Marcrest Melmac of Chicago Royalon and Stetson: Connected by Melamine

One of many Marcrest backstamps, this photo courtesy of oragracevintage on Etsy.

Marcrest Melmac is backstamped Chicago, so I know it was most likely molded there. It has direct relations to Royalon Melmac and Stetson Melmac.  Oddly, all three lines were tired to ceramic dinnerware companies.  A Supermarket Merchandiser for 1962 mentions that Mar-crest was into earthenware, cookware, and plastic dinnerware.  In fact I verified this to be true, and here is a list of MarCrest "earthenware" aka china patterns at Replacements, LTD.  Perhaps you've seen their ceramic dishes, such as this one: 

There is a very informative site on Marcrest China here (Daisy and Dot) and a bonus is looking at the old vintage ads there that shows the dinnerware being sold in so many different grocery stores like Kroeger and IGA.  Perhaps you could buy out right or collect coupons....

Marcrest divided bowl, in melmac by AtHomeInNapa.

So it seems in the 1960's china companies didn't want to miss out on melamine sales, however odd that they would sell it in competition with their own china lines.  There used to be huge debates in the 1950's and 1960's between china manufacturers and melmac manufacturers about which was better. I think it was more of a war if you read some of the old archives. I do want to add that I've seen Marcrest with several different backstamps and many different cup handles and versatile style. From squarish handles to triangular, from pastels to brights, it was a great line.

OraGraceVintage features this great Marcrest Pattern, melamine is rarely seen with such a lovely design!  Love the handles!

Marcrest then was tied into Royalon Inc. as you can tell by the markings on the box below.  This ties into Royal China, who had potters such as Don Schreckengost (yes this is Vicktor's brother) who were hired to create lovely patterns for them. It was announced in 1963 that Don was hired to create and coordinate new product development for Royal China, Inc., and Royalon, Inc. via the American Ceramics Bulletin. It is uncertain if Don designed any of the actual melmac patterns, and perhaps we'll never know. 

Royalon backstamp by QuinlanQ on Etsy .

Marcrest Melmac "Styled by Royalon" box at RetroChalet.

The "Royalon" melmac guarantee indicates that the Royalon company was out of Sebring, Ohio. George L. Traner was President and put his warrantly in with the boxes which also had the care and cleaning tips. One can surmise that Marcrest produced melmac for Royal China Company, and although returns went to the Ohio Main Office , one wonders if replacements would have come from Chicago. Many patterns and solids exist in Royalon, but albeit my favorite was the Corsage which was violets on a white background. The completer pieces and parts of the set were in lilac.

Original Paperwork, Courtesy: RetroChalet

Corsage Melmac Plates Marked Royalon by QuinlanQ on Etsy.

Come to think of it not many melmac lines used the color purple, perhaps just Texas Ware and Royalon to name a few.....To further complicate the Marcrest melmac saga, Stetson China Company also had melmac again somehow tied into Marcrest .  To understand the melmac history we have to understand what was going on with the company itselt. Hill Housewares indicates that Marshall Burns Company in Chicago, Illinois had Marcrest produced by many manufacturers, with Stetson being one of them due to pattern likenesses (as confusing as it all is.) 

Lovely Stetson melmac set was offered by ExtreamEcclectics on Etsy.

Applying that same theory to the Stetson and Marcrest melamine patterns, we can say that although many shapes were unique to Stetson melmac, some shapes are the same as Marcrest--down to the same creamers, sugars, squarish platters and divided "S" serving bowls (and sometimes the same cups). This indicates the same molds were often used by the same factory.  

CityFleas offers this Stetson.  Note how the bowl is identical to Marcrest!

Originally I had evidence that Stetson melamine was produced by the Lapcor Factory in Manitowoc Wisconsin (who made the late end Meladur...) However, I do not know which came first, the chicken or the egg. We do know however that all of these wonderful lines are still out there waiting to be collected.

Our Vintage House offers this Stetson melamine set.

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Rise and Fall of Spaulding Ware Melmac Dinnerware in Chicago Land

The Dilemma:

Hello, what's this? Spaulding Ware Creamer in Color-Flyte Colors?

It doesn't matter how long you collect something there will sooner or later be things that pop up that mystify you or are unexplainable. Imagine my surprise when I find this creamer marked Spaulding Ware, Chicago, but is a dead ringer for the designer  Kaye Lamoyne's "Glow Copper" color of the Branchell Color-Flyte line.

Mottling in Color-flyte colors as shown on the Branchell History Website by Dennis Teepe.

So my question was which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Relatively little is known about Spaulding Ware company history, I looked in some old Modern Plastics Encyclopedias and didn't see any Spaulding listed in Chicago in the forties.  I then found them listed in a 1953 Registered Corporations book of Illinois, however under "A-A Housewares, Inc." At the same address was the offices of  Spaulding at 3520 N Spaulding Avenue, Chicago 18 Illinois wherein respective representatives were  Harry Wohl and Dorothy Pollenz.

The original building where Spaulding Ware offices' were still stands in Chicago. 

Spaulding Ware Galore as offered in dadadish!

Just when I thought this "glow copper" creamer dilemma could be an uncommon fluke, melmac collector Ken Whittington of North Caorlina tells me there were other colors done in the other Color-Flyte colors as well! I was baffled!  

What is the Connection?
Sadly I cannot form any connection what so ever between Branchell and Spaulding, no matter how much sleuthing I do. Branchell, according to Dennis Teepe's Branchell History site lists them in business circa 1952-1958 at which time it was sold to Lenox.  Branchell's factories in St. Louis and Puerto Rico do not explain how during the same era the colors of the Color-Flyte designs would have gone to Spaulding. I believe Spaulding's dinnerware was produced elsewhere in Chicago, so definitely NOT in St. Louis!

There are of course only four possibilities that I deduce: 

1)  "Maybe Laymoyne worked for Spaulding."    I don't think so. Certainly he was under contract at the time and to leak a top secret formula would have been a huge no-no with legal ramifications.

2) "Maybe Spaulding had the color first and Laymoyne bought it."   Doubtful, he was a great designer.

3) "Perhaps Spaulding acquired it after Branchell's demise."  This would have meant the dishes had to be produced circa 1958 when Branchell closed.  Spaulding would have had a four year window to do so, from 1958 to 1961 because they were still offering melmac in 1961 as listed in a Supermarket Merchandising Magazine under "Melco-Ware".

4)  "Perhaps they duplicated it and used it without permission with no one ever catching them."   It wouldn't be the first time, I've seen examples of  Residential by Russel Wright and Daileyware using the same formula, but these were also produced in the same factory.  Being that ColorFlyte was produced in Missouri and Puerto Rico, this didn't seem a viable solution.

A full set of hard to find Spaulding Ware recently sold on Etsy at PomDecor's shop. 

If you look closely at the photo above the creamer and sugar would indeed be a more rigid feel.   I always thought that some of the creamer and sugars like the styles above were indeed polystyrene. We will find out soon, that Spaulding was using "less melamine" in some of their pieces which would explain why the pieces in the same set may feel or look differently (and perhaps not wear as well.)


The Answers, or Not?
The more I read on Spauldingware, the more I think the latter two possibilities may indeed apply to the latter years window.  In this May 1956 ad, Life Magazine shows Capri (regular color palette) and Decorated (patterns) as the two "styles."  They were also showing "Melco-Ware" at the Housewares Show in Chicago according to Modern Plastics Magazine. "Melcoware" is also traced back to their office address.  I can only assume that Melco-Ware stands for (Melamine - CoPolymer - Dinnerware). 

Ironically, in June 1960, the Spaulding Corporation (then containing the names of Gilbert B. Fern and the same Harry Wohl and Dorothy Pollenz from above) were being charged both as a whole and individually by the Federal Trade Commission. Essentially scamming the public as melamine co polymer did not exist, and it was in their print ads, guarantees, and advertising. By December the same year they were in huge trouble.

Guess I'll never know why or how these Spaulding Ware Spice Containers came to be.

It's no wonder by the early 60's they were gone. No doubt legal fees and loss of production time would drive them into their ultimate demise.   ~Poof, just like that~  We may never know the beginnings or the end of this company, or half the inner workings, but I can't help to find it odd that they would go to a housewares show and brag and advertise their wares as Melamine Co polymer only to become quickly indited. Did a competitor get a whiff of this infraction and turn them in?  Was this a sneaky way to avoid the inflating costs of melamine?  Did they cross the line too many times and operate shadily before (hence eluding to the Colorflyte dilemma)?

I'd like to think the wide world of melmac production full of mobsters and loan sharks, because , after all, this was Chicagoland.  I guess we'll never know.

Back in the day in Chicagoland, Postcards Available at VintagePlum's shop.

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