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ALL BUTTERED UP FOR
COLLECTING!
Victorian butter pats, whether miniature replicas
of the china
they accompanied or a whimsical design all their
own, are infinitely collectible.
Very few manufacturers still produce
butter pats for household use. Royal Copenhagen
shops in the United States stopped carrying butter pats
in early 1999 due to lack of consumer demand. Perhaps
cost was a reason and also dishwashers do not easily
accommodate tiny pieces. Butter pats must be washed by
hand. The Royal Copenhagen patterns that collectors have
grown to love over the decades such as Blue Fluted,
Blue Fluted Full Lace and Royal Purple can
be purchased through speciality shops found on the
internet; however, since these are import items
there is no guaranteed delivery time.
Fauna are depicted: Fish butter pat; Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul
& Pacific Railroad, decoration is shaded pink with black highlights
for the geese. Manufacturer is Syracuse China. First made in 1937 and last
produced in 1969; crab motif; and a heavy ceramic piece, unmarked, but most
likely 1800's Staffordshire.
Johnson Brothers, now part of the
expansive Wedgwood Group, continues to produce butter
pats for retail/domestic sale. Royal Doulton Hotel and
Airline section supplies hotels, restaurants, airlines
and commercial catering industries, providing a
customized design service for butter pats when required.
By offering porcelain as well as bone china, Royal
Doulton is able to meet the requirements of a wide range
of establishments, from banqueting specialists to some
of the most prestigious hotels in the world including
The Ritz and the Four Seasons chain. Royal Doulton has
established itself as a major supplier of china,
including butter pats, to international airlines such as
British Airways, Air Canada, Sri Lanka, United Arab
Emirates, South African Airways and Air New Zealand.
Royal Doulton no longer manufactures individual butter
plates for home use. The following earthenware patterns
continue to be produced by Spode, and supply is by
demand: Blue and Pink Tower, Chinese
Rose and Chelsea Wicker. But none sell nearly
as well as in past times. The long-gone kilns of Trenton
and Newark, New Jersey produced butter pats in great
quantities along with those that were manufactured in
the potteries in and around East Liverpool, Ohio.
Interestingly, rare vestiges of
Victorian tableware may be found today when traveling in
first or business classes on the international airlines
or when dining in European or Asian restaurants or
hotels. One might see as part of the meal presentation
individual salt and pepper sets, linens held in place
with porcelain or silver serviette holders and butter
pats. Since many of the international airlines have
discontinued the use of labor-intensive individual
butter containers, these pieces are now being sought by
collectors and are soaring in price.
From upper left: a hot air balloon,
Alitalia Airlines; Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, a blue and white horse
drawn car, dated 1927, manufactured to celebrate the railroad's 100th anniversary;
Civil Aviation Administration (China); CAAC was formed November 2, 1949
after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, body color is
white, floral design and pinstripe are cobalt blue; and square railroad
piece made in England, probably a novelty piece not used for actual railroad
service.
Butter pats have gained the attention of contemporary
collectors. Because of their tiny dimensions, a large
collection takes up minimal space. Some collectors focus
on individual butter plates from matched china patterns,
such as Haviland. It has been determined that Haviland
companies alone designed as many as 60,000 dinnerware
patterns–most with matching butter pats. The Haviland
factories in Limoges, France, manufactured china that
was decorated in the French style of pastel floral
motifs for the American market. Hand-painting, however,
is the whole concept of Limoges china. When you look at
an entire table set with Limoges china, you know that
every flower and leaf on every single piece was
painstakingly painted by an artist’s hand. The
distinctive flowers on early Haviland butter pats are
tiny and the colors are pale. As diminutive as they are,
however, Haviland flowers are remarkable in their
hand-painted detail. The 1908 Sears, Roebuck & Co.
catalog advertised a 100-piece Theodore Haviland dinner
set, including 12 individual butter dishes, for $23.50!
The mail order company offered sample butter pats,
postpaid, upon receipt of ten cents to allow the
customer to see "the beauty of the ware and the delicacy
of the decoration." Today the same tiny piece would sell
for approximately $20.
In England during the 1800's, butter
pats were included with dinnerware services for twelve.
The variety of wares and designs that were produced,
mainly by the Staffordshire potteries, make English
butter pats second only to Haviland pats in
availability. Many English pats were marked with the
maker’s name or trademark. However, due to the
diminutive size of the pieces, many were left unmarked.
It is often possible to determine the maker by
comparison with large pieces of china in the same
pattern. Since so many pats are unmarked, do not expect
to be able to trace the provenance of all of the pieces
in a collection.
Butter pats make beautiful wall display pieces, alone or combined
with handsomely framed and mounted artwork.
One popular pattern that made its way from England to
the United States in great quantities was the Tea Leaf
Ironstone pattern. In her book Grandma’s Tea Leaf
Ironstone (publishers Wallace Homestead, 1981),
Annise Doring Heaivilin wrote, "Butter chips (or butter
pats) are some of the best-loved replicas of Victorian
china, but there seem to still be a great many in
circulation yet. They were concurrent with the
popularity of our Tea Leaf pattern; consequently,
every barrel of dishes shipped from England which
contained a service for twelve, held a dozen little
butter pats as part of the set. They were probably used
on special occasions. Thus, they were not subjected to
breakage as were pitchers or plates. More than twenty
years ago, someone reported there were over 65,000
butter chip collectors, and most of the interest stemmed
from childhood memories."
More Page 4
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by Mary Dessoie
Reprinted with permission
Copyright by Mary Dessoie ©
Butter Pat Patter Association
Information
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