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| Photo and Item offered by palimpsette store on Etsy. This is the Catalina Sugar Bowl. |
Gorgeous in Design, sturdy and well made were the Harmony House melmac liens. Some of the styles included "Catalina" and "Talk of the Town" melamine. Many of you may have seen Harmony House in ceramic or china, and that's because Harmony House was a generic brand name for Sears!
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| Life Magazine, May, 1957 |
In fact, many manufacturers created items under this generic name, whose point was "to increase Harmony in your home." Sleek designs, affordiblity, and color pallete were key to the good design items offered by Harmony House. One may call it the "Macy's" department at "Sears." Any discriminating housewife in the 50's would not be complete without a Harmony House room - from furniture, linens and spreads to cool ceramic dishes or Melamine designs.:
sleek design of the Catalina Sugar & Creamer.
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| Close up of backstamp as shown by Magark, who deals in vintage items. |
The Talk of the Town line was square and modern in design as opposed to the round designs of the Catalina. The backstamp still donned the Harmony House logo.
In my experience it's been a slight bit harder to find. Although I do not have proof I only can offer a few guesses for why:
- Catalina may have been more popular and carried for longer, which is why it is more plentiful.
- Perhaps Catalina was priced lower than Talk of the Town, who knows?
- My personal #1 theory would be that the Talk of the Town looked too similiar to the already rapidly selling "Brookpark Modern Design" by Joan Luntz, and the "Arrowhead" commercial line. Just a thought.....look at the photos below and tell me what you think?
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| Undersides of "Talk of the Town" Melmac photo and items at LindaPaloma on Etsy. |
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| Top View of "Talk of the Town" Melmac photo and items at LindaPaloma on Etsy. |
