Little Spoon's Virtual Museum
Of Restaurant Ware And Restaurant China

Since 1996 A Personal Collector's Site For Restaurant China.

Shenango China Company

Shenango China Company, New Castle, Pennsylvania 1901-1991

Bought Wallace China in 1959

Bought Mayer China in 1964

Sold to Anchor Hocking in 1979

R.I.P 1991

Here are the Date Codes Deciphered:

First column is the year of manufacture. Second column is a number which represents the year of manufacture in the backstamp. The Third and Fourth columns are letters which represent whether the plate was made between January-June (column 3) or July-December (column 4).

Example: 20A = July-Dec/1962

I guess the point was if the diner turned the plate over and saw it was made thirty years ago, that may indicate that the meatloaf was possible old as well so the codes kept the nosy from the truth.

1950	8	M	A	1959	17	W	J	1968	26	R	G
1951	9	N	B	1960	18	X	K	1969	27	T	H
1952	10	O	C	1961	19	Y	L	1970	28	U	A
1953	11	P	D	1962	20	Z	A	1971	29	V	B
1954	12	Q	E	1963	21	M	B	1972	30	W	C
1955	13	R	F	1964	22	N	C	1973	31	X	D
1956	14	T	G	1965	23	O	D	1974	32	Y	E
1957	15	U	H	1966	24	P	E	1975	33	Z	F
1958	16	V	I	1967	25	F	1976	34	M	G

Click the thumbnail to see the full image.

El Rancho pattern coffee mug. Can range in price from $15-$35

Wallace China Cartoon Cowboy pattern plates; I wish I had a picture of the backstamps as these are pretty unique.

Two are 8.25" and one is 6.25". These are actually marked: Shenango of California, which means they were made between 1959 and 1964 after Wallace China was bought by Shenango China.

Good old wavy green pattern which was made by all of the restaurant china companies (and still is).

Plain brownish creamer. Even without a logo a nice piece for around $6-$8

Nice children's cereal bowl. These can fetch very high prices $75 and up if in great shape.
They don't do anything for me. I have a hard time believing anyone is going to pay $75 on Ebay for one of these and then let their kid eat out of it.

These were a really great find. Bought a small stack of them fro about $10-$15 in mint condition> Sold them for about $35 a piece and that was years before the whole 'Tiki' revival craze which ran alot of the restaurant stuff into the clouds. Supply and demand. God bless America. Bet they can get an easy $50-$75 each now though. Beaurtiful colors, lots of artwork. Probably shouldn't have sold them.

I bought this for $2 in a mall down in redondo Beach around 1997. Sold it on Ebay years later for about $10. Wish I had the backstamp picture for it> It seems like a pretty old design logo wise.

Years and years ago when this website started out as an AOL homepage (yes I know, AOL, yikes!) I made friends with an interesting lady back east with a love and interest in Diners and a side interest in the china used in said diners> She sent me a picture of a Shenango catalog from (I believe) the early 1970s. Thanks Susan.

I think these pictures date from the first days of my site. I leave them here for sentimental reasons. Paid about $2 per piece for each of these three> you can also tell by the terrible jpeg quality just how old these pics are. I believe these were shot with the first generation of Kodak Digital cameras a DC25.

This Interstate Restaurant plate has always thrilled me. Very understated with a clean line to the artwork. Also features one of the rarer colorful backstamps. I don't think they used these for too many years which is a shame.
5.5" plate circa 1930-1948

Nice piece of tan bodied Inca Ware. I have a page of Inca Ware as well.
Everybody had an Al's at some point. I used to live over a place in Los Angeles called Al's Bar. Artist's District Downtown Los Angeles. Shared bathrooms down the hall. Lots of so-called artists and some real ones too. Until the morning I walked into the bathroom and there was a rat in there that chased me out. I moved the next day.
This backstamp was used late 1920s to late 1940s. The Inca Ware referred to the tan body which was a popular restaurant china feature in that time period. Jackson China had Jak-Tan and Syracuse China had Adobe Ware, etc.

Roadside Rest plate
1920s-1949 backstamp

Henri's Nationally Known (never heard of it)

Split Rock - Lodge Cottages and Club
looks like it was a swingin joint. Anyone know where it was?

The Mayflower Shop

Salesman's Promotional Ashtray (and great concealed weapon)
Backstamp used 1910s and 1920s

Mickey Mantle's Country Cookin. Yeah like he can cook. Sounds like a tax shelter. But hats off to Mickey, a real ball player from back in the day before neuroscopic knee surgery, sterodes, baseball strikes and cable TV royalty disputes.
Late 1960s

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SHENANGO CHINA PAGE TWO

SHENANGO CHINA PAGE THREE

SHENANGO CHINA PAGE FOUR

SHENANGO CHINA PAGE FIVE

SHENANGO CHINA PAGE SIX

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Š1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Chris Trent