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The Currier & Ives Dinnerware Collectors Club was established in August of 1996 to unite avid collectors of Royal China. The first convention was in Morton IL at the Pepper Mill Restaurant.
The main focus of the club is to collect and preserve the history as well as the products manufactured by Royal China of Sebring Ohio. There have been several members featured in articles written about their passion for Currier & Ives/Royal China Collecting. Some have written articles and even books about Royal China. It is fascinating to uncover the history of this once flourishing company. But to understand the many quirky differences or variances in their patterns is what makes the company’s mystery intriguing. The Royal China Company manufactured dinnerware in Sebring, Ohio from 1934 to 1986. The company had various owners after 1969 including the Jeanette Glass Corporation and Coca-Cola. They produced a large variety of dinnerware patterns (over 1400). The most popular being the blue and white Currier & Ives. Other recognizable patterns include Memory Lane, Colonial Homestead, Willow Ware, The Old Curiosity Shop, Fair Oaks, and Bucks County. The company produced the C& I dinnerware in six colors (blue, pink, green, brown, multi-color, and black which is actually suppose to be gray). They also produced numerous serving pieces as well as advertising and decorative pieces to compliment the dinnerware. Royal China sold the dinnerware through retail department store, catalog mail order houses, A&P, and other supermarket chains. You may have seen or used a piece or two at some point in your life without even really knowing or recognizing it as Royal China. More information on Royal China can be found on the links below. Sebring Historical Society Sebring Historical Society-Potteries Sebring Historical Society-Potteries-Royal China The artists, Nathaniel Currier & James Merritt Ives, were successful American printmakers from the late 1800s. The artists produced lithograph prints from paintings. Lithographs could be reproduced quickly and inexpensively. Why were these prints used for the dinnerware? It was all Americana. The lithographs represented every phase of American life including city life, rural scenes, historical scenes, ships yachts, rivers, railroads, politics, comedy, winter, summer, spring, fall, hunting fishing, well you get the idea. Currier & Ives moved to use the lithographs as promo items in one of the best marketing tools of its times. The lithographs were a perfect match with dishware. |