Thunderbird Mark

Q: I am hoping you can identify this mark It is on a set of dishes I bought that look to be from the 1950s.

A: Your mark with the bird was used on dinnerware made by the Stetson China Co. (c.1919-1965). Stetson’s dinnerware was sold under the name of Marcrest in the 1950s and 1960s. The phrase “detergent proof” was not used as part of a mark until around 1944. Marcrest dishes were distributed by the Marshall Burns Co. of Chicago. Marshall Burns contracted with many different pottery companies to create pieces that were used as premium items for service stations, grocery stores, and movie theaters in the 1950s.

Louis Stetson started his company in Lincoln, IL, around 1919 by buying whiteware from the Mt. Clemens Pottery in Chicago and the Illinois China Co. in Lincoln. Stetson’s company decorated the dishes, then resold them. His son took over the company after his death and in 1946 he bought the Illinois China Co. Stetson used decals for decorations, but for two or three years he hired decorators from Red Wing and Southern Potteries and pieces were handpainted. Stetson then went back to using decals.

Nearly all of Stetson’s later ware was sold to Marshall Burns to be used as premiums. The Stetson China Co. went out of business in 1965. Stetson also had a plastics plant that made melamine ware.