Fiesta Ware by Homer Laughlin A personal story by contributing editor Gina Smith

I just can’t
help of thinking of Fiesta ware around the 4^th of July. You see,
July 1 my mother would have been 86, and the amazing Fiesta dinnerware she had
received on her wedding in 1940 (yes, at the age of 18), was a big part of her
life and mine.

      Introduced
nearly 75 years ago by the Homer Laughlin Co of Newell, West VA (with an
address on “Fiesta” drive), the brightly colored ironstone dinnerware was only
about four years on the market when my mother picked it for her bridal registry
at the Michael C. Fina China Co., in Anderson, IN.

      She
likely received a lot of it, because it was considered very economical, even
“cheap” dinnerware at the time. I don’t know if the colors came in “place
settings” at that time or simply a la carte, but I do remember her telling me
each piece was purchased new for cents- that is, like 25 cents for a coffee
cup!

      
I have no reason to doubt this was true, because my mother’s family was very
poor, and a wedding was not exactly what they had in mind for her in 1940.
Consumption was also cautious at best, because of the war years reminding
people to save, re-use, etc. In fact, a 1943 McCall’s magazine I have
instructed housewives how to get the longest life out of their bed sheets by
mending them promptly when a tear was discovered.

      Such
was the economic climate when my mother was a newlywed, and although I do not
know how many pieces of this then-new dinnerware she received, I do know that
my brothers, who were toddlers in the 1940s, were served on it three times a
day, while my father was in the war in Germany.

      By
the time I came along as an end-of-baby-boom surprise in 1960, she had amassed
quite a collection of Fiesta but still did not view it as such. The kitchen
cupboards were filled to the brim with tall stacks of dinner plates in every
color imaginable. Beside them were equal stacks of luncheon plates, pie plates,
saucers and even rarer divided dinner plates and the large steak plates.

      As
the only daughter, I guess it is also no surprise I correctly learned the names
of all these pieces as well as the proper names of the colors, such as cobalt,
red, light green, chartreuse and more. In fact, even though Fiesta ware was
rapidly dying out in the late 1960s as a common tableware “pattern” among
brides, I can still remember as a child going with her downtown to the same
China store she had always frequented and still seeing pieces of Fiesta on the
shelves and on people’s bridal registries. I don’t remember if I ever got to
register myself at that store as a young adult because I think that local
franchise of the still-famous store went out of business in the late
1970s-early 1980s. Fiesta itself was pulled from production in 1973.

      By
the time I came along, the famously-bright colors of Fiesta or what you and I
would call yellow, orange, turquoise, navy and green, had been supplemented by
“special collections.” The group I most remember included rose, chartreuse
(lime-ish), off-white and gray- not exciting to me at all as a child, but very
exciting to me today if I see it in an antiques shop, as I know it signifies
“authentic” vintage Fiesta.

      
In truth, most of the original key colors of Fiesta have never been reproduced
with 100% accuracy, excepting maybe the cobalt. I don’t know if this is
intentional on the part of Homer Laughlin Co., or not. Still, the similarities
in many of the colors, such as turquoise and yellow, coupled with all the new
colors and pieces they have introduced in the last 20 years, having gone back
into production in 1986, has made it harder and harder for novices to
collecting and the uninitiated (those who never supped on a 1940s
red-which-is-really-orange dinner plate) to tell the difference between new,
old and oldest.

      Thankfully,
many collecting guides have been written on the subject and are very enjoyable
just to look at as Fiesta remains likely the most colorful dinnerware ever
made, although it was quickly imitated by Harlequin ware and even other lines
within HLC. I had understood that HLC nearly went out of business in the
economic downturn of the 1980s when newlyweds favored the indestructible
Corelle by Corning Ware or even “TV dinners” in foil trays!

      However,
today HLC remains the largest domestic pottery employing over 1100 skilled
workers in a 37-acre facility, according to their Web site at www.hlchina.com. This site
provides a wealth of history and information for collectors. It says Fiesta^®
Dinnerware was designed by Frederick Hurten Rhead in 1936 and is now
among 
the most collected china products in the world. It notes that Fiesta was
reissued in 1986 with new, contemporary colors to mark its 50th
anniversary. There are now 15 colors and 50 items in the lead-free
collection. I imagine the few pieces of my mother’s that I still have probably
have lead in them, hence the color differences.

      Besides
the “pink and green” phase, another oh-so-appropriate group of colors came out
in 1969, and featured what was called antique gold and turf green. Anyone
picturing a kitchen of 1970 can just imagine how these complemented those
avocado, gold and copper tone appliances!

      By
the 1970s and 1980s, my mother and one of my brothers had become true
“collectors” of vintage Fiesta, traveling around the Midwest to antiques shows
(often in shopping malls), estate sales and even the ubiquitous flea market, to
add to their collections. They unintentionally passed on to me the “snobbery”
users and lovers of the “old” Fiesta had for the new, modern colors that were
then coming out. We differentiated the “new” cobalt, calling it “that fake
navy” or “repro blue.” Indeed, it is a true dichotomy that as much as they
loved the line, the issuance of a multitude of new colors in 1986 was a
disappointing and disinteresting blow for collecting.

      At
the same time, I was a bit of a “snob” then about anything old (eeewww, yuck!)
as a 20-year-old bride in 1980. I graduated from college with a B.A. in
journalism and Spanish on a Friday and got married on Saturday. My registry was
full of Fiesta’s nemeses- Corning Ware, Tupperware, Rubbermaid, Pyrex and
Baker’s Secret- and all the other names that burst forth on the convenience
scene in the 1980s.

      I
did not have one piece of Fiesta to my name until nearly 1990, when the country
decorating style (remember geese?) made its way into my home, and I decided a
few choice pieces of my mother’s many dishes would look good on a quilt rack in
my kitchen.

      The
further tie-in to the 4^th of July comes to my mind here because my
mother had so much Fiesta she was able to outfit both her house and her summer
cottage with enough place settings and serving pieces for the extended family
to picnic on the dishes over the long 4^th of July weekend (and
without employing an automated dishwasher to keep up).

      Even
though she had many rare and original pieces and even though she was by now
well aware of the value of some, she never for an instant hesitated to let the
youngest of grandchildren or great-grandchildren carry their 1940s dinner plate
across the lake cottage’s concrete floor, the plate loaded as it was with
hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon and the like. The family
celebrations were as colorful in the 1980s and early 1990s as they had been in
the 1960s-1970s. The thought of lead in the dishes had not yet become a concern
in the media or at our table.

      I
don’t remember if my nieces and nephews took the desire into the next
generation, but one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to stack the
Fiesta in the cupboard (and in the glorious Hoosier Kitchen cabinet at the lake
house) to make multi-color stripes of all the same-size pieces. I am sure this
is how my mother got me to dry dishes. I do not remember ever breaking a piece;
thank goodness it was nearly indestructible, as the heavy ironstone it was.

      We
most often set the table with no regard to color, just grabbing whatever plate,
cup, saucer, tumbler, footed compote, olive dish, relish tray, mug or cereal
bowl was on top of the stack. Occasionally, however, I would try to set the
table with each piece of a place setting in all the same color. This was not
the easiest to do; however, as those pieces that had been chipped or broken
early on could not be replaced by the same color later, and again, my parents
were too poor as newlyweds to replace anything when those colors were still
being produced.

      Today,
it is not surprising to find all manner of Fiesta in antiques shops and malls
and flea markets, although it is pretty rare to find any cast off unknowingly
at a garage sale. There is becoming less of a choice supply over time, but the
voluminous issue from 1936 to 1973 and its easy access and low cost in the
early years meant that there was a lot of it in homes in the 40s and 50s especially.
What is surprising, to me anyway, is the price that a very chipped, cracked,
crazed and otherwise bad-looking piece can bring, or at least be marked. My
mother had been absolute in her belief that a chip meant the piece was
worthless, useless, unappealing to look at and should be cast out to the curb
immediately. She, my brother, and I never lost our “snobbery” about that,
refusing to buy damaged vintage pieces-perhaps we were just remembering the
“good, old days” when pristine Fiesta was plentiful.

      Even
though I did not begin to “re”-appreciate Fiesta until about 1990, there are
pictures of it in service at my high school graduation open house and at all
events in between. But, in 1990 when I filled my two-tier oak shelf, I talked
my mother out of some really good pieces, as only an only daughter can do.

            I
had my favorite small pitcher in yellow, my favorite relish tray and salt and
pepper in light green, a footed compote in yellow, and in the rarer red, a
footed compote, luncheon plate and juice glass. I don’t think I ever talked her
out of her demitasse set, mixing bowls, cake server, ash tray or egg cups.

                                  

       I
did, however, get a valuable green pitcher and some other choice pieces.
Unfortunately, all but the yellow pitcher and a small cereal or fruit bowl were
lost when the shelf came crashing down several years later, after a re-painting
of the kitchen.

            And
although there were promises from those who loved me to replace the loss, the
same pieces just could not be found, or if they could, not at a reasonable
price. And, they’d never be my mother’s dishes anyway. When she died in 1998,
the task of sorting through all her Fiesta fell to my brothers and me, along
with my niece. My mother had sold some valuable pieces here and there, like a
couple of multi-colored relish trays and more, to help her fund her widow’s
existence. Now, I felt like I couldn’t and shouldn’t claim the Fiesta for my
own, letting it to go to auction with the sale price added to her estate totals
(which were meager) to benefit everyone. I cannot describe how much I regret
not keeping some key pieces as it would not have mattered much anyway.

So
when I hear fireworks over the lake and smell the grill on a 4^th of
July weekend, I can’t help but think about how the colorful festivities were
once enhanced all the more by the simplest of things, my mother’s old and
colorful dinnerware.

– Guest Author, Gina Smith

{All contributed content Gina Smith © Lilly*s of London*ish}