Tag Archives: Franciscan Ware

Lucy and Desi at Home: Franciscan Desert Rose

Lucy and Desi  and dogs at home in Chatsworth Ranch 1942   Corbis

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are dining al fresco at their home in Chatsworth Ranch in the early years. Below we take a closer look at the table setting.

A closer view of the table setting

The table is set with Franciscan Desert Rose Pottery and a co-ordinating rose pattern juice pitcher and glasses on top of  a delightful retro floral rose print tablecloth. Just imagine how colorful the scene is!

Fransciscan Desert Rose Egg Cup

On the table we notice it is set for breakfast with a small size tea/coffee pot,  tea cups and saucers, and egg cups on a bread/side plate all in the Fransiscan Desert Rose pattern.  A matching salt and pepper set, creamer and sugar bowl complete the picture.

Fransciscan Desert Rose Individual Coffee/Tea Pot
Fransciscan Desert Rose Cup and Saucer
Desert Rose Salt and Pepper Shakers
Creamer and sugar bowl

When Lucy and Desi Arnaz got this set of Franciscan Desert Rose it was still new on the market launched in 1941. It was to become hugely popular. According to the desciption on Amazon “Desert Rose the largest selling pattern in the history of American dinnerware, made its debut in later 1941. It has enjoyed the world’s longest period of popularity of any dinnerware pattern produced by a single company. The Rose Rugosa, rugged wild rose of poem and song was a natural design selection. The character of the bloom with its simple delicate petals made it adaptable to hand painting. This beautiful handpainted pattern is still one of America’s favorite casual tableware patterns. In 1964 the sixty millionth piece had been produced and Desert Rose is now on display in the historical Smithsonian Museum. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy chose Franciscan Desert Rose for use in the White House. In Desert Rose, the irregularly scalloped edge of thorny vines creates a believable frame for the fully opened pink roses with their golden centers and soft green leaves. The softness of the design is further enhanced by its cream colored background”
It is now made in China but still close to the original pattern: https://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Brothers-Desert-Rose-28-Piece/dp/B0009P9L9C

LA at Last: Coffee Cups

lucy-la-at-last-coffee-cup
Lucy, Ricky and Bill Holden in “LA at Last
lucy-la-at-last
The famous coffee cup scene in “LA at Last”

In a hilarious scene from the I Love Lucy episode LA at Last Lucy finds a novel use for a cup of coffee. The cup and saucer are square shaped and the cup handle forms a distinctive ear shaped curve. We now have an ID for the coffee cup thanks to a generous contributor to this blog.

franciscan-tiempo
FRANCISCAN  WARE TIEMPO CUP & SAUCER SET Source: eBay

The coffee cups and saucers seen on the show are by Franciscan Ware ( a trade mark of Gladding, McBean  & Co ). The Franciscan Tiempo single color line was produced from 1949 – 1954. It featured a squared shape and came in several colors including apricot, yellow,white,grey, lime green, olive green, brown and tan.

LIFE Sep 9, 1940
LIFE Sep 9, 1940

This design first appeared in the 1940 Metropolitan range that used a two color pattern  by Franciscan Ware  designed by Morris B. Sanders in 1940 as an entry for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts 1940 Exhibition of Contemporary American Industrial Arts, and was one of the first “square” dinner sets

franciscan-tiempo1
Franciscan Metropolitan 2 color pattern seen on Etsy

The Metropolitan range were colored white inside the cups. The single color design called Tiempo appeared in 1948/49.

[phpbay keywords=”Franciscan Tiempo cup saucer” num=”2″ siteid=”1″ sortorder=”BestMatch” templatename=”columns”]

References: