NEW MUSEUM ACQUISITION:

PINK B&O CENTENARY PATTERN SAMPLE PLATE

The B&O Railroad Museum is thrilled to announce the acquisition of an extremely rare piece of B&O Centenary China. In 1927, the B&O Railroad put in the first order of its famous blue Centenary patterned china. This china was produced by a number of manufacturers as recently as the 1990s. Today it remains on of the most collectable B&O Railroad items around. 

Pictured above is an early example of B&O Centenary China. This plate was produced by Scammell's Lamberton, ca. 1927-1930.

In the late 1930s three major china manufacturers produced off color samples of the already popular Centenary pattern china. During this period, Scrammell's Lamberton, Buffalo Pottery, and Shenango brought their samples to the B&O Railroad and pitched the idea of having different colored china to supplement the blue pattern. The B&O ordered one of these new colors in August 1937 from Scammell's Lamberton; however, the order was cancelled as a cost cutting measure. Today, one pink and two black Scammell's Lamberton sample plates are known to exist.

Between 1937 and 1939, the B&O ordered a single run of blue Centenary China from the Buffalo Pottery Company. B&O management disliked the quality of this run and requested no further orders from Buffalo. Like Scammell's Lamberton, Buffalo also produced sample off color plates of the centenary pattern to pitch to the B&O. This idea was once again rejected. Today, one pink, one black, and one green Buffalo sample plates are known to exist.

Shenango China of New Castle, Pennsylvania became the sole producer of Centenary China by the late 1950s. As early as 1949, the B&O began to place orders for the blue Centenary pattern with Shenango. Additional off color sample plates emerged from this company. Today, two pink Shenango sample plates are known to exist.

Around the border of Centenary pattern plates are illustrations of significant locomotives from the B&O's history, beginning with the 1830 Horse Drawn Car and ending with the 1937 streamlined Diesel Electric B&O No. 51. The illustration of the No. 51 did not become a part of the pattern until around mid-1942. Both of the existing pink samples plates produced by Shenango have the original design, without the B&O No. 51 illustration. It is believed each was produced between 1938 and 1939.

Both of the known pink Shenango sample plates have spent time at the B&O Railroad Museum in recent years. One was loaned to the museum and displayed in the Dinner in the Diner Exhibition from 2011-2013. The other sample, from a different private collection, was loaned to the museum and exhibited from 2014 to April 2017. The B&O Railroad Museum acquired this second plate November 2017.

The 9-inch pink luncheon plate, produced by the Shenango China Company, will go on display in the Dinner in the Diner Exhibition in December 2017.

The pink B&O Centenary pattern sample plate, produced by Shenango China, ca. 1938. It will go on exhibit in December 2017.

The backside of the plate features the Shenango China logo. On the upper left of the plate near the rim is the number "22". This is a manufacturer's number of some kind and does not indicate a quantity of "22". Both of the known Shenango examples have the same number.

by Harrison Van Waes
Curator, B&O Railroad Museum