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Salem
Submitted by modlectic on Sat, 08/13/2011 - 8:04pm
Salem Free-Form Comstock Serving Dish
The Salem China Company. Free-Form. Viktor Schreckengost (shape). Comstock. Pat Prichard (pattern). 1956. Serving Dish.
I suppose the Comstock pattern could create some internal conflict for the purebred modernist but this collector couldn't resist the Western theme and especially the blue ox.
(7 votes)
Re: Salem
Not the purebred modernist with a sense of humor!!
Humor trumps the conflict.
I think it's a great find.
Re: Salem
It's like a 50s cartoon. It's robust, amusing, inventive, fresh, smurfy in an other-worldly sense. It's the antithesis of the traditional Game Birds pattern that can be found on this shape. On the surface, it has stylistic features typical of the mid-century and beyond that, the spirit of modernity.
Re: Salem
Never seen this pattern before. It's modern in style and design and cute, too. I like it!
Re: Salem
Salem Free-Form in the Comstock pattern has appeared on MODish in the past. I'd love to own the teapot in this pattern and several collectors at MODish already do. Great photos of the teapot can be seen here.
Re: Salem
I think I prefer the reverse side pattern of the pink saloon on the teapot for the whole set
Re: Salem
LOVE IT! And can't think of a better home/collector for the Comstcok decoration.
Re: Salem
I prefer my forms undecorated but I see Michael ALL over this!
Re: Salem
I absolutely love Comstock! Nice find.
I would add that Salem Freeform is one of those lines where the shapes are often enhanced by the decalcomania. Another is the Eclipse shape by GMcB.
Re: Salem
Is that word in the dictionary??
Re: Salem
Certainly in an unabridged...
Re: Salem
When I was an undergraduate student, I worked in a shop that used to make them. It was called Berkeley Decals. Ours were never applied to dishware--at least as far as I know. We used a silk screen process to create or "improve" a lot of things. Lots of memories come to mind. I'll spare you.
Re: Decalcomania
Terri - check out this Mayer China catalog, starting on catalog pg. 52 (p. 33 of the PDF.)
Re: Decalcomania
Well at least the word can be used in a sentence! I am a member of RWCN but haven't kept up to date with it. Thanks.
Re: Salem
I LOVE Comstock--it's so fun!
Re: Salem
The Western Theme was popular in the 50's and 60's. Alot of it was placed on restaurantware (Sterling, Jackson etc ) using airbrush and stencil techniques.
Re: Salem
Very neat piece. I often wonder what having an entire table set with a line such as this might look like. I picture that as feeling like too much, but I bet if I saw it in person it might be just the opposite.
Thanks for the share and neat photo too.
Re: Salem
With some designs--like Scott's latest Klatch post--I'd think when I saw a piece here or there, it's not the best plate in the cupboard. Then you see it shown in a table spread and something really cool happens.
I'm with you on this pattern. It's really cool as a piece of art, but I'd have to see it in action to be sure it resonates. It may be too much. I suspect that there is a variety of different scenes that would make this more visually interesting. Funny, I don't think I've seen a dinner in this before? Anyone have a dinner in Comstock?
Re: Salem
I think a whole table full would be too much, but maybe serving pieces paired with turquoise & pink...?
Re: Salem
I remember the '50,s and there was a lot that was "too much," and greatly oohed and aahed over. You would just have had to go to a carry-in dinner at Aunt Betty's farm. The new stuff would be set out right along with the pink depression glass, and the dishes brought over from Alsace and glassware from Bavaria. The dishware was as varied as the smorgasboard: Lime jello with canned pineapple next to warm Kartoffle salat mit bacon, Kool- aid in Tupperware next to elderberry wine in footedgold-rimmed goblets that belonged to Gro'Ma. Modern dribbled into regular folk's homes: older stuff was kept for frugality and sentiment. A matter of common sense and sensibility.
Re: Salem
In my parents' kitchen, we had Boontonware, Stangl Fruit, Russel Wright Imperial Pinch glasses, Revere Cookware, Ballerina salt & peppers, and stainless steel flatware with stars from Betty Crocker box tops. Our kitchen table had chrome legs and edges with a yellow formica top and sporting a hatch mark design in black and white (if I am remembering correctly). The kitchen was the only place a hint of modern ever existed. Old stuffed chairs and sofa (the newer older ones had clear plastic covers) eventually gave way to an Ethan Allen living room and traditional cherry dining room, replete with the ever-present fifties birdcage on a stand that survived into the early seventies.
My father still has some of the dishes and flatware. We almost never used the good china (which he still has and never uses), which was some very expensive undecorated white, platinum rimmed set from some European country--probably Bavaria or Germany. No piece has ever seen damaged or even a knife mark. Oh, they had a set of sterling silver flatware-not plated, which was too hideously traditional for words.
Re: Salem
Oh yes. goodness. The " Wedding China" never came out of the hutch (later the linen closet) after the birth of the second child!! And the plated flatware in the green lined chest, once a year so yours truly could polish all the curliques. No wonder I have such plain stainless steel!! I had almost forgotten the Betty Crocker stuff with the stars!! They were seen at a friend's house, and I was overcome with envy.
Yes. I'm taken by the idea that "modern" hit the kitchens first, in many places. Was it because things broke and needed replacement? Or the dish bargains with purchase at supermarkets? Or that the "company" rooms (ours were a "parlor" and a dining room used only on holidays) were kept so as not to disturb the grand parents? Or that Mothers could sneak stuff into their domain without discussion of its style and appropriateness?
Re: Salem
If everyone could step back another 10 years and review what items were available and why the clashing in the 50's. The silverware was just that, silver. It needed polishing. I should know, my Grandmother didn't have stainless steel utensils (see below)*. She had mish-mash items such as HLC Cavalier and Canonsburg Pink Pinecone. Her china set was TST Red Dogwood stamped in the 40's. She didn't own an electric mixer. We made perogies with a hand masher* (that took place in the 1980's).
Re: Salem
I picked up this serving dish at a garage sale for 25 cents and was wondering if you could tell me what it's worth?
Re: Salem
I've replied to your question privately, since we generally prefer not to discuss values here.
Re: Salem
Sounds like a good find. Would you like to post a photo?