Red Wing dinnerware was first produced in the late thirties. Finding a Wreath or Ivanhoe plate is an exciting addition to a plate collection. Around twenty different lines were produced over the years, some only with a single pattern (Ebb Tide), some with as many as nineteen (Concord).
A line is a group of patterns where the shape of the pieces is almost always the same. By using the same molds and using different colors and decorations, a variety of sets of dishes could be offered and thereby the cost of tooling up for production could be kept to a minimum. If a pattern was not well received by the public, hopefully something else with the same shape would be accepted.
Within a line the accessory pieces were, in general, the same. Some exceptions can be found. Once in a while you can even find a pattern from one line on another shape, every collectors dream!
Many collectors might seek a complete set of a certain pattern (Capistrano), others try to locate a plate from each pattern. A complete collection of one of each of the production plates would number around one hundred. Especially coveted by collectors are sample plates that were proposed for mass production but for one reason or another were rejected. There have been reports of several plates in a pattern that have different colors than offered as a regular product, it is thought that some sets were made by special order.
The dinnerware lines offered by Red Wing became an extremely important source of revenue after 1940. Until that time stoneware crocks, jugs, and kitchenware were the major products. After the introduction of the Gypsy Trail line in 1935, dinnerware and also artware, became the major company lines. After the great depression and the subsequent widespread use of in-home refrigeration, the demand for stoneware storage decreased dramatically. By then glass canning jars were also cheap enough for most people and had the added advantage of being strong enough to withstand temperature extremes used for killing bacteria in the canning process.
After WWII, competition from overseas potteries plus less expensive china ware made creative marketing necessary, Red Wing dinnerware could be purchased through Sears and Montgomery Wards and some of the stamp redemption centers.
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