Letter From a Pottery Worker

This article has been reproduced from the March/April, 1996 issue of the "Red Wing Collectors Newsletter" with the consent of its editor, Dave Newkirk. This author of the article is William G. Warr, Jr.

In September, 1983, I returned to Red Wing after an absence of 29 years. Stanly Bougie probably remembers me as I was a foreman of the decorating department of the Red Wing Potteries for a little over four years. I started working there in November of 1949 and left for California in February of 1954.

In reviewing your (Dave Newkirk) book on Red Wing dinnerware, I'll mention the patterns that I was involved with at that time: Lexington, Chrysanthemum, Zinnia, Iris, Leaf Magic, Fruit, Fantasy, Lanterns, Magnolia, Lotus, Morning Glory, Fancy Free, Capistrano, Country Garden, Smart Set, Pink Spice, Midnight Rose, Ardennes, Orleans, Normandy, and Brittany.

Blossom Time: This pattern was my design - the shape was developed back east in Ohio. The shape was referred to as "Chinese Chippendale." I researched the design in the Minneapolis library one weekend and it did not go into production until 1950.

While there, we developed a notebook for each design. They had no record as to how each pattern was decorated except for some sample pieces. These usually got broken. It would be interesting to know what happened to those notebooks. To make them, we had several sheets of paper stamped with the design of each item in the pattern. The floor girls painted each color on a separate sheet following the design and indicating stroke direction and how many strokes. The brush size and lab color number was also on the sheet.

In your 1980-81 price guide, Page 10, the Red Wing stamp, 2nd stamp in the 2nd column, was my design. It was made in 1950.

When I came there, they were using the small stamp, page 10, column one, third stamp.

[I don't have the picture but this is a small, black ink, circular stamp with RW in the center]

It was being applied in black ink. Mistakes were removed with carbon tetrachloride sitting in open dishes about the room. This being a health hazard, I had the lab make up a dark pink stain with a glycerin base that could be removed with water.

Hi - Unfortunately my father died in 1986. The letter he wrote that I found on the redwingnet website was written by him in 1983, after a visit to Red Wing. I was astounded to come across the letter, to suddenly realize that my Dad wrote it 20 years ago. Sadly, we paid little attention to his stories about working at the pottery and we were little kids when we moved to California. Dad was in the army in WWII. He had a degree in ceramics from Alfred University in NY. After the war, he worked at Stangl Pottery in Trenton, NJ before going to Red Wing. He then worked in Los Angeles as foreman of the decorating and decal department for about 20 years at Franciscan (Gladding McBean / Interpace), and for a short time at Poppytrail (Vernonware) before he retired.

But in the letter, he does refer to the sample pieces that were done and that they were usually broken. So sounds to me like that is what you refer to. My father designed the Plum Blossom pattern (he mistakenly calls it Blossom Time in his letter), and the Red Wing stamp with the words 'Red Wing Handpainted' incorporated in the feather was also his design and I can recognize his printing on it. I will check with my mother and see if there is anything of interest that she might have on Red Wing.

This article brings to light something I noticed at the 1997 RWCS convention...For the very first time I saw a Red Wing dinner plate with a wing stamp on the bottom, similar to that in the picture above, only it was in black ink. Based on what this person has stated, we can determine that plates with a Wing stamp in black ink can be dated to right around 1950!

Keep an eye out for those black wings, I've turned a lot of Red Wing dinnerware over and only seen 1 to date!

Thanks to Dave Newkirk and his newsletter for contributing this very interesting article to Wing Tips.