Red Wing dinnerware crossword puzzle reprints are available

Created by Harley Thompson - GSRW club historian

Contact GoldenStateRedWing.com to order a crossword puzzle reprint

The hand painting was done primarily by young women. Belle Kogan contributed a few patterns in the 1950s, but Murphy designed most of the artwork. The company would make a rubber stamp from the original artwork and stamp the outline on the piece. The outline burned away when the piece was fired in the kiln. Each painter was responsible for one color. You might be the light-green girl or the dark-blue girl. There might be five or 10 different women working on the artwork of each piece. The dinnerware was hand-painted, but it was production-line painting, not the work of a single artist.

Red Wing’s first dinnerware line was called Gypsy Trail. Many people think it was a copy of Fiesta, but Gypsy Trail, with its white, dark blue, orange, turquoise, and yellow glazes, was introduced in June 1935, a full year before Fiesta was introduced.

We don’t know exactly when Gypsy Trail ended. We’ve got a 1944 Gypsy Trail brochure—the last one that we know of—but pieces introduced in 1944 were made for a fairly brief period.

In 1941 Red Wing introduced its first hand-painted dinnerware patterns. After years of only solid-colored stuff—most dinnerware patterns don’t last more than four or five years—people took to this white dinnerware with floral designs.