Identifying SYRACUSE China Patterns Guide #1  Railroad China

Syracuse China began operation in 1871 as Onondaga Pottery Company (OPCO) & still continues to produce china today in Syracuse New York. They are most widely known for their restaurant, hotel & railroad dining car china, although they have made fine china also. I will be writing several guides to try to help you as a buyer or seller identify some of their patterns & designs. They have made thousands of designs & it would be near impossible to identify them all. I have been selling Syracuse China on EBAY for about 5 years. SADLY I have NOT saved all of my pictures. I just recently decided to start saving them so I could write a guide. Therefore my pictures are limited. Each EBAY guide can only have 10 photographs each. This is the main reason I have to divide up the patterns into seperate guides. It may take me awhile to get all the patterns I have listed, as I have to do this in my spare time (of which I do not have much!) The Railroad Dining Car China is probably the most sought after of all restaurantware china. I will show you some designs here from North American Railroads.

UNION PACIFIC COLUMBINE & PORTLAND ROSE

 Two beautiful patterns made by Syracuse for the Union Pacific Railroad. Columbine, the state flower of Colorado is a scarce hand painted design used on the Columbine during the 1930's.

The lovely Portland Rosedesign features a pink Caroline Testout rose & buds. This pattern was also used in the 1930's.

I have also had  Union Pacific CHALLENGER pieces before. They are a tan colored china with The Challenger written as the topmark in brown lettering. Used in the 1930's & 40's. Much sought after are the Union Pacific children's dinnerware. I am sorry I do not have any of my pictures anymore. They are brightly primary colored hand painted circus designs. There are a circus master, lion in cage, clowns face, & lady riding standing on a horse. There may be other designs also. Another fun child's design would be:

Great Northern Railroad's Design ROCKY

Cute children's design that features a pig flying on the back of a goose, a hippo on roller skates & a monkey with a cane. This was a stock pattern made by Syracuse & it was customized for Great Northern with their topmark. It has been said that GN also used pieces without the RR topmark towards the end of it's use. I cannot verify if this is true or not. It was used for many years right up into the 1960's.

Another Great Northern design which was made exclusively for them was ORIENTAL. Small flowerpot design with pinwheel looking flowers. The earliest pieces were actually hand painted.

ORIENTAL

SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD

Prairie Mountain Wildflower was a lovely design used by The Southern Pacific in the 1930's-1950's. This is a hard to find demi cup shown below. This demi features the California Poppy. On a plate or larger piece you will see other wild flowers including azaleas, baby blue eyes, & ruby lily. The pieces have various backstamps, this one shown here being the smallest as it is on a demi cup. It is my understanding that this backstamp "The Farewell to Spring" version is the rarest of the backstamps.

Another hard to aquire Southern Pacific pattern would be the Golden State, shown below on the top left. It features a border of orange blossoms with 2 oranges & the topmark Golden State. The Golden State line went from Chicago to El Paso, to Arizona & into California. The Golden State design was used as well by The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad.

VARIOUS RAILROADS

Sorry if the above pictures are a bit fuzzy. I actually printed out some of my earlier auctions & had printed sheets rather than saved photos. Top right is the  DENMARK design from the St. Louis - San Francisco or the  FRISCO line. the bottom left is the design ORANGE BLOSSOM used by the Seaboard Air Line RR.This was the first piece of RR china I ever sold on Ebay. You may recognize the center design as a variation of Syracuse's Colonial pattern. A beautiful pattern featuring pink rose & parrot tulip. This design was made exclusive for Seaboard by adding the bright turquoise rim with gold pinstripe.  Bottom right is a stock piece of INDIAN TREE which was customized for the PULLMAN with a topmark. It features oriental flowers in fall colors.

Top left here shows an individual teapot made for the CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN. Top right is a GREENBRIER bowl styled after West Virginia's state flower the rhododendron,this pattern was designed by well known designer Dorothy Draper. This was used at the famous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia & owned by the Chesapeake & Ohio Lines Railroad. Bottom left is ENCANTO used by Fred Harvey at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa fe New Mexico. Center design is exactly the same for Great Northern's GLACIER. The border design is different on the two. The GREAT NORTHERN pieces would always be backstamped. Bottom right is an example of the prolific pattern DOGWOOD made by Syracuse still today. This design was used by the Norfolk & Western Railway's Hotel Roanoke.

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe

This railroad line was made even more famous by the song in the 1946 movie  The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland. Two of their popular designs are California Poppy & Mimbreno. Syracuse China even planted a poppy field at the plant to get a true picture of what California poppies look like. Poppy was made also in a "thinware" china that was not used by the railroads. Be aware also that this pattern has recently been brought back & is currently being produced by Syracuse again. Make special note of the datecodes & backstamps on these pieces. (See my Syracuse China backstamps & datecode Guide for more information on these.)

CALIFORNIA POPPY 

One of the most popular of all railroad china designs would be Santa Fe's Mimbreno. This cup can only give you an idea of the design as most other pieces have a stylized Indian animal or figure on them. Based on ancient pottery by the Mimbres Indians the china was designed in the 1930's  by Elizabeth Coulter. The china was used on the all pullman line, The Super Chief. In the 1980's a company called Nostalgia Station made reproductions of the original Mimbreno pieces. All repros are clearly marked as such.

MIMBRENO

As I said earlier this is only a touch of the many designs made by Syracuse China for railroad use, but I hope it is of some value to you. If you are a collector or seller you might want to look into purchasing the following books here on EBAY.

1. The Official Guide Railroad Dining Car China by Doug McIntyre
2. Dining on Rails An Encyclopedia of Railroad China by Richard Luckin
3. Restaurant China Volumes 1 & 2 by Barbara Conroy

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