Circa March 1937-July/August 1937: Never gracing a Fiesta price list, the rare Fiestaware cake plate was only produced for a few months and is exceeedingly rare in the original red glaze with only a handful of surviving examples known.
Frederick Rhead, the iconic dinnerware line's designer wrote the following statement in his journal on February 10, 1937: "Royal Metal returned drawing of flat cake plate for Fiesta line." This entry suggests the cake plate may have been designed for distribution by the Royal Metal Manufacturing Company. We know that cakes plates were made in red, cobalt, yellow, and original green. We have read that at least one ivory example exists, but we have never seen even a photograph of an ivory cake plate or seen one for sale on the open market. No turquoise cake plates are known.
The Fiesta cake plate is flat on the top and contains a series of hand jiggered Fiesta rings, but the many rings on the plate's unusually molded bottom is the feature that identifies it as a true HLCC Fiesta cake plate and is unlike the bottom on any other Fiesta shape.
Measuring 10 3/8" in diameter, this rare original red Fiesta cake plate has no chips, cracks, or repairs and a little very minor light scratching visible only when one tilts the plate into the light. This is a great example in collector quality condition and is a piece so scarce that most collectors will never have a chance to see one.
Bob Zordani and Heidi Kellner: (217) 714-5016, Champaign/Urbana, Illinois: zandk@zandkantiques.com
