The best shelf in my china hutch is reserved for a partial set
of gold-rimmed china plates with a wide burgundy band around the outside and a
magnolia blossom in the center. Food rarely touches these dishes, they are so
dear to me. Do they look familiar to you?
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| Homer-Laughlin Burdundy Magnolia China |
In the 1950’s Duz Detergent began a promotional campaign which involved including a piece of 22K gold-trimmed dinnerware
in each box of laundry soap. They began this promotion to gain sales over Tide
detergent. Each month an additional plate, bowl or serving piece was added to
boxes of soap, to entice customers to buy in order to acquire the dinnerware.
The
dishes were made by the Homer-Laughlin Company. The range of pieces included
platters, luncheon plates, salad plates, bread and butter plates, soup bowls,
berry bowls, vegetable bowls, cups and saucers, sugars and creamers, salt and
pepper shakers, gravy boats, cake stands and more.
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| Grandma Speas |
Grandma Speas is evidence of
the brilliance of this marketing scheme because normally she wouldn’t purchase
detergent. Grandma made her own lye soap. She passed on this skill to my mom. Their process for making soap will be shared in a future post.
But apparently Grandma put her frugality aside for a time to acquire some beautiful dinnerware. She must not have indulged for too long of a time span because we only have plates in the remaining collection. If only she had bought the box of soap that held a cake stand - wouldn't that be a treasure!
