Franciscan Desert Rose Sugar and Creamer

FRANCISCAN DESERT ROSE THREE-PIECE LOT - COVERED SUGAR BOWL, CREAMER, AND OVAL CELERY/RELISH TRAY, GLADDING, McBEAN & CO., HAND-PAINTED CALIFORNIA EARTHENWARE Three hand-decorated Franciscan Desert Rose serving pieces in the pattern's familiar creamy ivory ground with hand-painted pink open roses, pink rosebuds, green leaves, and tan-brown thorny branch vines: a two-handled covered sugar bowl with molded rosebud finial, a matching bulbous creamer with a single molded branch handle, and a long scalloped oval celery or relish tray with a green-brushed branch rim. All three are earthenware, all three are hand-painted rather than decal-decorated, and all three carry Gladding, McBean & Co. backstamps - with the interesting wrinkle that the sugar bowl carries the earliest dark circular California mark while the creamer and tray carry the later brown dotted-oval mark, so this group reads as pieces assembled from more than one production period rather than a single boxed set. Bidders should note that the sugar bowl shows dark lines at the branch handle attachment points, visible in the close-up photographs, which may represent old hairline cracks, a repair, or glaze separation and cannot be resolved from photographs alone - bid accordingly. The trio makes a practical coffee-service and relish grouping for a set table, and also displays well grouped on a shelf or in a hutch. This lot pairs with the other Franciscan Desert Rose lots offered in this sale, including the dinner and bread plate lots, the saucer lot, the cup and saucer sets, the fruit and dessert bowls, the serving and vegetable bowls, the oval platter, the divided dish and gravy set, the covered butter dish and shakers, the two pitchers, the cookie jar, the bud vase, and the wine goblets. Sold as a lot of 3 pieces (4 including the separate sugar lid). Description Covered sugar bowl - round bulbous body with two molded green branch handles, a flat inset lid with a molded pink rosebud finial seated on three green leaves. Overall height including the finial measures approximately 4-1/4 inches per the tape-measure photograph; the tape hook rests on the table alongside the bowl rather than hooked on the piece, so treat this as a close estimate. Body diameter and rim opening were not measured. Hand-painted open rose on one side, rosebud spray on the reverse, branch vine wrapping between the handles. Lid lifts off freely and sits level in the photographs. Creamer - bulbous low-bellied body with a tall pinched pouring spout and one molded green branch handle. Height to the spout tip measures approximately 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 inches per the tape-measure photograph; again the tape hook rests on the table beside the piece, so the figure is a close estimate. Body width and mouth opening were not measured. Open rose on one side, rosebud spray on the reverse. Oval celery or relish tray - long, narrow, boat-shaped oval with pointed ends, a scalloped and slightly ruffled rim, and a green-brushed branch running the full rim edge with pink roses and buds worked into it. Length measures approximately 10-3/4 to 11 inches per the tape-measure photograph, width approximately 4 to 4-1/2 inches, and height approximately 1-7/8 to 2 inches; on the width and height shots the tape hook rests above or beside the piece rather than on it, so those two figures in particular are close estimates. Bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs. Sugar bowl mark - dark stamped circular backstamp reading FRANCISCAN / MADE IN CALIFORNIA U.S.A. / HAND DECORATED / GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. / OVEN-SAFE, with a small struck letter F beneath the ring and a lightly struck sideways number to the left that is only partly legible in the photograph. Creamer mark - brown dotted-oval backstamp reading GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. around the top ring, Franciscan in script over EARTHENWARE, MADE IN U.S.A. at the bottom, the small at upper right, and a struck F below the oval, plus a lightly struck sideways number that is not clearly legible from the photograph. Tray mark - the same brown dotted-oval GLADDING, McBEAN & CO. / Franciscan / EARTHENWARE / MADE IN U.S.A. stamp with , accompanied by a struck sideways number reading approximately 8454, partly indistinct in the photograph. No paper labels are present on any of the three pieces. Three small unglazed stilt or peg points are visible in the tray's recessed foot area, normal to production. Attribution note Franciscan is the dinnerware line of Gladding, McBean & Co. of Los Angeles, California. Desert Rose was introduced in 1941 and went on to become the best-selling American dinnerware pattern ever produced, staying in California production into the mid-1980s. The dark circular "Made in California U.S.A. / Hand Decorated" stamp seen on the sugar bowl is the earliest Desert Rose mark family, used from the 1940s into the early 1950s. The brown dotted oval with the Gladding, McBean & Co. top ring, seen on the creamer and tray, is the following gene