Vernon Kilns Dinnerware Patterns Visual Guide

I used to have a separate web page dedicated to this, but that has long since gone away, so I thought I'd repost it here.  The visual guide to Vernon Kilns Fantasia dinnerware patterns.

There are two categories of patterns in the Fantasia line:  Border patterns & full plate patterns.  Within each category there are four named patterns.  Also in each category there are three full color accented patterns and one monochromatic pattern.  In each category there are three primary colors:  Brown, blue, and red.  In each category the monochromatic pattern has two colorways:  blue and red.

There are some tricks to remembering which pattern is which.  All the accented red patterns have 'ballet' in the name (Flower Ballet, Autumn Ballet).  All the monochromatic patterns are two words (Milkweed Dance, Dewdrop Fairies).

The breakdown is as follows.

Full Plate Patterns

Fantasia

Fairyland

Autumn Ballet

Milkweed Dance

Border Patterns

Nutcracker

Enchantment

Flower Ballet

Dewdrop Fairies

Monochromatic Patterns

Milkweed Dance

Dewdrop Fairies

The border patterns have one interesting variant as well; the fairy.  I'm not sure what percentage of plates were made with the fairy, but it has to be small because I've seen way more plain plates than those with a fairy.

Border Pattern Fairies

Flower Ballet

Dewdrop Fairies

If you consider the two color variations, that make a total of ten patterns of Fantasia dishes.  That's a lot of patterns.  As a general rule, Fairyland is the rarest of them all, followed closely by all the monochromatic patterns.  The most common pattern seems to be Autumn Ballet, although serving pieces in ANY pattern are excessively rare.  A teapot or carafe is the holy grail for any pattern out there.  Also, it should be noted that the pattern shape differs between the two patterns; with the full plate pattern having the Montecito shape, and the border patterns having the Ultra shape.  The Ultra shape is cool in that all the various handles are upside down!

Happy hunting!

Fantsia Vernon Kilns Collection Up For Sale on eBay

Time to let the collection go, my Fantasia dinnerware collection by Vernon Kilns.  Over 40 pieces will be posted to eBay over the next couple of weeks, get 'em while you can!

Heritage Auctions Live

The last of my comic art auctions are now live at Heritage. Bid on my stuff.

http://comics.HA.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=121302&collection=49&type=friend-consignorlive-notice&FC=0

New Comics and Comic Art on Heritage

I just keep finding stuff.  A new batch of stuff is now up on Heritage, bidding starts January 6th, 2013 and closes January 13th, 2013.  Bid on my cool stuff, time for new homes.  Featuring the very first Peanuts comic book (bet you didn't even know there was a Peanuts comic book).

A couple of fantastic Bill Sienkiewicz sketches of Elektra and Warlock

A truly fantastic full color custom illustration of Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai

A lovely drawing of Mercy St. Clair aka Trekker by Ron Randall (nice to see this comic is back after many many years).

A great color illustration of Max from Sam and Max by Steve Purcell

A striking sketch of Dagger from Marvel's Cloak and Dagger by Art Adams (one of the greatest comic artists of all time in my opinion).

and a complete 6-page story from a golden age funny animal comic called Dover the Bird.

OMFG! I Can't Believe This Sold For This Much!!

I'm still reeling from this sale at Heritage, my Love and Rockets page just sold for more than $20,000!  Wish I had bought more of them way back in 1989... Thank you Jaime Hernandez for making such memorable and beloved characters, and selling me this piece of art so many years ago.

More Items up for Auction!

I've posted a bunch more items on the various auction sites.  I've got some CGC Peanuts comics on the ComicLink site starting on Oct 8, two nice pieces of animation on Howard Lowery's auction site this week, and a fantastic Jaime Hernandez page from Love and Rockets from 1987 up on Heritage, which starts accepting bids in late October.  Bid on my stuff!

Selling Everything but the Kitchen Sink!

As some of you may have heard on my other blog or through various social networking sites, I've been cleaning house and selling off everything that we don't have room for or just don't need/want any more.  I've currently got auctions running on both eBay and Heritage.  Check them out if you like movie posters and original comic book art.

RIP Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury passed away at the age of 91.  The man was a sci-fi GOD.  I had the pleasure of meeting him several times while I was growing up in Southern California, mostly at the dearly departed A Change of Hobbit bookstore in Santa Monica. 

My high school English teacher was good friends with him, and would always arrange a visit when her science fiction book club made the trek from Torrance to Santa Monica.

Haggis is ok, but ...

Back from our fabulous trip to Scotland, where much fun and great food was had.  We even had haggis, and despite its less than appetizing description, it is quite good.  But, when we saw these potato chips for sale, that's where I draw the line.

Disneyland Hotel Room Service Fold Out Menu

The last of my menus :-(  This is a really weird one, but weird = = cool.  A Disneyland Hotel room service menu.  Now that in and of itself would not be that interesting, except for the format:  It is a penta-fold menu, folded 5 times accordion-style, making this thing huge at 15x27 fully unfolded!  I love the art of Goofy with winged feet delivering your meal.

I could probably date this better than 1960s or 1970s based on the list of other restaurants at the hotel, but I don't have any ready reference material to do it, so if anyone can date this for me, feel free!

The list of items available is quite impressive, I'd love to see bottles of Disneyland Hotel Label scotch, bourbon, gin, vodka and rum.  Bet there's no character art on those labels.

eBay listing