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Vintage Fiesta Utility Tray

The fiesta utility tray is a great piece to use for a variety of items on your table, great for entertaining and harkens to the classic celery dish of the time. Shown above with a kitchen kraft refrigerator stacking unit and some Anchor Hocking go along glasses. The utility tray was not part of the original 34 items released in January of 1936, but quickly followed with the push of 17 new items that came out by Christmas of that same year. There are two variations on the trays, the first trays were made on the ram press and had more or less straight outside edges (those ram pressed versions exhibit the dry white foot on the base). The ram press used a drier clay than slip casting and combined with the force of the ram press examples were often known to warp or the clay would show firing cracks easily. About a year into production (April 1938) the trays were redesigned to be slip cast in a mold with more flared out edges and a fully glazed bottom that will be stamped with the "GENUINE fiesta" mark.

This is one of the more important variations to be aware of because the two typed of trays do NOT stack well with each other and mixing and matching the different types can frustrate collectors. Collectors interested in hunting down the harder to find and more unique examples should be on the lookout for the early variation in turquoise.

Dimensions

Utility tray measures 10 1/2" long across the top x 1 1/4" tall x 8 1/18" across the foot.

Marks

Earlier versions with the dry white foot will be unmarked, later versions will have the glaze stamp "GENUINE fiesta HLCo USA" on the outside bottom.

Years of production

Circa 1936-1946: Made in the first six original colors only. Will have an early variation (increase value, esp. for turquoise). Red discontinued by the end of 1942.