"Century" shape plate with "Mexicana" pattern decoration
- MAKER:
Designer
Frederick H. Rhead ( American, 1880 - 1942 )
Maker
Homer Laughlin China Company ( American, 1871 )
- DATE:
- c. 1931
General Description
Although designed in 1931, the Century shape was repeatedly used by Homer Laughlin during the decade as the base for dinnerware of great diversity. The Mexicana pattern was introduced to the market in 1937 on both Century and Homer Laughlin's Kitchen Kraft line. Featuring cacti and Native American pottery, the design was advertised as the one that "started the vogue for the Mexican motif in crockery which has swept the country." [1]
[1] Crockery and Glass Journal 122:5 (May 1938): 10.
Adapted from
Charles L. Venable, Ellen P. Denker, Katherine C. Grier, Stephen G. Harrison, China and Glass in America, 1880-1980: From Tabletop to TV Tray (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2000), 460, cat. 169.
Fun Facts
- "Mexican" (Mexican) ware was a popular style of casual dinner ware in the early 1930s. U.S. glassmakers and potteries decorated wares with stereotypical images of the American Southwest and Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s.