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Fiestaware and Fiesta Colors Production Dates

Identifying dinnerware is all about shapes (designs), not decorations (patterns)

Homer Laughlin China assigned names to every one of the shapes of the china they produced, but the decals were not always given names. Some decorations were named; some were not. Identifying a dish by it's pattern is made even more difficult by the fact that there were many, many decals and many of them were used on multiple designs. And sometimes a named pattern was given that name not by Homer Laughlin China, but by the retailer. But all of the designs produced by Homer Laughlin China were named.

Molds for dishes were sometimes re-used! For example, Skytone, Suntone, and Debutante designs all borrowed from Jubilee. The Celeste design is made up of shapes borrowed from two different designs (Cavalier and Brittany). The well-known Riviera design is really Century, but with bright solid-color glazes, but since the Century design didn't have a butter dish, the Riviera butter is borrowed from the Jade design. Amberstone is today sometimes called "brown Fiesta" since it used the Fiesta shapes and a brown glaze. And sometimes just some of the pieces in a set were created using molds from another design. Charm House is a design that has no plates (flatware); it consists just of holloware (cups, bowls, shakers, etc.) to be borrowed by other designs.

Identifying Marks

Much of the pottery made by Homer Laughlin China (HLC) has their name or logo on the back, but a surprising amount is not marked, and much bears a mark other than Homer Laughlin China, and even names other than the shape name. Amberstone pieces were marketed to retailers as Sheffield and they bore the Sheffield mark.

Some distributors applied their own mark. The distributor Cunningham and Pickett did so; in the early years of their relationship their mark appeared along with Homer Laughlin's, but eventually the HLC mark was omitted and only Cunningham and Pickett's backstamp was applied.

Some companies purchased pieces from HLC and then applied their own decoration. These pieces may have HLC's backstamp, the decorating company's backstamp, or both.

Some of the backstamps you might find on dishes manufactured at HLC include:
 

Add-A-Place American China Americana Scenes from Currier and Ives American Subjects from Currier and Ives Art Wells Glazes Buttercup Chateau Buffet Colorama Color Harmony Coventry Castilian Craftsman Dinnerware Cunningham & Pickett Decorated With DuPont Metallic Gold and Ceramic Colors Early American Homes Elaine Epicure Famous Old Ships Fortune Georgian Dinnerware Golden Rule Golden Wheat Guaranteed OvenServe Harvest Harvest Gold Hercules Hotel China Hotel Household Institute - Priscilla Interstate Sunrise Ware Jubilee Kenmark China King Quality Kingsway, Alliance, Ohio Kitchen Kraft Ovenserve Majestic Modern Star

Moss Rose Nosegay Old Roman Old Sports Scenes Original Mansfield Dinnerware OvenServe Palette Ware Pasadena The Pearl China Company (or Pearl China) Queen Esther Ravenna Rose Medallion Royal Crown AA1 Dinnerware Royal Harvest Royal OvenServe Scandia by Sheffield Select Semi-Vitreous Shakespeare Country Sheffield Bone White Sheffield Imperial Blue Dresden Sheffield Provincial Sheffield Seville Sheffield Sierra Ironstone Dinnerware Sunrise Brand for Sears Tea Rose Town House Trellis Tudor Rose Wells (with a Peaccock) Wells Clair de Lune Wells Newell (with a bridge) Wells Warranted White Dover Ironstone White Granite Wild Rose Zylco

Designs produced by Homer Laughlin China Company (HLC) include:
 

 

Fiesta (Original) Fiesta Ironstone Contemporary Fiesta aka Post 86 Fiesta or p86 Fiesta Riviera Harlequin Kitchen Kraft OvenServe Genessee Virginia Rose Tango Nautilus Century and Ivory Century Kwaker Newell Sunrise Empress Lenox Wells Georgian Skytone Suntone Lifetime China Genuine Sheffield Amberstone Coventry Casualstone Tea Rose

Marigold Coronet Brittany Tango Picadilly Tea Rose Swing Daisy OvenServe Ivora Republic Niagra Seneca Hudson King Charles American Sweetheart Jade Liberty Rhythm Epicure Serenade Seville Harmony Craftsman Jubilee Wells Art Glaze Carnival Kenilworth

A great many decals were used to decorate dishes. Some of the decals have names, but many were not named.
Named decals include (but are not by any stretch limited to):
 

Mexicana Max-i-cana (Maxicana) Mexicali Hacienda Conchita Ranchera Arizona Pueblo Sun Porch (SunPorch) Briar Rose Rose Priscilla Shaggy Flower (unofficial name) Birds and Roses Dogwood Rambler Rose Stardust Floral Basket Marcia Ferndale Royal Harvest Blue Willow String of Hearts Red Leaf Della Robbia Chinese Buddha

Medallion Bluebird Doll's House Minuet Starflower Red Flower Woodland Gold Rose Melody II Golden Scrolls Fluffy Rose Garden Ring Bouquet Marigold Springtime Evelyn II Heather Rose Nosegay aka Elaine Winfs Meadow Goldenrod I Red Rings Old Curiosity Shop La Hacienda Yellow Carnation Hawaiian 12-Point Daisy English Garden

Homer Laughlin dishes have not only been sold to the public, but also were used as supermarket promotions, free items inside products like oats and detergent, and also have a strong history as restaurant ware. The dishes were used for a variety of other items such as calendar plates.  Many companies commissioned HLC to create advertisement items such as ashtrays and mugs.

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