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WARNING! WARNING!
I am slightly color blind so any colors named by me in each listing is from my viewpoint.
If you are looking for one of the specific subtle shades offered by Fiesta please look at the pictures
CAREFULLY!
There will be no refund for undesired colors!
FIESTA WARE
Fiesta is a line of dinnerware glazed in differing solid colors manufactured and marketed by the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell, West Virginia, since 1936
Fiesta® Dinnerware was originally designed by Frederick Hurten Rhead in 1936. Some of the redesigned original shapes, and other new shapes were designed by the late Jonathan O. Parry, who became the company art director in 1984.
.Fiestaware is now among
the most collected china products in the world. As originally designed, the line featured art deco
styling and bold, bright colors. The product was discontinued in 1973 and reissued in 1986 with
new contemporary colors to mark its 50th anniversary.
Fiesta® Dinnerware’s styling complements a wide range of decors.
The fifteen bold colors complement one another as well as a wide range
of interior palettes. Over 50 items in the line provide maximum service options
and ensure consistent tabletop styling. The plate’s coupe shape allows maximum food
plating surface; sculpted concentric rings highlight and frame the food presentation.
Alpha Alumina added to the body enhances durability and provides superior heat retention.
Home site of Homer Laughlin China Company
http://www.hlchina.com/company.htm
As a line of open-stock dinnerware, Fiestaware allows buyers to select by the piece, rather than requiring the purchase of entire sets. Notably, buyers can mix and match from the color range. According to David Conley, the company's director of retail sales and marketing, Fiestaware's current colors derive from home decor and fashion trends, and according to the Smithsonian Institute Press, Fiestaware's appeal lies in its bright colors, modern design, and affordability.
The name of this line of dinnerware has always been simply Fiesta; however, after the Homer Laughlin China Company began marketing other lines of dinnerware in similar solid color glazing, and especially after other manufacturers began imitating the very successful Fiesta line of dinnerware, the public began to refer to all solid color dinnerware as "Fiestaware".
Introduced at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January, 1936, Fiesta was not the first solid color dinnerware in the US; smaller companies, especially BauerPottery in California, had been producing dinnerware in solid color glazes for the better part of a decade by the time Fiesta was first introduced to the market. However, Fiesta was the first widely mass-promoted and marketed solid color dinnerware. At the time of its introduction, the decoration of dinnerware and kitchenware ceramics was still very much Victorian era inspired, with full predetermined sets all decorated with the same decal designs. Fiesta represented something radically new to the general public with its solid color glazes and mix-and-match concept. At its introduction, the Fiesta line of dinnerware comprised some thirty-seven different pieces, including such unusual items as Candleholders in two designs, a Bud Vase, an Ash Tray, and a set of seven Nested Mixing Bowls ranging from the smallest at five inches in diameter up to a giant having nearly a twelve inch diameter. Although basic table service sets for four, six and eight persons made up of the usual dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, and cup and saucer were available, the promotion and presentation of Fiesta from the start was as a line of open stock items from which the individual purchaser could combine serving and place pieces as personal preference desired and need dictated.
To quote from an early Homer Laughlin Company brochure listing items available in the Fiesta line at that time:
"COLOR! that's the trend today..." and it went on to say, "It gives the hostess the opportunity to create her own table effects....... Plates of one color, Cream Soups of another, contrasting Cups and Saucers....it's FUN to set a table with Fiesta!"
To the variety of pieces offered at its introduction, the Homer Laughlin Company quickly added several additional items to the line. During this period a few of the items received modifications, and one or two of the most unusual items were eliminated completely such as the Covered Onion Soup Bowl, and the Mixing Bowl Covers. In the following years up to 1940 still more items were regularly brought into production to expand the line. At its greatest number the Fiesta line of dinnerware comprised approximately sixty-four different items including Flower Vases in three sizes, Divided Plates, Water Tumblers, Carafes, Teapots in two sizes, Five Part Relish Trays, large Chop Plates in fifteen inch and thirteen inch diameters, and several unique sales promotional items offered for only one dollar each which were only available in a predetermined glaze color.
The disruption to society caused by World War II, and the need for manufacturers to focus on production for that effort, affected non-war related production and public demand, and so beginning in 1942 the Fiesta line of items began to be reduced. Over the next four years, even as these more unusual serving pieces were being discontinued, and in fact by the year 1946 the line's variety of items had been reduced by nearly one third, still, overall sales of the more typical place setting pieces in the Fiesta line remained strong and reportedly peaked around 1948. Ultimately the popularity of Fiesta was due to its bright colors, durable construction, stylized art deco shape and design, and its promotion through mass marketing. From its first introduction in 1936 and for over a decade Fiesta was a widespread fad and so became something of a status symbol of the late 1930s and pre-war 1940s middle-class household. Today, this vintage Fiesta trades briskly on auction websites and at other antique/vintage product sales venues.
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