While helping my father move two weeks ago, we were placing belongings to be stored out in his barn. After numerous trips over, around, and running into a box out in the aisle, I stopped to see what was in it. At first glance all I could see was shredded paper -handy work from a mouse. Upon further inspection I could see dishes covered in dirt and mud. I ,being on the hunt lately for extra bowls, asked Daddy about the dishes that obviously had been in the barn for sometime now. He said take them on he didn't want them. So I tossed them in the truck and took them home.
When I found time to do something with them it was too cold to wash them off outside under the hydrant but they were way too dirty to wash in the sink. I decided to clean them in the bathtub. Armed with a tub scrub brush and rubber gloves and shampoo I took to cleaning and what emerged was this beautiful gold-rimmed plate with pink dogwood blossoms. After admiring the pattern I flipped it over and went to scrubbing the backside and the words Homer Laughlin became visible. I froze, I couldn't believe my eyes! Homer Laughlin has been around since the early 1900's. Homer and his brother actually started making dinnerware in the late 1800's but his brother sold his share and it became the Homer Laughlin company in the early 1900's. This is the company that produced the famous Fiesta line from the thirties until the sixties. Plus thousands more before and after the fact.
I found two different stamps on the whole lot. F 49 N 6 and B 49 N 6. Once I Googled how to read the stamp, I learned the F and B at the beginning was the month they were manufactured. So B was February and F was June. And the year? 1949! Thus the next number in sequence 49. N 6 was the plant in which they were produced.
I was so excited to behold this treasure and after questioning Daddy as to where he got them, he replied," In an old trailer I traded for and then later resold. That was just part of the junk I had to clean out of it!"
One person's junk is another person's treasure.
Lovely!
