Franciscan Desert Rose Serving Set

FRANCISCAN DESERT ROSE GRAVY BOAT, UNDERPLATE AND DIVIDED RELISH DISH PLUS A PORCELAIN ROSEBUD PIE SERVER - FOUR PIECES A four-piece serving group built around the Franciscan Desert Rose pattern: a hand-painted gravy or sauce boat with its matching oval underplate, a two-compartment divided relish or vegetable dish, and one white porcelain pie and cake server decorated with a small pink rosebud transfer. The three Franciscan pieces are hand-painted California earthenware in the familiar Desert Rose border of opened pink wild roses with speckled yellow centers, closed pink buds, green leaves, and a thorny olive-brown vine, all in raised relief under a glossy glaze. Interestingly, the pieces are not all of one era: the gravy underplate carries the earlier brown dotted-oval mark naming GLADDING, McBEAN & CO., while the divided dish carries the later INTERPACE ring mark with the number 22-68 and OVEN SAFE / COLOR FAST, so this group was assembled over time as most working sets were. The porcelain server is a different maker and pattern entirely and is included as a companion serving utensil rather than as a Franciscan accessory. Two condition issues need to be understood before bidding: the gravy underplate has a flaked bare spot on the rim edge, and the server handle carries a long dark stained line that reads as an old crack or a previous repair. Both are described in detail in the condition section below and are photographed close up. These pieces round out the Desert Rose plates, saucers, cup and saucer sets, fruit bowls, serving and vegetable bowls, oval platter, cookie jar, bud vase, and wine goblets offered elsewhere in this sale. Sold as a lot of four pieces. Description One Franciscan Desert Rose gravy or sauce boat, glazed earthenware, double-spouted with a wide flaring rim, waisted body, and a stepped oval pedestal foot. Decorated on both sides, with an opened rose spray on one face and a closed bud spray on the other. Measures approximately 8 inches from spout to spout and approximately 3-3/4 inches tall per the tape photographs One Franciscan Desert Rose oval underplate for the gravy boat, glazed earthenware, with a molded scalloped rim and a full rose-and-vine border. Measures approximately 8-1/2 inches long per the tape photograph One Franciscan Desert Rose divided relish or vegetable dish, glazed earthenware, oblong with rounded ends, a molded scalloped rim, and two molded compartments - one long lower section and one shorter upper section split by a raised divider. Measures approximately 12 inches long and approximately 7-1/2 inches across per the tape photographs One white porcelain pie and cake server with a shaped triangular blade, a flat handle with a pierced hanging hole, and a small pink rosebud with green leaves applied as a transfer print. Measures approximately 8-1/2 inches long per the tape photograph. This piece is not Franciscan and no maker's mark is visible in the photographs Decoration on the Franciscan pieces is the Desert Rose border in raised relief under a glossy glaze: opened five-petal pink roses with yellow centers speckled in dark green and brown, closed pink buds, green leaves in two tones, and a continuous thorny olive to brown vine, with a vine wash carried over the outer rim edges Divided dish backstamp, photographed close up, is the brown oval reading INTERPACE in the top ring with Franciscan in script over EARTHENWARE, the registered symbol, MADE IN U.S.A. beneath, then 22-68, then OVEN SAFE / COLOR FAST, with the separate number 38 struck below the oval Gravy underplate backstamp, photographed close up, is the earlier brown dotted oval reading GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. in the top ring, MADE IN U.S.A. curved along the bottom ring, with the copyright and registered symbols beneath Franciscan in script over EARTHENWARE, a single character below the ring, and a lightly applied number beneath that is only partly legible The gravy boat underside and the server underside were not individually photographed with a legible mark, so their marks are not quoted here 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 document the mark sequence: the earliest strikes are dark circular stamps reading Franciscan, Made in California, U.S.A., Hand Decorated with the Gladding, McBean & Co. name, generally placed in the 1940s into the 1950s. The brown dotted oval naming GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. in the top ring, as found on the gravy underplate here, follows the circular stamp. Gladding, McBean was absorbed into the Interpace Corporation in the early 1960s, so the INTERPACE ring mark on the divided dish, with its 22-68 number and the OVEN SAFE / COLOR FAST line, places that piece in the later California run of roughly the mid-1960s