Metlox Grape Cups Saucers

THREE VINTAGE METLOX POPPYTRAIL "SCULPTURED GRAPE" CUP AND SAUCER SETS - SIX PIECES TOTAL - HAND-PAINTED EMBOSSED BLUE GRAPES, GREEN LEAVES AND TWISTED VINE HANDLES, MARKED "POPPYTRAIL BY METLOX - MADE IN CALIFORNIA" Three matching cup and saucer sets in the well-collected Metlox Poppytrail Sculptured Grape pattern, six pieces in all. Each set consists of a footed ring-turned cup with a sculpted twisted grapevine handle glazed in olive-brown and a scalloped-rim saucer, both decorated with heavily embossed, hand-painted clusters of blue grapes with green and soft gray-green leaves and painted gold-brown tendrils on a warm off-white ground. The relief modeling is deep and crisp, and the hand-brushed color varies slightly piece to piece, which is normal for this California pottery line and part of its appeal. The saucers carry the impressed circular backstamp reading "POPPYTRAIL BY METLOX - MADE IN CALIFORNIA." This is a good buy for anyone building or filling out a Sculptured Grape service, for a mid-century California pottery collector, or for a cottage or farmhouse kitchen where the sets work equally well as everyday coffee cups or as a display grouping on a plate rail or hutch. Bidders should also review the other dinnerware, glassware, and kitchen lots offered in this sale. Note the condition points below: normal age wear, light utensil marking to the saucer wells, and one cup with an ink inventory number on the foot. Sold as a lot of six pieces, three cups and three saucers. Description Cups (3): footed, slightly tapered, ring-turned bands at the rim and near the base, with a sculpted and applied grapevine handle glazed olive to brown, a raised grape-cluster-and-leaf motif on both sides, and a plain white glazed interior. Saucers (3): shallow with a scalloped and slightly ruffled rim, a plain recessed cup well, and a continuous embossed and hand-painted band of grapes, leaves, and tendrils around the rim. Marks, quoted verbatim: the saucer underside carries the impressed and inked circular stamp "POPPYTRAIL BY METLOX - MADE IN CALIFORNIA." One saucer shows a small additional impressed shape or mold number above the stamp that is too faint to read in the photographs, so no reading is claimed. One cup foot bears a hand-written "87" in black ink, which reads as a consignor or previous-owner inventory number rather than a factory mark. The remaining cup feet appear unmarked in the photographs; no maker mark is claimed for them beyond the pattern match to the marked saucers. Cup dimensions: approximately 3-1/4 inches tall and approximately 3-1/2 inches across the rim, per the tape-measure photographs. In the height photograph the tape hook is standing on the table beside the cup rather than hooked on the cup itself, and in the rim photograph the tape is laid across the top of the cup rather than hooked on the rim edge, so both figures are close estimates. Saucer dimensions: approximately 6-1/4 inches in diameter per the tape-measure photograph, where the hook is set on the far rim and read at the near rim, so this is a close estimate; published references for this pattern list the Sculptured Grape saucer at 6-1/8 inches, which is consistent. Bidders should verify all dimensions from the photographs. Only three cups and three saucers are included. No plates, bowls, serving pieces, creamer, sugar, or teapot are part of this lot, and the wood table surface in the photographs is not included. Attribution note Metlox Pottery operated in Manhattan Beach, California. It was founded in 1927 by T. C. Prouty and his son Willis Prouty, originally making outdoor ceramic signs, and turned to dinnerware production in 1931 under the Poppytrail name; the pottery closed in 1989. The Sculptured Grape pattern, part of the Poppytrail line and cataloged by Replacements, Ltd. as Sculptured Grape by Metlox - Poppytrail - Vernon, is described there as discontinued with an actual production span of 1963 to 1986, which places these pieces somewhere in that roughly twenty-three-year window. Multiple dealer and replacement-china sources describe the pattern the same way: raised blue grapes with green leaves and vines on white, with vine-form handles and scalloped rims. The pattern was made in a blue-grape colorway and also in an all-white version marketed as Antique Grape White and a pink variant, so buyers matching an existing service should compare the color of the grapes in these photographs against their own pieces before bidding. No date code is present, so an exact year cannot be given. Statements about pattern name, maker, production dates, and value are offered as the consignor's photo-based opinion and are not guaranteed. Bid on the item as pictured. Condition Used vintage condition, sold as-is, described only from the photographs supplied. No chips, cracks, or breaks are visible in any of the photographs, and the handles all appear sound and firmly attached, but the pieces were photographed on a table under room