Home | Gallery | History | Price Guide | Online Store
Vintage Fiesta Juice Tumblers
The fiesta juice tumblers, for being such a seemingly simple item, have a long and torrid history at the Homer Laughlin China Company. The tumbers, in the six original colors, were used in the 1940s promotional campaign and were paired with a juice pitcher dipped in the fiesta yellow glaze. But the tumbers already existed and had been laboriously worked on originally for Kraft cheese. The tumblers had been commisioned by Kraft to hold their cheese spreads. Designer Frederick Rhead was working on the first tumbler during the summer months of 1935. After many revisions Kraft selected two sizes and Homer Laughlin produced 200,000 of each size. Two years later Kraft again turned to HLC for a new ceramic jar, but after fourteen months and more than twenty models, Kraft went with Hazel Glass's copy of the ceramic fiesta tumbler that could be produced for 1/2 the cost of the fiesta original. Luckily the promotional campaign of the forties was right around the corner and the hard work on the tumblers was put to good use pairing them with the juice pitcher to make a delightful 7 piece ensemble.
Homer Laughlin China Company would get more return on the fruits of their labors throughout the years when they would turn to the tumbler again and again to produce them in a variety of colors for a few other ensemble sets. In 1948 the tumblers were dipped in shell pink, mist gray and beige (two of each) to be paired with a disc juice pitcher in Celadon green. This set marked the 75th anniverssary for the company and accompanied their "Jubilee" line. Then again in 1951 the tumbers were dipped in forest green, chartreuse and harlequin yellow (again two of each) to pair the ensemble with the "Rhythm" set for Woolworth. The pitcher was dipped in Gray for this promotion. Tumblers in this last round of colors for Rhythm are exceedingly rare (ultra-rare).
Dimensions
juice tumblers can be found in two sizes 3 1/2" tall or 3 3/4" tall.
Marks
Unmarked.
Years of production
Circa 1940-1942: Made in a variety of colors to make up different juice set ensembles for the 1940 promotional campaigns.