2, Franciscan Desert Rose Pitchers

TWO FRANCISCAN DESERT ROSE PITCHERS - GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. BROWN OVAL MARKS Two Franciscan Desert Rose pitchers in graduated sizes, both hand-painted with large open pink roses, closed buds, and green leaves in raised relief, and both fitted with the pattern's modeled green thorny-branch handle. The larger of the two is the full bulbous body form with a wide pinched spout, generally cataloged as the milk pitcher, and the smaller is the slimmer tapered form with a narrower mouth, usually listed as the small milk or syrup pitcher. Both stand close in height, so the difference between them is in body width and capacity rather than in stature, and they display well together as a graduated pair. Both undersides carry the brown dotted oval mark with GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. curved through the top ring, quoted in full below, which places both in the earlier California production before the Interpace era. Both interiors show tan to olive-brown discoloration in the base, and the smaller pitcher has a tan glaze blemish struck across the backstamp area, both detailed in the condition section below. Pitchers are among the harder Desert Rose forms to find as a matched pair, since they were used hard and the branch handle is the first thing to go. These pair with the other Desert Rose lots in this sale, including the dinner and bread plate lots, the saucer lot, the cup and saucer sets, fruit and dessert bowls, serving and vegetable bowls, the oval platter, the divided dish and gravy set, the covered butter dish and shakers, the cookie jar, the bud vase, and the wine goblets. Sold as a lot of two pitchers. Description One larger Franciscan Desert Rose pitcher, bulbous rounded body on a small footed base, tall pinched and flared spout, molded green thorny-branch handle One smaller Franciscan Desert Rose pitcher, slimmer tapered pear-shaped body, narrower pinched spout, matching molded green thorny-branch handle Larger pitcher stands approximately 6-3/4 inches tall to the spout lip and measures approximately 3-3/4 inches across the mouth from spout to back, both per the tape-measure photographs Smaller pitcher stands approximately 6-1/4 inches tall to the spout lip and measures approximately 2 inches across the mouth, both per the tape-measure photographs In every tape shot the hook end rests flat on the table beside the pitcher rather than hooked against the piece, and the tape blade sits nearer the camera than the pitcher in the height photographs, so all four figures should be read as close estimates only. Body diameter and capacity were not measured, and bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs Both pitchers were photographed together from three angles, then individually from the front, the handle side, the back, and directly into the mouth, with close crops of the painting and the handles Decoration is the Desert Rose pattern in raised relief under a glossy glaze: open five-petal pink roses with speckled yellow centers, closed pink buds, green leaves in two tones, and olive-tan branch work. The handles are modeled as thorny branch sections with molded leaves and washed in olive green Larger pitcher backstamp, photographed and enhanced, is the brown dotted oval reading GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. curved along the top ring, Franciscan in script over EARTHENWARE at the center, the copyright and registered symbols beneath, MADE IN U.S.A. along the bottom ring, and a single small struck character below the oval. No separate legible number was found on this piece Smaller pitcher carries the same brown dotted oval mark with GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. in the top ring, Franciscan over EARTHENWARE, the copyright and registered symbols, and MADE IN U.S.A. along the bottom ring, plus a sideways struck number outside the oval. Under enhancement that number reads as roughly five characters, approximately 1908 with a trailing character, blunt and only partly legible, so that reading is offered with reservation No paper labels are present on either piece, which is normal for serving pieces that saw regular use Attribution note Desert Rose was introduced in 1941 by Gladding, McBean & Co. of Los Angeles, California, and became the best-selling pattern of American dinnerware ever produced, with California manufacture continuing into the mid-1980s. Replacements, Ltd. and the Gladding, McBean Franciscan archive record the mark sequence: the earliest pieces carry a dark circular stamp reading Franciscan, Made in California, U.S.A., Hand Decorated with the Gladding, McBean & Co. name, generally assigned to the 1940s into the early 1950s, and the brown dotted oval naming GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. in the top ring, as found on both of these pitchers, follows it. Gladding, McBean was absorbed into the Interpace Corporation in the early 1960s, so INTERPACE ring marks with OVEN SAFE and COLOR FAST lines belong to roughly the mid-1960s through the 1970s, and later Wedgwood-era marks read England or Portugal rather than U.S.A. The