VIVA FIESTA
The vibrant American-made pottery has brightened tables since the 1930s.
Designed by Frederick Hurten Rhead for Homer Laughlin China Co. in Newell, West Virginia, Fiesta ware began its iconic history at the Pittsburgh China and Glass Show in 1936. The original colors were red, yellow, cobalt blue, green and ivory; turquoise came along a year later. The genius of the line was in how colors could be mixed and matched; consumers could buy single pieces instead of full sets—a concession to the limited means of the average Depression-era household.
Rhead’s art deco design featured concentric circles that made it look as if pieces had been formed by hand on a potter’s wheel. In fact, the china was mass-produced and sold at department stores and five-and-dimes like Woolworths. A 24-piece place setting cost about $11 in the 1930s.
Homer Laughlin produced more than 1 million pieces of Fiesta by 1938. The line’s popularity grew in part because the company continually brought out new shades to suit changing tastes—soft pastels in the 1950s, brighter hues in the early ’60s. Some collectors have a special affection for the old orange-red glaze, sometimes called “radioactive red,” produced throughout the early ’40s. When a key ingredient in the color formula—uranium—was restricted to government use for nuclear bomb research (the Manhattan Project), red Fiesta disappeared; it returned to shelves in 1959. After Fiesta’s peak in 1948, when 10 million pieces were shipped, demand steadily declined until the line was retired in the early 1970s.
In 1986, Bloomingdale’s, the department store chain, partnered with Homer Laughlin to reintroduce the colorful dishware. Modern Fiesta, known as Post 86, is lead-free and safe to use in the microwave and dishwasher.
Although popular with collectors, Fiesta ware also is cherished by families, who pass it down through generations to grace holiday tables each year. No doubt, Fiesta will be at thousands of Thanksgiving and Christmas meals this year, too.