This website is dedicated to all who have a love for custom-made commercial weight vitrified china. This is a relatively new collecting field, which picked up steam about 10 or 12 years ago. Prior to that time most custom made china collections were related to the transportation area only. Even the collecting of aviation china is relatively new. That's not to say there were no collectors of restaurant, cafe and hotel china, but that the number of collectors was very small in comparison. Hopefully we can all learn from one another and make some new friends in the process. More knowledge is needed about the makers of commercial weight china. Many small factories popped up and did not stay in business for long. There are many mysteries behind the production of restaurant china because of this. Factories kept records for only short periods of time not knowing that one day these little gems would become collector's items. With a little investigation and research we can resolve a few of these mysteries. I find each piece to be a work of art. Most of us cannot afford a Picasso or a Renoir but we can all afford a piece of Buffalo or Tepco China. All China factories had art departments, some used unknown artists and others retained the use of world renowned artists such as Russell Wright to help design these little gems. Each piece has a story to tell, some boring and others could become a great novel. Along the way we will try to tell a few of those stories. We will learn together but more importantly we will have fun preserving the history of restaurant ware and the joy of collecting restaurant ware - something we love and share.
Lester Silva
P.S. A special thanks to Sagan and Jason for their assistance with this site.. |
