One Table Oodles of Dishes:

Glidden Pottery, Alfred Stoneware/Buffetware

Glidden Pottery, located in Alfred, New York, was founded by Glidden Parker. The factory produced a unique stoneware bodied dinnerware and Artware from 1940 to 1957. Glidden Parker had been a student of Marion Fosdick, and well-known ceramic industrial designer, Don Schreckengost, at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. At the peak of production, Glidden Pottery employed 55.

There were several well-known designers that created shapes and glazes at Glidden Pottery, including Fong Chow, Philip Secrest, and Sergio Dello Strologo. Dello Strologo (b. Italy, 1928-1999), was already an acclaimed industrial designer in Milan and a teacher at the National School of Ceramics in Faenza. Like Fong Chow, and Secrest, he was also a graduate of Alfred. He had worked with Russel Wright redesigning pieces of the Iroquois line of casual dinnerware, and Russel Wright personally referred Dello Strologo to Glidden. There he designed the line known as Alfred Stoneware/Buffetware in Saffron, Cayenne, and Parsley. One of the unique features of this line, was the innovative use of removable wooden covers or handles which complemented the ceramic teapots, pitchers, spaghetti servers, cannisters, salt and pepper shakers, and more. Fong Chow worked to produce in glazes the herbal designs created by Dello Strologo that graced the forms. At the 19th Ceramic National in Syracuse in 1956, this Alfred Stoneware line won the 2nd Honorary Award of Merit prize. Several items traveled on a national circuit well into 1958, including the Buffetware coffee urn, with brass spigot and cast-iron warming stand, a place setting consisting of a cup and saucer, buffet plate, and soup bowl, a casserole, pitcher, and other accessories.

References: Glidden Pottery: Alfred Mid-Century Highstyle Stoneware, by Ron Kransler, published posthumously, 2011; and Glidden Pottery, by Margaret Carney with essays by Ron Kransler and Wallace Higgins, Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, 2001.

essay by Margaret Carney

Click on a thumbnail to see another place setting.