Fostoria Melamine Dishes 1957

Fostoria Melamine Backstamp courtesy of Vintage Cleveland on Etsy.

"Fostoria Announces Melamine Dinnerware," so the headlines read in an article in a Crockery and Glass Journal in Aug. 1957.  Wow.  I have written before on Fostoria Melmac, as I believe it's scarce and hard to find even though it was produced well into the early 1960's (Former Plastics Historian Robin Ptacek confirmed to me once that produced 1958-1962).  Molded for the Fostoria glass company, it was a solution to targeting those who wanted super duper melmac dishes.   At one time when melmac was at it's height, glassmakers and melamine dinnerware manufactures were fighting for the market share.

Here is a pic of the mugs from the top and underside. Note how thick the bottoms are. Pic: RetroChalet

Here is a prime example where one company thought outside the box, instead of Fostoria glass bashing melamine it jumped onto the bandwagon, tapping into the best of both worlds (selling glassware and melamine).  Now it's highly unlikely in my opinion Fostoria molded their own melamine, but contracting a firm to mold it for them in accordance to superior specs and design standards would have been probable.

Fostoria Melmac Platter on Etsy, @FleasToButterflies

Fostoria's dishes are heavy, elegant, and in shapes that are so sophisticated, that one wonders is this really plastic? See above, so lovely is the platter!  Perhaps that's why they called it Fashion Flair, and showed it integrated with their very own glass wine goblets.  This just goes to prove that melmac and glass can go hand in hand. 

1958 Ads were all over promoting Fostoria's new line of Melamine, originally announced in 1957 you can see the design I'm speaking of here.

The designs I've seen are lovely and well thought out. The top of the dishes featured here are white with design and undersides are solid pastel blue to match the cups, making a two tone color scheme.  These are pretty enough patterns which are integrated subtly onto modish shaped components. The below set was found at VintageCleveland on Etsy!  That set is now long gone, but compiling a whole set in good condition is a real find. 

Fostoria Glass Go-With Tumblrs

Evidence suggests Fostoria glass company embraced having melamine so they could also sell go-with tumblr, which are rare and hard to find indeed. They are etched with patterns and may match some of the lines. Perhaps if you are collecting Fostoria melmac you can find matching beer glasses, pilsners, or these squatty crystal drink glasses to match your line! 

As for melamine, the only  examples I found of this same line were badly stained, damaged, and when I dropped a plate, it shattered in half.  Perhaps the "unbreakable" melmac of the super duper 1950's was cut with something else in these dishes.   Perhaps one could still piece together a set but it would take you some time.  Finding a nice set like this is a rarity these days. This is a great thing for Fostoria Glassware collectors to add to their growing collection. 
Need to know more on Fostoria? .

History on Fostoria Glass Company here. 
See all my articles on Fostoria Melmac Here.

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Last checked for Quality 10.30.16

Fostoria Glass Company Melmac Dinnerware Melamine 1958

Pom Decors in Harrisburg, PA offers this melmac plate, pattern name "Kismet" by Fostoria!

Fostoria Glass Company... one of the smarter glass manufacturers. I think it's funny that when melmac first came onto the market and gained momentum, there was a slew of dinnerware companies trying to "tarnish it." Yes, those makers of fine china, ceramics and even pottery makers said how horrible it was...in fact there was a real coalition formed against the melmac! An anti-melmac campaign if you will.  Well, you can imagine from the bazillions of dishes floating around today how well that actually worked. 

Melmac bowls are freeform and china-like from 51VC

I suppose we can say the melmac won for a bit. I would have loved to see the executive's faces in some companies, years later and perhaps with their tails between their legs make the decision to move into melamine. Many of these same dinnerware makers (Stetson, Fostoria, etc..) who trashed it at first decided to sell lines of their own melamine. If you can't beat them, join them....For it was a grand day that they had to succumb to tapping into the never-ending market of plastic dishes.  For some of them, their decision to do so was made a bit to late.

Fostoria's mark is the same as their china!  Photos above and below: Junky Vagabond

Junky Vagabond has this sweet yellow Fostoria melmac!

People say that Fostoria got into the melmac scene sometime in the 1950's. I found an exact reference in an Industrial Design (Volume 5, circa 1958) book where Fostoria Management declared they wanted to have their own melamine lines. They were going to market it via their various marketing channels including department stores and gift shops. It's safe to say mid 1958-1960's this was indeed the case.  Fostoria put out a lovely and high quality product. I am unsure who the designers actually were, but if you look closely at the styles, they had to be very upscale. No "stock patterns" here.

Fostoria had two-tone melamine and gorgeous designs, but finding good examples can be hard. These : RetroChalet

The sheer problem with this decision is that it came too late.  This small production window of melamine by the company makes Fostoria melmac rare. It's somewhat hard to find in good shape considering most people bought it to use it. The designs however, are exquisite. Most of the solid colors like pink, taupe, blues or yellows are somewhat translucent if you hold them to the light. Patterns like the above and below scream FUN FIFTIES and MOD SIXTIES--no decals or mass produced designs.  Sadly we'll never see half of what was produced as it's probably been used, abused and scratched to hell and back. Collectors of both Fostoria glass or melmac dishes would give their right leg for a full set of mint condition, making Fostoria melamine highly collectible and expensive. 

Treasures n Tidbits has these rare pieces of Fostoria available.

So the one question that people ask me is why wouldn't Fostoria melmac last? Considering they were a leading glass maker with a great reputation and following, why is it so rare?   Truth be told their introduction of melamine just came too late on the market in a time when production costs were higher and melamine powders weren't getting any cheaper. If you figure a set of melmac would cost just about the same as a set of fine china, you do the math.  Now, some blame the death of melmac on Corelle --but I disagree. You'll have to hear me rant about that in another post.  In the meantime, those holding Fostoria examples should covet them indeed.

Welcome to the Melmac Center : Russel Wright Melamine Ephemera at it's Finest Shows Rarities in Modern Design

Update: January 27, 2012: Mr. Melmac aka Robin Thorne has identified lots of new patterns! 

Not only do I love the Melmac of the 50's but the advertising too.  This ad is from one of my Etsy customers, who is enjoying their melmac dishes I sold them in their travel camper. I must say, they were very smart as they found a perfect match in Boonton's maroon and Meladur's burgundy.  I would not have thought of mix matching the two but they worked!

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SUPERSIZE!

What I love most about old ephemera, is learning new clues.  I don't know what year this ad was from, but I think I' would have estimated it at 1953-1955, but I stand corrected by plastics great Christopher McPherson ! UPDATE: He has one very similiar if not exact from 1957.  So there you have it.

 I do know Russel Wright's Residential was really being advertised a lot in 1953-1954.  There seemed to be a huge campaign by Cyanamid for advertising the super duper Melmac dishes around this time.  I'm sure that companies may have paid to be included in their "Melmac Center" ads, as many different ones exist and sometimes the manufacturers will change.   We can also date the ad around the early 50's due to two other reasons a) the fab colors used and b) the 2 digit zip code. (by the early 60's the zip codes were changed.)

What I'm shocked at is in my opinion a lot of the dishes here are considered rare and hard to find now. Something so plentiful then, is dried up now. Rare in the sense that in my 20+years of collecting I've not seen enough of the below starred items to make an entire set.  To me, that's rare.

Obviously I'm not counting the dishes behind her. Be sure to click the hyperlinks to see "real melmac examples"!

First Row: 

Brookpark Modern Design  Update: Robin aka Mr. Melmac says, "This is the famous TROPICANA PATTERN in orange! This also came in turquoise, tan, red, and yellow although the orange and turquoise were by far the most popular." ( See a set similar here.)

TexasWare

Classic*(by Mallory, this is rare and hard to find,  If you are looking for other Mallory go here.)

Lucent Update: Robin aka Mr. Melmac says "Spring Bouquet by designer Raymond Lowey for Lucent, this is very rare indeed!"  (You may also like  Evening Song which is most often found Lucent also by Raymond Lowey)

Second Row: 

Holiday (by Kenro)

Branchell* (Branchell is common with their Color-Flyte lines, but this pattern, Button Flower is a rare pattern. See it here.)

Harmony House    Update: Robin aka Mr. Melmac says "This is a popular pattern called Woodland!"
 
Fostoria Melmac is hard to find much less this awesome champagne bubble pattern! Update: Robin aka Mr. Melmac says "This is one of my favorites called Kismet. There was a popular MGM musical by the same name at the time references the middle east. These are a little like moque domes, but also abstract and remind me some of the logos of the time like the ones for US Steel and Alcoa! Pure whimsy! "

Row Three: 

Prolon  Update: Robin aka Mr. Melmac says "This Prolon Florence pattern is called "Blue Poppy". I bought a complete set in Palm Springs about 20 years ago for $12--a steal today! It's heavy duty and often you will see this in brochures and articles."


Stetson

Russel Wright (Residential)

Lifetime (Watertown. I have never seen this pattern. Where have I been?)

Row Four:

Newport  (by Westinghouse)

Melmac Tag* these have care and cleaning tips and were included with sets.

Royalon* (Marcrest is common but this pattern isn't. Most often you see Royalon's Corsage. See it here and just for the record, I've always been confused why it says Marcrest styled by Royalon, no doubt just to sound fancy...)

Durawear (not to be confused with Duraware!)


So I consider 8 of these patterns to be rare.

Russel Wright obviously got special treatment. Not to mention a RetroChalet fave!

What's even better is that you could obtain clues by these old ads. For instance, why is the tiny tag on Russel Wright's Residential the only one that has a second name on it....  Everything else just has one line, but Russel Wright's name being associated with his design was imperative.  Note how his card is "special."  I rest my case.

What about the fact you could mail away a quarter and get a little melmac book?  How adorable.  What about the fact you could TRUST sending your "coin" away?  I so want to live back then. The two digit zip code is what I noticed right away.  Sometimes a silly old ad can be our best clues of what existed, and when.  Or clues to what else we may not have found...just yet!