Recognise this?

Crown Lynn Echo was released in 1969 and it must have sold like wildfire, because it's still quite common.

 

Many of our baby boomer households had it in our kitchens in the '70s but in the end we tired of all that sturdy brown and threw it out.  Our cat ate off a last remnant for years.  But 30+ years on I saw it in a new light and bought a complete dinner set, shiny and almost unused. The box weighs a ton and George doesn't like it, so it's stored in the shed. I hope my children appreciate it when they inherit.

Echo was created by Mark Cleverley - publicity said he was influenced by the hippie movement and designed with 'reckless abandon' to appeal to the younger set. Getting the decoration right was tricky. The black flower pattern was machine printed onto a white bisque plate, then oversprayed with a thin ochre coloured glaze which allowed the flowers to shine through. The edges were hand-rolled in black to cover any remaining white patches.  Good effort Crown Lynn.

I have equal respect for this recent acquisition:

This is Four Seasons.  The handle and the base of the cup are a different colour from the rest, and you can see the care that has gone into getting the bands of colour on the plates so sharply edged. This range is probably from the 1970s - the shape wasn't introduced until 1989. I think that by then the banding was machined on, but a lot of quality control was required to get the product perfect. I paid $25 for this trio, worth every cent. Especially when you see the backstamp:

How cute is that???

More next weekend
ValM