The Hall China Company and classic American teapot designs

[mbanu]

Someone scanned a catalog from 1948: http://www.laurelhollowpark.net/orp/hal ... a1948.html

This doesn't even include their more wild stuff, like the Donut and Football shaped teapots, although it does include The Cube.

I also like that it includes the sizes -- there is a stereotype that Americans have always liked super-sized everything, but that is not really so. There are quite a few 7 ounce and 8 ounce teapots offered. Also the side-handled "Manhattan" teapot, calling back to the former popularity of Japanese teas in the United States.

[mbanu]

As for what happened to Hall China, you could get many of these models (and sizes) of teapot up until this year; their local Ohio competitor Homer Laughlin bought them out in 2010. However, in 2020 they sold off the bulk of the brand to Steelite, who I imagine will turn it into a zombie. What's left of the Homer Laughlin factory now focuses on selling Fiestaware exclusively, including one 44 ounce teapot: https://fiestafactorydirect.com/pages/our-history

If they kept control of the designs, maybe they will show up again one day, though. (It looks like a few online suppliers still have leftover 10 oz. white Buffet pots, if anyone is curious.)

[mbanu]

The 1938 patent for the Airflow teapot, one of their classic designs. According to his obituary, Leonard Brindley was born in Stoke-on-Trent in England and moved to East Liverpool, Ohio in America in 1914.

[rdl]

Upton Tea is working with Hall China and Homer Laughlin to produce their teapots. When they first announced the collaboration they did a really interesting historical write up of these companies until the present.
mbanu, I have been enjoying reading your research and discoveries that you have been posting. Thanks.

[mbanu]

Another interesting quirk -- they offered a metal spout tip option not as repair for damage, but on brand new pots that were expected to chip, such as those used in restaurants.

*Edit: Also interesting that the teapot on the right, which was a "Chicago Pot" in 1948, was being sold as a coffee or chocolate pot by the time of this advertisement. The Chicago pot is an interesting one because it is shaped like an Oktoberfest beer stein with a spout; I wonder what the history of that design is?

[mbanu]

Hall also sometimes did collaborations with artists; this was a teapot, creamer, sugarbowl set by the ceramics artist Eva Zeisel.

[mbanu]

Hall China also did patterned teapots, but most of them were various types of floral pattern. This one is a non-floral, nicknamed "Silhouette". Sadly, I don't know much about the symbolism behind the image. Apparently this was a popular pattern for "store premium" campaigns. This was a practice where a business would offer some item as a reward for buying a certain amount of their main product, usually something that was not available for purchase separately.

Given the Colonial design, maybe it is related to a historically significant meeting-place such as The Green Dragon Tavern in Boston where the Boston Tea Party was planned?

[mbanu]

Apparently this pattern has another name, "Taverne". It looks like this name may have been invented by Harvey Duke, a Hall China collector who wanted a way to distinguish this pattern from another pattern named Silhouette produced by the Crooksville China Company that had a similar look. Was one a copy of the other, maybe? This is a Crooksville China Silhouette:

[RayClem]

My mother-in-law had a large collection of original Fiestaware. When she went into a nursing home and we cleared out her home, we kept some of the pieces, including a teapot. Because some of the pieces contain radioactive pigments, we keep the remaining pieces on top of our kitchen cabinets to be admired, but not used. We take them down once a year to wash off the dust.

The modern replicas of the original pieces no longer contain radioactive pigments.