(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.

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Read more about porcelain collectibles in the Porcelain Collectibles Guide.