Antique Greenwood China Trenton NJ White Ironstone Oval Dish Hotel Ware Small For Sale

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Antique Greenwood China Trenton NJ White Ironstone Oval Dish Hotel Ware Small:
$22.00

Trenton Made This, and the Met Has One Too

Trenton, New Jersey was once called the Staffordshire of America — a river town packed with potteries turning out the dishes that fed the country. Greenwood Pottery was one of the good ones. Founded in 1861, incorporated in 1868, and in business until 1933, they built their reputation on vitrified hotel china: heavy, durable, plain white ware made for railroads, restaurants, lodges, government offices and the military. The dishes that had to survive being carried on a moving train.

This is one of theirs. A small oval dish, seven inches across, with a wide flat rim and a shallow well — the classic shape for a side of vegetables at a hotel table. No pattern, no trim. Just a good profile and a clean warm-white glaze.

Turn it over and the mark is impressed into the clay rather than printed: GREENWOOD CHINA / TRENTON, N.J. That's the older way of marking, pressed in while the piece was still soft. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a Greenwood pitcher carrying that same backstamp.

Where it belongs: in a stack of other whites, because that's what white ironstone is for. It doesn't want to match. Prop it on a plate rail. Lay it flat under a small bowl. Set it on a dresser for a watch and cufflinks. Use it as a butter dish, a soap tray, a spot for the salt cellar. At three-quarters of an inch tall it slides in anywhere and disappears until you want it.

Size: 7" long × just under 5" wide × just under 3/4" tall.

Condition: Some overall wear and flea bites. The glaze is clean and bright overall and the impressed mark is legible. Please look closely at all photos; they're part of the description.

Handpicked because a plain white dish from a pottery that fed America's railroads has more history in it than most things twice its size. Carefully packed with love and sent on its way to you.

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