Confronting the Modern Market

As the Depression hit, lower- and middle-class purchases of dinnerware fell. To combat declining sales and make use of the large production capacity that had developed earlier, such middlebrow American producers as the Homer Laughlin China Company gave dinner plates to moviegoers at midweek shows. Another big stimulus came in 1936 with Homer Laughlin’s introduction of Fiesta—vibrant, monochromatic earthenware priced for the working classes—which would later command a hefty premium as a collectible. The most popular dinnerware (over 250 million pieces sold between 1939 and 1959) was Russel Wright’s American Modern, organically shaped earthenware in muted, natural tones. Wright’s innovative design was reissued in 2002.