3 Franciscan Desert Rose Dinner Plates

THREE FRANCISCAN DESERT ROSE HAND-PAINTED DINNER PLATES - GLADDING, McBEAN MARK Three matching Franciscan Desert Rose dinner plates in hand-painted California earthenware, each with the scalloped and swirled rim, the wide molded border of large open pink wild roses with speckled yellow centers, closed pink buds, deep green paired leaves, and a thorny olive-brown vine, all carried in raised relief under a glossy ivory glaze. The blossoms on these plates are painted large and full, with strong brush striations in the petals and heavy green shading in the leaves, which is the look collectors associate with the earlier California decorating benches. The stack count was confirmed by counting three distinct rim bands at the edge of the stacked profile photographs. One plate was turned for its backstamp, which is the brown dotted oval with Franciscan in script over EARTHENWARE and MADE IN U.S.A. below, along with a struck number, and it is quoted in full below. Desert Rose is the most widely produced American dinnerware pattern ever made, so these plates fill in beautifully against an existing set, and they also display well upright on a plate rail or in a hutch. Light glaze and paint wear is present in the decoration and scattered dark glaze specks and utensil marks are visible in the wells, all described in the condition section below. These plates run alongside the other Desert Rose lots in this sale, including additional dinner plates, salad and bread plates, saucers, cup and saucer sets, fruit and dessert bowls, serving and vegetable bowls, the oval platter, the divided dish and gravy set, the cookie jar, the bud vase, and the wine goblets. Sold as a lot of three plates. Description Three (3) Franciscan Desert Rose dinner plates, glazed earthenware, round with a scalloped and gently swirled rim and a shallow molded well Each plate measures approximately 10-1/2 inches in diameter per the tape-measure photograph. The tape is laid across the face with the hook end resting on the table rather than hooked against the plate edge, so the diameter should be read as a close estimate. Plate thickness and well depth were not measured with the tape, and bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs Count of three confirmed by counting three separate rim bands at the lower edge of the stacked profile photographs, and further shown in the enhanced stack-edge crop Decoration is the Desert Rose border in raised relief: large five-petal open pink roses with oval yellow centers speckled in dark green, closed pink buds, paired deep green leaves in two tones, and a continuous thorny olive to brown vine, with a soft vine wash carried over the scalloped outer rim edge. Painting is bold and unfaded, with visible individual brush strokes in the petals Backstamp on the plate photographed and enhanced reads, in the brown dotted oval, Franciscan in script over EARTHENWARE, with the copyright and registered symbols beneath, and MADE IN U.S.A. curved along the bottom ring. The top ring wording is lightly struck and only partly legible but the surviving letter groups are consistent with GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. A separately struck number appears below the oval reading approximately 1 6 5 5 0, smudged and only partly legible The undersides of the other two plates were not individually photographed with a legible mark, so their marks are not quoted here. All three plates are the same pattern, form, and rim profile in the photographs Attribution note Desert Rose was introduced in 1941 by Gladding, McBean & Co. of Los Angeles, California, and went on to become 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 sequence of marks: the earliest examples 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 1950s. The brown dotted oval, as found here, follows the circular stamp, and when the top ring names GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. the piece predates the corporate change. Gladding, McBean was absorbed into the Interpace Corporation in the early 1960s, after which the ring wording reads INTERPACE and the mark usually adds a two-part number along with OVEN SAFE and COLOR FAST. Later Wedgwood-era marks read England or Portugal instead of U.S.A., so the MADE IN U.S.A. line here confirms California production. Lehner's encyclopedia of United States pottery marks is the standard reference for these earlier stamps. Struck numbers and single letters near a mark are factory or decorator notations and are not dates. All mark readings, era assignments, pattern identification, form designation, count, and dimensions given here are offered as the consignor's photo-based opinion and are not guaranteed. Bid on the items as pictured. Condition Used vintage condition, sold as-is. The plat