As part of my personal cure, I’m selling off some vintage Fiesta pieces from my personal collection. Except for the Harlequin plates, they’re all in good to excellent condition (click on the images to view the auctions):

Five deep plates in ivory, good condition, starting at $19.99

Forest Green Harlequin eggcup in excellent condition, current bid $5.50

Cute set of everyday usable Harlequin dishes, $12.99

And the most valuable item in my collection:

Vintage yellow casserole in excellent condition, no chips or cracks, $75 OBO

I *heart* this piece. But I know if I keep it, I will break it, and probably before I even got a chance to use it. The lid is perfect. The handles are perfect. The inside of the bowl is perfect. There are some small light scratches on the outside, which break my heart, but it’s otherwise amazing.

There are also a lot of new things added and going to be added to the etsy store, so check that out too!

So, last night I launched my adorable new storefront on etsy.com, and though it only has five little treasures in there so far, I have a lot more stuff I’ll be adding in the coming days and weeks. Here are a few things I’ve got in there at the moment:

A Harlequin individual salad bowl in yellow, $25

Vintage Fiestaware salt and pepper shakers, $15/set.

Glass syrup dispenser, $10.

A cute little vintage tin for storing unimportant things, $8.

Tell your friends! Buy things! Tell your friends to buy things!

The thing I love to collect most of all Fiesta is that which is not actually Fiesta – Harlequin teacups. Their delicate art deco handles make me swoon, and they keep finding me: my grandmother gave me three, I’ve found two or three in thrift stores, and one or two at flea markets. I always suspected, even before I knew anything about Harlequin, that they were at least related to Fiesta, and I was right. Not only do they use the same glazes and a concentric ring design, but they were also designed by our friend Fredrick Rhead, just like the Fiesta line.

Harlequin teacups in (right to left) rose, turquoise, forest green, mauve, medium green, and Harlequin yellow

Sadly, because their handles are so delicate, I often find them repaired, but I’ve never paid more than a dollar for one. I guess this explains why I feel okay filling them with succulents – they were already chipped on the inside or flawed with a hairline crack making them unusable for their original purpose. I have never found these with their matching saucers – my grandmother gave me the rose, forest green, and turquoise with Fiesta saucers in those colors.

Harlequin dinnerware was manufactured to be sold at Woolworth’s as Fiesta’s more affordable, less fancy cousin. It is unmarked. The original colors included mauve (see above, looks more like a purple-blue), spruce green (sort of a cool bluish green), maroon, and Harlequin yellow (see above, differs from Fiesta yellow which is more gold and less bright). Eventually, Harlequin would be made in all Fiesta colors in addition to these initial four with the exception of cobalt and ivory. Medium green in Harlequin is just as rare and valuable, if not more so, than Fiesta medium green. Harlequin also made some adorable animal figurines, but these are kind of outside the scope of this little introduction.

Harlequin red or tangerine 9 inch plate, starting bid $9

Harlequin single eggcups in Harlequin yellow and spruce green. These are, as are their double egg friends, fun but pricey. Opening bid $50.

Harlequin nut dishes in turquoise and maroon. At just three inches across, I'd love to have these in every color to fill a table at a cocktail party.

Now, here’s a good example of how to spot a fake. Aside from being Bauer,, this teacup is dark blue. What do we know about dark blue? It is not a Harlequin color. If it is a Bauer cup, it’s still valuable, it’s just not Harlequin.

This is not a Harlequin teacup, though it's being sold as if it were.

But let’s end on a positive note. Did you ever notice how there’s no vintage Fiesta butter dish? Well, there isn’t. How is this positive? Because Homer Laughlin did make a butter dish somewhere, and, depending on the color, can be either Harlequin or Riviera or both – I believe the same mold was used for the Harlequin and Riviera butter dish, but correct me if I’m wrong. At any rate, these are rare and pricey, but a great find: because they’re unmarked and don’t look exactly like Fiesta, you may find one a flea market from a vendor who doesn’t know or care exactly what it is.

Harlequin light green butter dish, $125

As always, happy hunting!

So now you know what colors are vintage, but there’s a slight problem – some colors, like turquoise, cobalt blue, ivory, and yellow – were reproduced after 1986 and can look very similar to the vintage colors even side by side:

Vintage and post 86 turquoise saucers - can you guess which is which?

The saucer in front is from my mother’s collection and was made in the early 90’s, while the one in back is from my grandmother’s collection, probably from the early 40’s. The vintage turquoise is slightly more bluish, while the new turquoise is a little on the greener side, but very, very slightly. In these situations, shape, weight, and most importantly, the marks on the bottom, tell us which is which.

Post 86 ink backstamp, all upper-case letters

When a Fiesta piece is marked with an ink backstamp, it will either say “FIESTA” in all capital letters, as shown above, or “fiesta” in all lowercase letters, as shown below. Aside from simply looking like a newer stamp, the capital letters and the words “LEAD-FREE” always means it was made after the reissue in 1986. Always. The lower case, as on the saucer below, always indicate vintage Fiesta. The mark may differ from the one shown, but the letters will always be in lower case. Note that this is only true for ink backstamps, and not for indented marks.

Vintage saucer, note ink stamp in all lowercase letters and saggar pin marks.

A piece may very well not be marked – many vintage plates weren’t marked, and some items such as salt and pepper shakers were never meant to be marked and are rare when they are found with one.
As you can see in the above photo, vintage Fiesta plates bear three tiny marks from where they were held up during firing. New Fiesta will always have an unglazed foot like you see above – the old method of firing held up by pins simply isn’t done anymore. You’re also more likely to see imperfections in the glazes of vintage Fiesta – the newer methods provide a consistent, even glaze.

If you’re looking at a piece online and are still stumped, you may want to skip it if it is priced as vintage. The seller hasn’t provided enough information to allow you to make an educated decision. If you’re looking at something in person, like these saucers for instance, you can learn to just tell. Holding these saucers in different hands, the new one feels weightier, has a slightly less refined shape and feel, and just looks newer.

The saucer on the left is vintage, the one on the right is from the early 90's.

So is that it? No, of course not! There’s also indented marks, which you’ll find on contemporary cereal bowls and disk pitchers as well as vintage ones. Color, size, glazed feet (see the saucers above), and overall feel will be your guide here. It helps to know your colors. I once bought a post 86 creamer at a flea market knowing it was post 86 because it was apricot, a newer color only, and because the handle was a D-shape instead of an O-shape – and I knew not to pay too much for it even though the dealer told me it was from the 60’s. I don’t think she was trying to cheat me, she just didn’t know. The bottom line is that you buy what you like, whatever colors and shapes appeal to you, and knowing just a little about what you’re looking at can help you make informed decisions on how much a piece is worth to you.

For much, much more imagery and detailed information than I could display here, check out this history/price guide/gallery, featuring Fiesta, Harlequin, Riviera, and Rhythm. If you’re curious as to what a piece is worth, check there first. It also has some very useful tips on distinguishing new from old, especially when the mold is the same: disk pitchers, sauce boats, et cetera. For instance, vintage pitchers are smooth on the inside where the handle attaches to the top, but new pitchers have an indentation there. I’ve never seen a new sauce boat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the case there as well. Anyone know?

The Homer Laughlin company introduced the bright, art deco Fiesta line in 1936, after much careful thought and planning of everything from the overall shape (thank you Fredrick Rhead) to the first set of colors (red was a must, and the others followed to complete and complement it) to the glaze (not too dull to make cleaning difficult and imperfections obvious, but not too shiny – just a pleasant, soft sheen).

I collect Fiesta ware (in spite of the fact that a lot of other people do) because my grandmother does, and so does my mother, but unfortunately because a lot of people collect it, prices at antique malls and flea markets can be inflated simply because it’s marked Fiesta. So it always helps to know whether a piece you’re looking at is rare and whether it’s actually vintage – whether it is what the dealer says it is. How to tell vintage from Post ‘86? Color, shape, and what’s on the underside – pin marks, backstamps, and indented marks.

The first line introduced in 1936 included (cobalt) blue, yellow, (old) ivory, (light) green, and the aforementioned (orange) red. Colors shown here, because of variations in photography and monitors, will differ slightly from actual colors, but they should still be recognizable.

The vintage Fiesta red has a bright orange cast to it, as opposed to the newer Scarlet color, which is closer to a true red.

Vintage red Fiesta 7 1/4 inch plate, available from tias.com for $15. Click image to view details.

These deep plates (sometimes called soup bowls) were introduced in 1936 after the initial release. Harder to find in medium green and red, as well as chartreuse, gray, and rose.

Deep plate (a.k.a. soup bowl) in cobalt blue, available from Rubylane for $30.

Since a single ivory fruit bowl can sell for more than the current bid, I expect the final price will be substantially higher for this nice set of four. The mark on these bowls says “HLC USA”, which could mean they are an earlier example – I believe the “HLC USA” was changed at some point to “MADE IN USA” but I’m not sure when; can anyone enlighten us?

Vintage old ivory 5 1/2 inch fruit bowls available on ebay, current bid $20.50.

Okay, so the picture below maybe isn’t the best example of yellow (which was quite bright and perhaps more of a goldenrod), but I love these little cream soup bowls. As always, these are nearly impossible to find in the medium green color.

Yellow cream soup bowl, available from goantiques.com for $35

Next we have light green – and I mean *light* green. This is to be distinguished from the sought-after medium green, which we’ll talk about later.

9 1/2 inch vintage light green Fiesta plate, available for $8 at etsy

In 1937, turquoise was added to the original colors. Though the auction below has ended, I thought it was an interesting lot:

Set of 4 turquoise compartment plates, sold for $50 on ebay

It’s interesting just to point out that the 12″ divided plate (like the 10.5″ seen here but larger) was the first item dropped from the original line in 1936, before the turquoise color was introduced. So I’m pretty sure you’ll never find plates like these in the 12″ size, but let me know if you do!

I should also give an example of one of the rarest and priciest items any Fiesta collector would love to stumble upon: the turquoise covered soup bowl.

Turquoise covered soup bowl, price: lots. Thousands.

These covered soup bowls are rare and desirable in any color, but since they were the second item to be discontinued (after the 12″ divided plate above), they weren’t in production for more than a few weeks before the turquoise color was introduced.

In 1943 the government decided it needed to use the uranium that was used in making the red glaze, so Fiesta sent its red color to war, and from 1943 – 1959, no red was made. In 1951 new colors were added. There was rose:

Vintage Fiesta rose sugar bowl without lid, opening bid $3

gray:

Vintage gray 8 1/2 inch nappy, $26

chartreuse:

Vintage chartreuse sauce boat, current bid $20

and forest (or dark) green:

Vintage forest green soup bowl, current bid $28

– very modern indeed. Medium green was introduced in 1959, a mere 10 years before all of the above was discontinued – hence its scarcity and high price tags. Some items were only available for a few years or a few months before medium green was introduced. Medium green can sometimes be confused with a heavy application of light green, especially if it’s a lighter coat of medium green, but generally it has more yellow in it – medium green is like John Deere green. The best measuring tool I’ve heard of is the green of spearmint Tic Tacs, so it actually may be worth it to have some on you next time you visit the flea market. See this guide for more information. I hesitate to even put any pictures here from ebay auctions because the pictures’ color is often inaccurate, and some may even call something medium green when it in fact is not. Are these absolutely all the vintage colors ever produced? No, some other colors (Harlequin, Riviera) may have been used for some promotional item or another – some common examples include juice or water tumblers. But that’s beyond the scope of this quickie beginner’s primer.

Next time … what’s on the bottom, and some frequently asked questions. I know I’ve asked them before, or at least wondered.