Taylor & Ng

Last updated
Taylor & Ng logo designed by Win Ng Taylornnglogo.png
Taylor & Ng logo designed by Win Ng

Taylor & Ng, founded in 1965, is a retailer of Asian-inspired cooking supplies and kitchen furnishings made popular in the 1970s and 1980s. [1] More recently the company selling products online.

Contents

Logo found at the bottom of the mugs Vintage TAYLOR and NG "Ani-Mates" series mug - Logo.jpg
Logo found at the bottom of the mugs

History

The company was founded in 1965 by artists Spaulding Taylor and Win Ng under the name Environmental Ceramics, and later changed to Taylor & Ng. [1] [2] [3] In the 1970s and 1980s Taylor & Ng was a very popular department store of handcrafts that operated in San Francisco. [1] [4]

With the addition of Win Ng's brother, Norman Ng, as president, grew from a small ceramics shop on Howard Street (in San Francisco) into a major producer and retailer of housewares and owning a multi-level emporium shop at Embarcadero Center. [3] There were also stores at other Bay Area locations as well a Taylor & Ng shop inside Macy’s in New York. [3] These products sold heavily through Macy's and other major department stores and housewares retailers throughout the U.S. during the late 1970s and 1980s. [3]

Win Ng's whimsical designs and animal drawings became a thematic focal point for many extremely popular Taylor & Ng products, from coffee mugs to kitchen aprons, pot holders, and dishtowels. These products sold heavily through Macy's and other major department stores and housewares retailers throughout the U.S. during the late 1970s and 1980s. He created pottery, book designs and linens for over 20 years.

In 1977, Taylor & Ng purchased a warehouse space at 67-69 Belcher St, in San Francisco's Duboce Triangle neighborhood and refurbished the 67 Belcher side only. [5]

The San Francisco department store closed in 1985 in order to focus the business on wholesale. An online retailer with the same name, Taylor & Ng, features reissues of old company designs.

Cookbooks

The department store was known for the signature designs and illustrations by Win Ng. The company also published a number of popular cookbooks which also featured the artwork of Win Ng.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yerba Buena Island</span> Neighborhood of San Francisco, California, US

Yerba Buena Island sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, linking the city with Oakland, California. Treasure Island is connected by a causeway to Yerba Buena Island. According to the United States Census Bureau, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island together have a land area of 0.901 square miles (2.33 km2) with a total population of 2,500 as of the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge</span> Complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It has one of the longest spans in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish coffee</span> Cocktail with coffee and whiskey

Irish coffee is a caffeinated alcoholic drink consisting of Irish whiskey, hot coffee and sugar, which has been stirred and topped with cream. The coffee is drunk through the cream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Financial District, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States

The Financial District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States, that serves as its main central business district and had 372,829 jobs according to U.S. census tracts as of 2012-2016. It is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law firms, insurance companies, real estate firms, savings and loan banks, and other financial institutions. Multiple Fortune 500 companies headquartered in San Francisco have their offices in the Financial District, including Wells Fargo, Salesforce, PG&E, Uber, Gap, and Williams-Sonoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Anthony Richardson</span> California pioneer, city founder

William Anthony Richardson was an early California entrepreneur, influential in the development of Yerba Buena, the forerunner of the city of San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of San Francisco</span> History of the city San Francisco, California

The history of the city of San Francisco, California, and its development as a center of maritime trade, were shaped by its location at the entrance to a large natural harbor. San Francisco is the name of both the city and the county; the two share the same boundaries. Only lightly settled by European-Americans at first, after becoming the base for the gold rush of 1849 the city quickly became the largest and most important population, commercial, naval, and financial center in the American West. San Francisco was devastated by a great earthquake and fire in 1906 but was quickly rebuilt. The San Francisco Federal Reserve Branch opened in 1914, and the city continued to develop as a major business city throughout the first half of the 20th century. Starting in the later half of the 1960s, San Francisco became the city most famous for the hippie movement. In recent decades, San Francisco has become an important center of finance and technology. The high demand for housing, driven by its proximity to Silicon Valley, and the limited availability has led to the city being one of America's most expensive places to live. San Francisco is currently ranked 16th on the Global Financial Centres Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasper O'Farrell</span> Irish-American politician

Jasper O'Farrell (1817–1875) was an Irish-American politician who served as the first surveyor for San Francisco. He designed the "grand promenade" that became today's Market Street. O'Farrell Street in San Francisco is named after him.

Taylor Mead was an American writer, actor and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films filmed at Warhol's Factory, including Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of (1963) and Taylor Mead's Ass (1964).

Lucius Carl Watters was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. Jazz critic Leonard Feather said, “The Yerba Buena band was perhaps the most vital factor in the reawakening of public interest in traditional jazz on the west coast.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yerba Buena Jazz Band</span>

Lu Watters & the Yerba Buena Jazz Band is the name of an American traditional jazz revival band founded by Lu Watters in 1940. Yerba Buena was the original name of San Francisco, California. Notable members included singer and banjoist Clancy Hayes, clarinetist Bob Helm, trumpeter Bob Scobey, trombonist Turk Murphy, tubist/bassist Dick Lammi, and Watters himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yerba Buena Center for the Arts</span> Contemporary art museum and live event venue in San Francisco, CA

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse communities. YBCA programs year-round in two landmark buildings—the Galleries and Forum by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki and the adjacent Theater by American architect James Stewart Polshek and Todd Schliemann. Betti-Sue Hertz served as Curator from 2008 through 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yerba Buena, California</span> Original name of the Spanish settlement which became San Francisco, California, US

Yerba Buena was the original name of the settlement that later became San Francisco. Located near the northeastern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, between the Presidio of San Francisco and the Mission San Francisco de Asís, it was originally intended as a trading post for ships visiting San Francisco Bay. The settlement was arranged in the Spanish style around a plaza that remains as the present day Portsmouth Square.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Avenue</span>

Grant Avenue in San Francisco, California, is one of the oldest streets in the city's Chinatown district. It runs in a north–south direction starting at Market Street in the heart of downtown and dead-ending past Francisco Street in the North Beach district. It resumes at North Point Street and stretches one block to The Embarcadero and the foot of Pier 39.

Win "Winfred" Ng was a Chinese American artist, entrepreneur, and decorative designer. Ng was known for working as a ceramist, sculptor, metal worker, industrial designer, painter and illustrator, but best known as the co-founder of the groundbreaking San Francisco based department store Taylor & Ng and his commercial ceramics work under the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election</span>

The 2000 San Francisco Board of Supervisors elections occurred on November 7, 2000, with a runoff election held on December 12, 2000. All eleven seats were contested. Elections to odd-numbered districts were to four-year terms, while elections to even-numbered districts were to transitional two-year terms, then four-year terms thereafter.

Jean Jacques Vioget (1794–1855), originally from Switzerland, was a surveyor and sea captain, who came to California in 1837. He made the first survey and map of Yerba Buena in 1839. He worked for John Sutter and later moved to San Jose. He was also an artist, violinist, and spoke multiple languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buena Vista Cafe</span> Café in San Francisco, US

The Buena Vista is a café in San Francisco, California, credited with introducing Irish coffee to the United States in 1952. The Buena Vista Café originally opened in 1916 when the first floor of a boardinghouse was converted into a saloon. The current owners also operate the Trident in Sausalito.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Yerba Buena</span>

The Battle of Yerba Buena was an engagement during the Mexican–American War, during which the U.S. Navy captured and occupied the town of Yerba Buena, California, without firing a shot.

Betti-Sue Hertz is an American art curator and art historian and director of the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hallmark, Kara Kelley (2007). Encyclopedia of Asian American Artists. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 148–149. ISBN   978-0-313-33451-1.
  2. "Win Ng". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Artists: Win Ng". Rehistoricizing The Time Around Abstract Expressionism. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
  4. Lynn, Martha Drexler (2015-01-01). American Studio Ceramics: Innovation and Identity, 1940 to 1979. Yale University Press. p. 252. ISBN   978-0-300-21273-0.
  5. Lands, Emily (2015-11-06). "Almost 20,000 square feet in Duboce Triangle live-work space for $12.5M". SFGate, On The Block. Retrieved 2016-12-28.