Customer Reviews

Restaurant China : Identification & Value Guide for Restaurant, Airline, Ship & Railroad Dinnerware (Volume 1)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barbara Conroy's new volume on restaurant china is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature regarding this largely American genre of utilitarian ceramic art.

Restaurant china represents an age of americana where restuarants cared enough to invest capital in individualized ceramic pieces that would advertise and represent their establishments. It is a practice that is being undertaken with less and less frequency in our time. Many manufacturers are no longer in business. It is accordingly a genre of increasing interest to collectors.

Conroy's book chronicles this fine craft form well. It offers a fairly exhaustive listing of topmarks and backstamps of interest to collectors. Substantial full-color illustrations are both informative and entertaining. Historical information as well as primer material about production processes are welcome inclusions.

The book's title is a bit midsleading, however. It is really a volume focusing primarily on airline, ship, and railroad china... with some coverage of military, western, government, oriental, sports-related, casino, department store and corporate pieces. Logo china manufactured for restaurants and diners receives is afforded little coverage. And non-logo pieces in stock patterns receive virtually no mention at all; the topic is beyond the scope of the book (though Conroy plans, I believe, additional volumes which may address these areas in further detail.)

Future volumes may benfit from incuding information on how to read backstamps to determine date of manufacture, information on stock patterns, and changes in ceramic form and decorative practices from the 1950's and 60's to the present day.

No one volume, however, can be expected to exhaustively cover all facets of this increasingly valued utilitarian art form. On the whole, Conroy's volume enriches the literature currently available to growing number of restaurant china fans and collectors in our culture.

I was very disappointed in this book. The colors in the photographs are beautiful. But as a reference for china patterns, it is seriously lacking. Except for a select few companies, the author seems to offer only one example rather than a more complete listing of the different china patterns used by each company over the years. There are some very nice photographs of railroad dining cars, steamship dining rooms, and airline meals being served, but again as a reference, the pictures do not show the china in these photos very clearly at all. In addition, the listings and descriptions of company logos as well as time-frames for china patterns are sometimes inaccurate and other times incomplete. As always, price guides become outdated quickly and would have been better in a separate addendum instead of being placed with text and captions throughout the book. I feel the book was too generalized. As a new collector I wanted help in identifying the different china patterns used by these transportation companies, when each pattern was used, and who manufactured them. All this book provided were scattered bits and pieces of that information. I do not intend to buy Volume II.

First I need to preface that this book was purchased solely for the information on the Railroad China. As my title says, this book is good for the pictures of the Railroad China, but I take issue with the prices displayed....[Either she got really gyped/cheated or she had lots of money to burn and "price was no object". Neither my spouse not myself would spend the kind of money price-wise that was quoted in this book. Prices were over three times what we would pay in certain cases. Going back to the pictures, *color* pictures - very nice. Whether the pictures are color correct, I can't necesarily say, which brings us to the next point. They are pictures of patterns that I hadn't seen previously in either the two better known railroad china books.
In the books favor, there is section about "how" the china was made, that included decorated/decaled and the like. That section appeared to be quite good reading. Lastly, if you want to know about the Restaurant, Airline and Ship aspects of the book - I can't tell you. I hate to say it, but the book, now purchased will probably be kept for the photos.

Barbara Conroy shares her extensive personal experience as a collector in this invaluable reference work. The photography is exceptional, with hundreds of examples of dinnerware pictured in each of the four main categories, along with copies of period advertisements and brochures. Each section also includes a painstakingly assembled collection of hundreds of logos to assist the collector in identifying the company the dinnerware was produced for. A must-have reference book for the serious restaurant, airline, ship and railroad china collector! Pair this book up with Volume 2 of the series and you can push all your other books to the back of the shelf, you won't need them anymore.

I was referred to this book for price and identification and was sadly disappointed to get the book and look up the china I had to find that it had some of the pieces and history but by NO MEANS is a complete guide. The China Company I had was in there but it didn't have the history from the year the company started but it did have the identification stamps from the year the company started go figure. The price guide consisted of showing a few pictures of china this particular company producted and gave a few prices. I couldn't believe it. The only reason I kept this book is because I was so busy I didn't get to return it before the 30 day return was over. Oh well I'll know better next time.