A few years ago, I bought this gorgeous green plate at a vintage store because I fell in love with the color and the beautiful curved edges. There were no markings on the plate however so it was next to impossible to investigate the line and brand to acquire more. It sat high on my wishlist for a long time until just this past weekend.
B and I went for a little outing to the
Round Rock Antique Gallery (love!) and I spotted the exact plate
(but in blue) at one of the stalls. Fortunately, the seller had marked the plate
"Riviera". Unfortunately, it was pretty pricey. But I squeaked and made B take a picture of it and then went home to google to my heart's content.
It turns out that Riviera is actually a line by
Homer Laughlin which also makes my favorite
Fiestaware. No wonder I was so drawn to the colors! Riviera was produced in 1938 and only for about 10 years. It is similar to the Century line which was only produced in ivory and had HL markings on the back, whereas Riviera is unstamped (
thus making it harder to google--thanks guys!). According to this
source, Riviera was glazed in mauve blue, yellow, light green and tangerine (
the infamous red that was discontinued during the war). There's a lovely Riviera Pottery Gallery at this
site as well so you can see the 20 or so different pieces that were produced in this line.
As this was a lighter weight pottery than Fiestaware, a lot of the remaining Riviera pieces tend to be chipped and are rapidly becoming scarce. I was happy to find this set on
etsy for a great price and snatched them up. I can't wait for them to arrive--they make the best cookie plates!
(pics from etsy)
