Curious About The Old Curiosity Shop

Sometime around 1998 or 1999, I came across a peculiar set of dishes that piqued my curiosity. I was meandering through a little antique store in Gallup New Mexico, looking primarily for old school textbooks, as this store kept a nice stock of such.
I paid $100 for all of them- they were not quite a complete set, but more like 2 or three mismatched sets, because I came away with 10 dinner plates, but 12 cups and 13 saucers. This box also included bowls of two styles, one butter dish and one creamer, and two larger platters with "handles" on either side. Curiouser and curiouser.

Around this time, my adventures in antique stores and thrift shops were really at the preschool level. I was just starting to learn about the different brands and types of dishes that were popular for collectors. I had never seen these before, and what caught my eye perhaps more than anything was the way they matched, but each piece offered a different picture on the front, some with a scene from winters in Victorian England, while others, such as the saucers, offered only a simple picture of a metal coffee pot, or of a Grandfather clock. Which, by the way was an illustration in Master Humphrey's Clock, the serial which was published weekly by Charles Dickens. I also enjoyed the dingy, grayish-green color that they are. Not a bright, cheery green, but more of a dull, dreary green. If Dickens' novel The Old Curiosity Shop was a color, this would be it. Poor Nell.
Through the years, I've collected pieces to add to this collection here and there- a sugar bowl in Scottsdale Arizona, and two larger serving bowls at the Goodwill in Gallup. Just this past week I came across nine pieces, different sized plates, and one cup- selling for $24 for all at the Fleatique in North Huntingdon. Seeing these pieces revived my interest in these dishes once again.

I've often wondered what the story was behind these dishes. When were they made, in the 1800's? (Only during the last decade, as The Old Curitosity Shop was published in the 1880's) Early 1900's? 1930, 40, 50??? What other pieces were out there, that I didn't have in my collection? Oh, hope of all hopes there was a teapot! I decided to do a little online research, to which I found little information. I came across a couple sites offering individual pieces for sale. I was quite surprised to see a set of salt and pepper shakers for sale on EBay for $45. And yes- there IS a teapot! My research did result in something else very interesting...

These are my "Wish-List" pieces- I'm on the hunt! I just can't seem to bring myself to order them online- but, you know me and teapots- I just may cave! The tiered plate is selling for as much as $90! I've also come across a site selling empty boxes for $25!

The dishes were manufactured in the 1950's, so they're not as old as I originally thought. They were made by Royal China company in Sebring, Ohio, and designed by Gordon Parker. The dinnerware was not sold as a full boxed-set that included cups, plates and bowls, but rather as individual sets of each item, such as a box of four plates, or a box of four cups, etc. They also manufactured separate serving pieces (such as my precious teapot and the casserole dish I spotted online!) as well as advertising and decorative pieces to compliment the dinnerware. I read that occasional promotional pieces were offered and individual pieces of the dinnerware were given away with products such as laundry soap. I am unclear if the Old Curiosity Shop was one such pattern by Royal China that was given away with the purchase of laundry soap.

Royal China sold their dinnerware through retail department stores, catalog mail order, and supermarket chains, most notably the A&P, which I remember. I'm not certain if A&P's still exist, but we had one in our little town were I grew up in western PA, and I remember visiting the huge one near Grandma H's house in West Orange, New Jersey. Yes, I'm that old.

What I really found out to be interesting however, was the ownership of the Royal China company at the time of The Old Curiosity Shop's manufacturing. It was bought out by the Jeannette Glass Corporation.

Bear in mind, I first purchased the bulk of my dishes in New Mexico. I've collected pieces in other states. The Jeannette Glass Corporation is located in Jeannette, Pennsylvania which is east of Pittsburgh. I have worked in the city of Jeannette since last November. All these years, I have enjoyed my dishes, but often I have wondered where they originated and what their story was. And now I end up spending eight hours of my day less than a mile from where they were originally manufactured! Talk about coming full circle! The irony of that curiosity! I would like to visit the glass company some day, perhaps I can get more detail on The Old Curiosity Shop line of dinnerware.

My curiosity has been satisfied... for now.