Watertown Balmoral Melmac Connecticut Made

Photo Courtesy and Melmac Available at Etsy shop SwanVintageFinds

This lovely colleciton of Watertown Balmoral Melmac belongs in a museum all it's own. Designed by Jon Hedu for Watertown Manufacturing Company in Connecticut, we often find mostly Watertown Lifetime Ware.  The Balmoral was a different line and is somewhat harder to find, and little is known about it.  From above, it may look a lot like the ultra popular Watertown Lifetime Ware, until you see the cool retro handles!

Oh yeah, a style all it's own. Buy this collection for $45 at SwanVintageFinds!

Backstamp courtesy of SwanVintageFinds.

Collecting Watertown can be fun.  The earliest sighting of it according to Plastic Living's wonderful Plasti-holic Christopher McPherson is 1946. We know sometimes in the early 1960's did Northern Chemical Company of Boston (the ones who made my favorite Russel Wright Residential, Read about them here) buy the dinnerware lines from Watertown, but soon after both lines produced by the company vanished. POOF, just like that. (Unless you count the Canadian-lookalikes...)  That gives Watertown a 1946-1962ish or so run.   In a nutshell, that's a solid 15 year window of production. Considering the pieces that are still in circulation one can say this is very popular. This line was well made, heavy duty and has a whole lot of Melmac in the plates and cups.  Get them now before they dry up!

You may also like: 

Watertown Lifetime Ware Set in Translucent Blue $65 at Retrochalet.

Lifetime Plate Collection, $18, Cedar Run Vintage on Etsy.

Watertown Woodbine : Ivy Simply Beautiful Melmac by Jon Hedu

Blackbird Antiques NC offers these Woodbine cups and saucers.

Watertown Lifetime Ware's designer Jon Hedu was a genius.  Though Watertown's Lifetime Ware is widely collected still today, one later line not spoken of enough is Watertown's Woodbine.  I simply adore this line, the flowing ivy-like designs, which came later than the original Lifetime Ware. 

The raised design is simply lovely, showing the tiny fruits and wrapping vines.  Courtesy: BlackbirdAntiquesNC.

This line is simply stunning with a raised motif all around it. Perhaps the famous wild Woodbine Ivy, much like a Virginia Creeper, that grow wild and bore tiny fruit was the inspiration for such a design. This Woodbine design is simply stunning and with 3-D motif protruding out of the pieces themselves.  If something could be called a "design melmac masterpiece" this is it.

Note the raised backstamp also has a bit of a vine in it!  Courtesy BlackbirdAntiquesNC.

The designer left no stone unturned because even the attention to detail on the backstamp has a raised motif!  The original patent was filed in July 1952, and granted in October of the same year.

Courtesy: Google Patents, Read all the Patent Info found here.

So why is it that this lovely design hasn't made it's way into more homes?  One can only assume it was not as well received as it's predecessor Watertown Lifetime Ware--though I can't fathom why.  It's not for lack of marketing, that's for sure. I found evidence it was advertised in 1953 though various outlets including House and Garden Magazine, volume #103, with the target audience hearing the words "Distinctive Dinnerware" and at "the discriminating hostess..." The add even suggests you could even write to the "for a free folder" on their melamine. (Porter Street address.)

It was mentioned in the Hospitals Journal (The Journal of the American Hospital Association vol 28 circa 1954) and years later being tested favorbly in Consumer Reports, 1957.   Just by old magazine mentions,  we can establish a minimum four year market to table window.   So where is it all and why is it so difficult to find these days? Did the public stick to the tried and true regular old Watertown Lifetime Ware during this time?  Did perhaps the raised motif make for hard cleaning as dirt would have built up into the tiny berry crevices? Who knows, but it certainly is lovely and in my opinion everyone should have a piece in their melmac collection. ♥

Related Reading:

Read all Watertown related posts HERE.

Go to the Plastic Living Watertown Site HERE.