back into 'regular service' on my counter/table...? ;-) :-) :-)

[EDIT, a couple wks later] I have just changed out the final pic here, to show the result of an experiment to further help hide the crack/damage. I stuck the damaged shaker in my pocket and visited a local drugstore...specifically the "ladies' cosmetics" aisle which I normally would just only walk thru (maybe?) on the way to the pharmacy. ;-) Looked around there a bit and eventually found a cheap bottle of nail polish which is pretty nearly the same color...repeated applications of it (tiny drops, using a toothpick) eventually filled in the two small but glaringly white 'nicks' which remained after I'd otherwise scrubbed off all the excess glue mess around the crack, which it also came with. [as whoever glued it back together after they'd dropped it used *way too much* superglue (probably) and might have even glued it to their own fingers in process...there were partial fingerprints still kinda obviously visible too... <lol>]

One way or the other I think I'm happy with the result -- the 'slightly off-color orange' spots are WAY less obvious than the same spots before, I think...?? ;-) :-)