Original Period Items

Fiesta is a line of dinnerware glazed in differing solid colors manufactured and marketed by the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell, West Virginia. more...

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The original concept of Fiesta was of a line of open-stock dinnerware composed of more than the usual variety of serving and place pieces from which the buying public could select only those place and serving pieces most appropriate to their lifestyle. The original shapes of the many items making up the new line of Fiesta were designed by Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880-1942) while he was Art Director at the Homer Laughlin China Company and Fiesta was first marketed by that company in 1936.

The Fiesta Name

The name of this line of dinnerware has always been simply Fiesta; however, after the Homer Laughlin China Company began marketing other lines of dinnerware in similar solid color glazing, and especially after other manufacturers began imitating the very successful Fiesta line of dinnerware, the public began to refer to all solid color dinnerware as "Fiestaware".

Fiesta's Popularity and Marketing

Fiesta became instantly popular upon its introduction to the public at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January of 1936. Fiesta was not the first solid color dinnerware to be created in the United States of America; smaller companies, especially BauerPottery in California, had been producing dinnerware in solid color glazes for the better part of a decade by the time Fiesta was first introduced to the market. However, Fiesta was the first widely mass-promoted and marketed solid color dinnerware. At the time of its introduction, the decoration of dinnerware and kitchenware ceramics was still very much Victorian era inspired, with full predetermined sets all decorated with the same decal designs. Fiesta represented something radically new to the general public with its solid color glazes and mix-and-match concept. At its introduction, the Fiesta line of dinnerware comprised some thirty-seven different pieces, including such unusual items as Candleholders in two designs, a Bud Vase, an Ash Tray, and a set of seven Nested Mixing Bowls ranging from the smallest at five inches in diameter up to a giant having nearly a twelve inch diameter. Although basic table service sets for four, six and eight persons made up of the usual dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, and cup and saucer were available, the promotion and presentation of Fiesta from the start was as a line of open stock items from which the individual purchaser could combine serving and place pieces as personal preference desired and need dictated. To quote from an early Homer Laughlin Company brochure listing items available in the Fiesta line at that time:

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