BROKEN DISHES

Keep your broken dishes, vases, and other decorative china to use to make mosaic stepping stones or tabletops for the garden. Chipped vases can still be used for flowers or, turned upside down, for toad homes.

HOMER LAUGHLIN DISHES

Q: I have a set of dishes that was stored at a duck hunting club for many years. Can you tell me anything about the pattern and when it was made?

A: Homer and Shakespeare Laughlin, two brothers, began making pottery in East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1871. The pottery became Ohio Valley Pottery in 1874. Later it became Homer Laughlin China Company. In 1897 William Edwin Wells and Louis I. Aaron became the owners of the pottery. Members of their families still operate the company. The headquarters moved to Newell, West Virginia, in 1907. Homer Laughlin China Company is one of the most prolific producers of dinnerware in the United States. The company estimates that between 25,000 and 30,000 different patterns have been made. The peacock mark was used on the Wells shape and on some Century, Jade and Orleans shape dishes from 1930 to the 1940s. Your dishes are Century shape, which was made from 1931 to c.1951. The pattern is Briar Rose. Many Homer Laughlin dishes were sold in Montgomery Ward catalogs in the 1930s.