Vintage Theodore Haviland Clinton Porcelain, Set of 7, c. 1936–1957

The Piece

Seven pieces of American porcelain in a warm cream body: five plates and two rimmed bowls. The decoration is a continuous swag of blue flowers running the rim, forget-me-nots and small bellflowers carried on fine blue-grey stems that dip and rise around the circumference without repeating in an obvious way. A gilt line runs the outer edge and a second finer gilt line circles the well.

The palette is the reason to look. There are three blues doing the work, a deep one for the stems and the flower centres, a mid tone for the petals, and a pale one for the small bells, and they sit on cream rather than white, which is what keeps the whole thing warm instead of cold.

The porcelain is thin, even and translucent, and the plates ring when tapped. The glaze is bright and uncrazed throughout, which is unusual on a set of this age and is the single best thing about it.

History & Provenance

The mark reads Theodore Haviland, New York, MADE IN AMERICA, Clinton. The Haviland story starts with David Haviland, a New York china importer who moved to Limoges in 1842 to manufacture porcelain specifically for the American market rather than buy it. It is one of the odder arrangements in ceramics, an American firm making French porcelain for Americans, and it worked for well over a century. Theodore Haviland, his son, established his own house in 1892, and the firm later added American production under the New York name.

That gives the date without inference. The Theodore Haviland New York and Made in America mark was in use from 1936 to 1957. The Clinton pattern itself is recorded at circa 1936 to 1961 and is long discontinued. Where those overlap is where this sits, so it is offered as c. 1936 to 1957, documented at both ends rather than argued from style.

Clinton is a restrained pattern by Haviland standards. The firm made thousands of patterns, a great many of them dense with roses and heavy gilding, and this one goes the other way: a single thin blue garland, two hairlines of gold, and a lot of empty cream. That is why it still reads as contemporary and why it sets a table without dominating it.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

Blue and white china is a crowded field and most of it shouts. This does not. The garland is thin enough to read as a line drawing rather than a pattern, the gold is two hairlines instead of a band, and the cream ground softens everything, so a table set with it looks composed rather than formal.

Seven pieces is a useful number. It sets four with plates and leaves two bowls for serving, it works mixed into plain white, and it breaks up beautifully: a single plate on a stand, a group hung on a wall, or one bowl out on its own holding fruit or keys. And because the glaze is uncrazed, these can actually be used rather than only looked at.