Fiesta (dinnerware)

Fiesta is a line of ceramic glazed dinnerware manufactured and marketed by the Fiesta Tableware Company of Newell, West Virginia since its introduction in 1936, with a hiatus from 1973 to 1985. Fiesta is noted for its Art Deco styling and its range of often bold, solid colors. The company was known as the Homer Laughlin China Company (HLCC) until 2020, when it sold its food service divisions, along with the Homer Laughlin name, to Steelite, a British tableware manufacturer. HLCC in turn rebranded itself as the Fiesta Tableware Company, retaining its retail division, prominent Fiesta line, factories and headquarters in Newell, West Virginia. Fiesta's original shapes and glazes were designed by Frederick Hurten Rhead, Homer Laughlin's art director from 1927 until his death in 1942. Fiesta products before 1986 were semi-vitreous pottery, and after 1986 were vitreous china allowing marketing it for food service applications. Several of the original shapes had to be modified due to this change in material and other new shapes were added by Jonathan O. Parry, who became Homer Laughlin's art director in 1984. Since its inception, Fiesta has been sold in sets or from "open stock," where customers can select, mix and match pieces from the entire color range. Notably, certain early glazes resulted in pieces that were slightly radioactive. According to the Smithsonian Institution Press, Fiesta's appeal lies in its colors, design, and affordability. In 2002, The New York Times called Fiesta "the most collected brand of china in the United States". Fiesta was introduced at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1936. It was not the first solid color dinnerware in the US; smaller companies, especially Bauer Pottery in California, had been producing dinnerware, vases, and garden pottery, in solid color glazes for the better part of a decade by the time Fiesta was introduced to the market. However, Fiesta was the first widely mass-promoted and marketed solid-color dinnerware in the US.