 | |
| Industry | Ceramic manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1893 |
| Founder | Wilder Austin Pickard |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Andrew Pickard Morgan |
| Products | Tableware |
| Website | www |
Pickard China is an American porcelain decorating and manufacturing company in Antioch, Illinois, United States. The company was founded in 1893, and continues to produce ceramic tableware and art ware today.
Pickard China was incorporated in Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1893. Wilder Austin Pickard (1857–1939) started the company in 1894 by offering his customers hand-painted giftware, artware, and eventually dinnerware. He moved the company to Chicago in 1897. The company was originally called Pickard China Studio and it specialized in hand-decorating dessert and tea sets.
Pickard assembled a group of men and women china painters, many emigrating from Europe, to create this uniquely American style of hand-painted china. Many of the company's original artists were from the Art Institute of Chicago.
Pickard first relied on porcelain that was manufactured in Europe. Blank plates were imported and then decorate in Pickard's studio. When Wilder Pickard's son Austin Pickard joined the company, he decided Pickard would begin manufacturing its blank plates and dishes. In 1930, the company's first experimental china was made. Pickard also worked toward making its own glazes. In 1937, after the experimentation was complete, a production facility was opened in Antioch, Illinois.
Austin's son, Henry A. "Pete" Pickard, was the third generation to enter the family business, serving as the company's president from 1966 until his retirement in 1994. Pete's brother-in-law, Eben C. Morgan II, succeeded him as president, holding that position until shortly before his death in June 2008. [1] [2] Richard E. Morgan and Andrew Pickard Morgan, the founder's great-grandsons, both joined the company and represent the family's fourth generation in the business.
Pickard, Inc., remains a family-owned business. The company's sales are primarily in fine china dinnerware, decorative accessories and collectibles.
In 1977, Pickard was selected by the U.S. Department of State to manufacture the official china service used by American embassies and other diplomatic missions around the world. This service's special decoration includes an embossed gold border of stars and stripes and an embossed reproduction of the Great Seal of the United States. Pickard was also selected to produce exclusive fine china services for heads of state, [3] corporations, and hotels, including the King of Saudi Arabia, Hilton Hotels, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Marriott Corporation, General Motors, the U.S. Air Force, New York's Gracie Mansion, the United Nations, Air Force One, Blair House and Camp David.
The 3,520-piece Obama State China service was introduced on April 27, 2015. [4]
Lenox Corporation is an American manufacturing company that sells tableware, giftware, and collectible products under the Lenox, Dansk, Reed & Barton, Gorham, and Oneida brands. For most of the 20th century, it was the most prestigious American maker of tableware, and the company produced other decorative pieces as well. Several Lenox china services were commissioned for the White House. By 2020, it was the last significant manufacturer of bone china in the United States, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of the company's only remaining American factory.
Fiesta is a line of ceramic glazed dinnerware manufactured and marketed by the Fiesta Tableware Company of Newell, West Virginia since its introduction in 1936, with a hiatus from 1973 to 1985. Fiesta is noted for its Art Deco styling and its range of often bold, solid colors.
Spode is an English brand of pottery and homewares produced in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Spode was founded by Josiah Spode (1733–1797) in 1770, and was responsible for perfecting two important techniques that were crucial to the worldwide success of the English pottery industry in the 19th century: transfer printing on earthenware and bone china.
Syracuse China, located in Lyncourt, New York, was a manufacturer of fine china. Founded in 1871 as Onondaga Pottery Company in the town of Geddes, the company initially produced earthenware; in the late 19th century, O.P.Co., began producing fine china, for which it found a strong market particularly in hotels, restaurants, and railroad dining cars. Later changing their name to match their product line, the company closed in 2009.
The Rockingham Pottery was a 19th-century manufacturer of porcelain of international repute, supplying fine wares and ornamental pieces to royalty and the aristocracy in Britain and overseas, as well as manufacturing porcelain and earthenware items for ordinary use.
Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California, US. The pottery factory closed in 1989.
Royal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory, is a Danish manufacturer of porcelain products and was founded in Copenhagen in 1775 under the protection of Danish Dowager Queen Juliane Marie. It is recognized by its factory mark, the three wavy lines above each other, symbolizing Denmark's three water ways: Storebælt, Lillebælt and Øresund.
Blue Ridge is a brand and range of American tableware (dishware) manufactured by Southern Potteries Incorporated from the 1930s until 1957. Well known in their day for their underglaze decoration and colorful patterns, Blue Ridge pieces are now popular items with collectors of antique dishware. The underglaze technique made the decorations more durable, and while basic patterns were reused consistently, the fact that each piece was hand-painted means that no two pieces are exactly alike.
The Fiesta Tableware Company is a ceramics manufacturer located in Newell, West Virginia, United States. Established in 1871, it is widely known for its Art Deco glazed dinnerware line, Fiesta. In 2002, The New York Times called Fiesta "the most collected brand of china in the United States".
Mildred Ruth Mottahedeh was an American collector of ceramics, businessperson, and philanthropist. With her husband, Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, she co-founded Mottahedeh & Company, a designer and supplier of luxury porcelain based on historical models or direct replicas. The couple also gathered a large personal collection of antiques, mainly Chinese export porcelain.
The Imperial Porcelain Factory, also known as the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, is a producer of hand-painted ceramics in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was established by Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov in 1744 and was supported by the Russian tsars since Empress Elizabeth. Many still refer to the factory by its well-known former name, the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory.
The White House china refers to the various patterns of china (porcelain) used for serving and eating food in the White House, home of the president of the United States. Different china services have been ordered and used by different presidential administrations. The White House collection of china is housed in the White House China Room. Not every administration created its own service, but portions of all china services created for the White House are now in the China Room collection. Some of the older china services are used for small private dinners in the President's Dining Room on the Second Floor.
Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, US from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood closed the Los Angeles plant, and moved the production of dinnerware to England in 1983. Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood in 1986, becoming Waterford Wedgwood. KPS Capital Partners acquired all of the holdings of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009. The Franciscan brand became part of a group of companies known as WWRD, an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." WWRD continues to produce the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple.
Vernon Kilns was an American ceramic company in Vernon, California, US. In July 1931, Faye G. Bennison purchased the former Poxon China pottery renaming the company Vernon Kilns. Poxon China was located at 2300 East 52nd Street. Vernon produced ceramic tableware, art ware, giftware, and figurines. The company closed its doors in 1958.
Restaurant ware, or most commonly hotelware, is vitrified, ceramic tableware which exhibits high mechanical strength and is produced for use in hotels and restaurants. Tableware used in railway dining cars, passenger ships and airlines are also included in this category.
The china service of the Lincoln administration generally refers to a set of purple-banded china (porcelain) dishes used for serving and eating food at the White House, home of the president of the United States for state dinners. Also known as the Lincoln solferino china service, it was purchased in April 1861 by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The porcelain was manufactured by Haviland & Co. in France, and some of the decoration of the china was made overseas. Additional decoration was made by the American firm of E. V. Haughwout & Co., which sold the china to Mrs. Lincoln.
China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porcelain, developed in 18th-century Europe. The broader term ceramic painting includes painted decoration on lead-glazed earthenware such as creamware or tin-glazed pottery such as maiolica or faience.
Buffalo China, Inc., formerly known as Buffalo Pottery, was a company founded in 1901 in Buffalo, New York as a manufacturer of semi-vitreous, and later vitreous, china. Prior to its acquisition by Oneida Ltd. in 1983, the company was one of the largest manufacturers of commercial chinaware in the United States.
Bill Reddick is a Canadian artist turned baker. Reddick began working in pottery during the 1970s before switching over to porcelain in 1996. During his artistic career, Reddick made Canada's Official State Dinnerware called the Maple Leaf Service in 2005. These plates for the Governor General of Canada were borrowed for usage by leaders Stephen Harper and Barack Obama in 2009.
Mary K. Grant, was an American industrial designer. Grant is known for her ceramic designs for Franciscan Ceramics manufactured by Gladding, McBean & Co. Grant designed several fine china and earthenware shapes for Gladding, McBean. Grant designed the American Franciscan dinnerware shapes for Desert Rose, Apple, and Ivy. Grant's Franciscan fine china shape Encanto was chosen by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for good design in 1951.
Eben Morgan, former president of Pickard China died on June 7 at his home in Winnetka, IL.
Eben C. Morgan Jr. was a fierce center for Duke University's basketball team, setting the single-season record for fouling out of games in the 1954-55 season... But in his professional life, Mr. Morgan dealt in a more delicate trade as an executive for Antioch-based Pickard China, makers of fine china place settings.
The Bush White House has adopted a two-china policy. Laura Bush unveiled not one but two new sets of china yesterday:
Whether it's campaign buttons, posters, historic front pages of newspapers or bobblehead dolls, it seems anything with an image of President-elect Barack Obama is a hot collectible.
