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Rating: 
Summary: A welcome addition to the growing body of literature on RC
Review: Barbara Conroy's new volume on restaurant china is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature regarding this largely American genre of utilitarian ceramic art. Restaurant china represents an age of americana where restuarants cared enough to invest capital in individualized ceramic pieces that would advertise and represent their establishments. It is a practice that is being undertaken with less and less frequency in our time. Many manufacturers are no longer in business. It is accordingly a genre of increasing interest to collectors. Conroy's book chronicles this fine craft form well. It offers a fairly exhaustive listing of topmarks and backstamps of interest to collectors. Substantial full-color illustrations are both informative and entertaining. Historical information as well as primer material about production processes are welcome inclusions. The book's title is a bit midsleading, however. It is really a volume focusing primarily on airline, ship, and railroad china... with some coverage of military, western, government, oriental, sports-related, casino, department store and corporate pieces. Logo china manufactured for restaurants and diners receives is afforded little coverage. And non-logo pieces in stock patterns receive virtually no mention at all; the topic is beyond the scope of the book (though Conroy plans, I believe, additional volumes which may address these areas in further detail.) Future volumes may benfit from incuding information on how to read backstamps to determine date of manufacture, information on stock patterns, and changes in ceramic form and decorative practices from the 1950's and 60's to the present day. No one volume, however, can be expected to exhaustively cover all facets of this increasingly valued utilitarian art form. On the whole, Conroy's volume enriches the literature currently available to growing number of restaurant china fans and collectors in our culture.
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