Category Archives: Porcelain Manufacturers

Mikasa China

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(pronunciation: me-caw-suh)

Mikasa is one of the more successful china companies of the second half of the 20th Century. Their modern designs, both in the china shapes and decorative patterns, are in step with the public’s taste in dinnerware. Readily available in china departments of larger department stores, Mikasa also retails their products at their own retail and outlet stores.

Mikasa Granville China © by Rennett Stowe

My opinion: I like many of the dinnerware patterns, and the Erte salad plates. For anyone with a taste for the modern in dinnerware, there are bound to be several patterns and many number of pieces to purchase.

See Mikasa currently available on-line.

Product lines:
figurines: Christmas and wedding
birthday mugs for children
Erte number and letter salad plates
Christmas ornaments
Four Season plates
frames, candle holders, vases, accent pieces
many, many lines of dinnerware, modern in aesthetic, service for 12 under $1000
flatware and crystal to compliment the dinnerware

Prices:
Prices are generally good, especially with access to an outlet store. The official website also has outlet items. Older patterns are readily available on eBay for prices similar to the original retail price of a given pattern. Replacements, Inc. also carries Mikasa dinnerware, crystal, flatware and some home decor pieces.

Collector’s Society: None.

The official company site is: http://www.mikasa.com/

History
Mikasa started as an importer of Japanese china in the 1950s. The company began designing their own dinnerware patterns, with an emphasis on modern shapes and patterns.

Based on their modern designs in both casual and fine china, the company expanded their production by contracting out production of the china to companies worldwide. This gave the company the freedom to expand lines that were popular with an ease that having their own production facilities would not. Flatware and drink ware were added to the companies portfolio to make Mikasa a source for all table needs, and decorative items in some patterns were also added when a pattern proved to be popular with consumers.

A less expensive line named “Studio Nova” and a cheap brand named “Home Beautiful” has allowed Mikasa to carry lines that appeal to every class of retailer. Their own outlet stores also provide Mikasa wares at discounted prices. Many patterns are introduced each year, and production of any given pattern depends on its reception by the public.

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Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.

Rookwood Pottery

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(pronunciation: as spelled)

Rookwood Pottery has been popular and highly identifiable since its beginning. Many styles of pottery have been made by the pottery in the years since its founding in 1880. Various lines of pottery, including both those with a hard, glossy finish and those with matte glazes have been remarkable for their profusion of designs and shapes. When the pottery was closed in 1967, the formulas and molds were kept together until economic support could be gathered to reinstate the pottery name and production in the 1980′s and the first decade of the Twenty-First Century. Work continues to this day to reuse the Rookwood Pottery molds and glazes in production pieces for modern sensibilities.

Vase, Chief Shavehead © by ego technique.

All Rookwood pottery is marked with the RP (R reversed), with a way to determine the date of production, some shape or line designations, and with the initials of the decorators in many cases.

See Rookwood Pottery.

My opinion: Some of the lines of Rookwood are heavy and dark, but the matte glazed forms can be beautiful. Those so-called “reproductions”, made in white or other colors after the revival of the pottery in the 1980′s may well show off the forms even more completely by the absence of heavy colors or thick glazes. Look for those forms and decorations, modern or original, that speak to you, and pray the entire Rookwood production does not all call your name. The tiles are very nice.

Product lines:
Standard Glaze: deep, rich under-glaze backgrounds with floral motifs or genre scenes. Frequently these pieces are most notable for the dark overall tone of the pieces. Vases, jugs, mugs, plaques; shades of ochre and brown predominate.
Sea Green: combinations of green and blue with touches of warm colors like brown or golden yellow. Vases predominate.
Arial Blue: shades of blue similar to the porcelain of Royal Copenhagen.
Iris Glaze: a hard, shiny glaze over decorations of shades of similar colors, in the Royal Copenhagen aesthetic. Vases predominate.
Iris/Black Iris: incised objects or those with a deep, black background. Some of these have metal overlays or metallic lids. Vases primarily.
Matte glazes: also called the Z class for the Z impressed on the pieces from 1900 to 1904. Pieces may be modeled, incised or painted with various matte glazes. Vases and bowls.
Vellum: pieces with normal, painted designs but retaining an overall matte finish. Vases, plaques, bowls.
Soft, porcelain body, used after 1914. Previous stoneware body continued to be used for some of the previous glaze lines. Several lines of glazes were created or re-developed for the new porcelain body. More variation in line and style of decorations as well as shapes. Vases, bowls, tiles.
Production Wares: products considered to be more mass produced than the hand-painted wares of the other lines. Molded, usually simply decorated or covered in one glaze. Bookends, bowls, candlesticks, flower frogs, figures, ginger jars, planters, vases.

Prices:
From almost reasonable to out of the question, depending on the piece. Hold out for those you like best, and save your money until the right time comes to buy.

Collector’s Society: None.

The official company site is: http://www.rookwood.com/

History
Rookwood, named after the family estate, was established in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols. She was heavily influenced by the pottery on display at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Her pottery expanded and began to employ full-time decorators in 1881.

Over the years the Rookwood Pottery decorators and molders kept pace with the changing fashions of the time, including Art Nouveau and Arte Deco. The pottery survived economic depressions and world wars. Their success invited imitation by J.B. Owens, Roseville, Weller and other area potteries throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century. Finally changing tastes and the availability of other materials led to the end of production in 1967. Even still, the Rookwood molds and glaze formulas were kept together and several attempts at re-establishing production have occurred since. Arabic numerals indicate those efforts after 1967 from the originals.

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Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.

Metlox Pottery

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(pronunciation: as spelled)

If you like embossed rims on your plates, Metlox is for you. The company is
big on embossed plate rims, usually fruit and flowers if plate has normally sized rim. Also, even when the rim is smooth, they can’t seem to resist some embellishment of the rim on the edge. The company also has shapes with narrow and very narrow rims, and the coupe style with no rim at all. Those shapes with narrow, flat rims usually have a color band applied to it. There are some sets of plates with scenes, old South or old New England. These plates have narrow, banded rims and the scene takes up nearly the rest of the plate. Overall, the patterns vary from household casual to a few that are truly modern.

See Metlox pottery.

My opinion: Something for nearly everyone here. Modern shapes and patterns for some, more traditional casual patterns on embossed shapes for other. No traditional, formal dinnerware. Nice blue and white pattern in Antique Blue pattern. A piece or two of your favorite patterns would seem to be sufficient.

Product lines:
Dinnerware

  • Strong, plain colors on modern shapes, or colors shading from light to dark from rim to center.
  • painted or embossed fruit or flowers on plate rims.
  • Bits of … Patterns: Bits of Old England, … Old New England, … The Middle West, … The Old Northwest, … The Old South, … The Old West, … The Southwest: appropriate scenes within a narrow, banded rim
  • California Ivy: one of this companies best known patterns
  • many patterns named “California X”

Cookie Jars: nicely shaped, embossed details
American Royal Horses: horse statuettes
Songs of Christmas: plates based on Yuletide songs

China Shapes
MONTECITO: narrow, flat rim
ULTRA: even narrower rim
coupe: no rim at all
traditional: wide rim, often embossed or with raised details

Prices: Very reasonable for common patterns, on a par with original prices, given inflation, etc. More for the rarer pieces or patterns.

Collector’s Society: Metlox Nuts (http://home.earthlink.net/~ge1228/)

The official company site is: None. But see http://www.metloxcalifornia.com/ for many pictures and prices.

History
Founded by T. C. Prouty and his son Willie in Manhattan Beach California, in 1927 to make porcelain signs. The first housewares made by this company are known as the ProutyLine. Additional lines of dinnerware were introduced in 1932 under the name Poppytrail. The metal oxides and the talc used for the dinnerware were from California, so many of the dinnerware names include California in them. The metal oxides are the source of the Metlox name.

Miniatures were added to the Metlox production after the hiring of designer Carl Romanelli, as were the Modern Masterpieces line of bookends, figures and wall pockets.

Evan Shaw purchased the company in 1946, and the company included Disney characters in their production until 1956.

In 1958, Metlox acquired the trade name and molds for Vernon Kilns, which led to the Vernon Ware branch of the company.

Evan Shaw died in 1960, but the family kept the pottery functioning until production ceased in 1989.

For more information, go here.

Go to the Table of Contents to see all the topics covered so far.

Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.

Wade Potteries

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(pronunciation: as spelled)

Wade Potteries Limited consisted of several potteries in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, England and made porcelain and earthenware dishes, animal figurines, whiskey flagons, and industrial ceramics. The various potteries were started and run by members of the same family. Once joined together under family leadership, the number of potteries increase and included a pottery in Ulster (1946-1990′s). The older potteries have been closed and a new factory is highly robotic and makes flagons for the whiskey industry. The company no longer make the small figurines for which they are so well known to the younger public.

See Wade Pottery products.

My opinion: well made, the figurines and other Wade products are worth pursuing. When in Great Britain, look for the whiskey bottles and gurgling fish pitcher as well.

Product lines:
PAST:
Whimsies: small, solid animal figurines
TV Pets
Whoppas
Minikins
licensed figurines based on TV shows, comics, Disney films, Mr. Men, Pokemon
whiskey bottles
tiles
teapots
CURRENTLY:
dinnerware in white and strong colors
the famous guggle jug, a fish with upturned head and tail, it makes gurgling noises when pouring liquids
promotional items for various food companies

Prices:
Reasonable for past miniatures found on the same continent, but watch out for exchange rates and long distance shipping.

Collector’s Society: Wade International Collector’s Club

The official company site is: http://www.wade.co.uk/

History
est 1867, several companies founded by members of the same family, unified as Wade Potteries Limited in 1958. Various claims to fame include making the tiles used in the London Underground.
run from the 1930′s to 1986 by Colonel Sir George Wade as a single company. Acquired by Beauford Plc in 1998, renamed Wade Ceramics Ltd, now part of Wade Allied Holdings.

Go to the Table of Contents to see all the topics covered so far.

Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.

American Limoges

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(pronunciation: lim-oje)

Although it was not always known as the American Limoges Company, being names the Limoges China Company from 1900 to 1949, the maker’s marks shown for this company includes USA when the term “American” is not included. Thus, it should be easy to tell this company’s products from those from the Limoges area of France, which frequently have only the word “Limoges” in their maker’s mark.

The company lasted long enough to reach the modern design era, so some of the china forms and decorations are in the modern style. There are also older, more traditional designs such as the European china companies have produced.

My opinion: This company did produce some interesting modern designs. A piece here and there should be sufficient.

Product lines:
Replacements, Ltd has almost 500 patterns in their list of American Limoges. Even if color variations are listed separately, and the numbered portion of the list duplicates the names portion, that is still quite a collection of patterns.

No silver or crystal listings are provided, so this company apparently did not survive to the years of diversification.

Prices:
reasonable for china, dinner plates about $24 for true porcelain, less for china, salad plate around $10.

Collector’s Society: None.

The official company site is: None.

History

Established in 1900, the Limoges China Company was renamed the American Limoges Company in 1949, due to a dispute with the Limoges China Company in France. The company produced European porcelain dinnerware, tea sets, chocolate sets, and fruit, salad and soup sets for the American market. Output included semi-vitreous china as well as true porcelain.

American Limoges developed the tunnel kiln, which fired the more china in an easier to load and unload structure, replacing the beehive kiln used since before written history. That revolutionized the production of china in the US and around the world, where it was adapted. American Limoges also used decal decoration heavily, reducing the necessity for hand-painted decorations, and painters, on its many china patterns.

Production ceased in 1955.

Go to the Table of Contents to see all the topics covered so far.

Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.

Stangl Pottery

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(pronunciation: same as strangle, but without the R sound)

Stangl produced nearly one hundred hand-painted pottery dinnerware patterns over the years 1930 to 1972. In addition, the company produced over one hundred bird figurines based on the Audubon bird prints. Gold washed decorative pieces were produced in the late 1950′s. Except for some dinnerware, all Stangl products are marked.

See Stangl Pottery.

My opinion: The bird figurines are not good, but the bird ashtrays are attractive. There are some nice ashtrays decorated with fish (my favorite). A few favorites may be added to your general collection, but for the most part the products of this company can be passed over.

Product lines:
Stangl Birds, based on Audubon: not impressive. very pricey
dinnerware: red body, shows on bottom or interior
dinnerware: white body
dinnerware: some nice floral patterns, some nice bird pieces
art pottery vases and planters
wig stand: cute plus useful
gold washed vases and decorative pieces, not pretty
children’s dinnerware

Prices:
The birds are pricey.
Individual pieces of the dinnerware can be acquired fairly reasonably.

Collector’s Society: None.

The official company site is: None.

History
Martin Stangl purchased the Fulper Pottery in Flemington, New Jersey, in 1930. Dinnerware and household items on both a terra cotta and white clay body were produced. Sgrafitto techniques were used to show the red clay body through the bright colors of the painted decoration. Almost one hundred dinnerware patterns were produced over the forty-eight years the pottery was in production, as well as the birds and innumerable decorative wares.

Go to the Table of Contents to see all the topics covered so far.

Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.