ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604300054
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Antiques & Designs
SOURCE: KATHY SUE GRIGG
Last weekend on a trip out of town to visit my family I watched as my mother served my 3-year-old nephew alphabet soup for lunch.
Until then, I had forgotten how as young children me and my sisters had learned the alphabet by calling out the letters in the soup as we gobbled up each letter.
Mom mentioned the alphabet plate she used to have until one of us broke it. As I later discovered through research, this was no ordinary plate.
The earliest ABC plates were manufactured in England. They were among the first mass-produced wares of the Industrial Revolution of the late 1800s. Some were called "Straffordshire ABC" plates, but because they weren't considered valuable it was rare to find a Straffordshire (a well-known English china-maker) marking on the plates.
Often given away at county fairs and sold for pennies by vendors, these heavy dishes were made of clay with a porous opaque glaze.
The plates, which sometimes had a picture in the middle, were a favorite of children. The more a child ate, the more of the picture was revealed.
The Staffordshire plates used the British invention of transfer printing. In this process, a design was printed onto transfer paper, then applied to the plates before the final coat of glaze went on. The result was fast production with minimal costs.
The earlier pieces were monochromatic (tone on tone). Later, bright colors were added; then companies started making multicolored transfer overlays.
The souvenir business was big at the turn of the century. If you have an alphabet plate with "Boston, Mass." stamped on it, it would date to 1890-1910.
In the 1900s, the plates had a deep rim. In the 1930s, a series of plates was made in which each letter was featured with an object whose name started with that letter. For example, the letter B would appear with the picture of a boy, a boat or a ball.
Collecting these plates can be costly. They sell for from $40 to $175 a piece.
If you can find them, they're worth displaying on a plate rack in the kitchen or in a child's room.
Kathy Sue Grigg is an associate at Surfaces Inc. If you have ideas, questions or comments about her column, write to her in care of The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB