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Patterns

Glo-Tan

Flo-Jean

Glo-Tan was Carr's trade name for its tan-bodied ware. In her book "Restaurant China Vol. 2," Barbara Conroy stated that it was made "circa 1940s-1952."

A friend asked not too long ago when we thouoght Glo-Tan was first introduced, and we spent some quality time looking at topmarked Glo-Tan pieces and then matching them to when those venues opened.

Sunny Croft Country Club

A good example is Sunny Croft Country Club in Clarksburg, W.V. (above), which opened in 1934, as well as New York City's Tavern on the Green (below), which also opened that year.

Tavern on the Green

There's always the possibility that these venues chose other manufacturers for their first china orders, but a more compelling timeline comes from the collection of Judy Reed, whose father Paul Mattson was Carr's designer from 1934 to 1937. She has a Club Cassano plate on Glo-Tan that he designed, so that would definitely date the introduction of Glo-Tan to at least the mid-30s, if not 1934. In addition, we believe Mattson was the designer of the handsome Glo-Tan sunburst backstamp.

Carr's one major catalog that we've seen came out in 1934, and it did not contain any reference to Glo-Tan, so that also provides a marker to the date of introduction as being somewhere very close to 1934.

An article in the Grafton Sentinel dated March 14, 1935, announced Carr's "new product," its "Glo-Tan line of chinaware."


These pages are our attempt to categorize as many of the Carr patterns as possible, and it will be an ongoing project as time allows and more pieces emerge. Using the backstamps on patterns themselves, two catalogs and photos shared by the kindness of friends and online sellers, we've put together two sections of underglaze print patterns and one section of topmarked china featuring more than 200 customers.

When Carr began production in 1916, all the work was made on a white clay body. It was in the mid-Thirties that work began appearing with the Glo-Tan backstamp on Carr's own version of a rich beige clay. See box at left.

Our newest section on the site is the McCartney Collection, one that showcases part of the massive collection of Grafton citizens Fred and Opal McCartney.

In addition, there is a section that details the West Virginia State Museum Collection from the estate of Joy Bachman, wife of Carr China’s last president.

The Pattern Index is an easy way to find patterns by name or number, and it provides a quick alphabetical listing of topmarks.

frog ashtray

Curiosities is the home for pieces that don’t quite fit in other sections or that ask questions for which we currently have no answers.

Just added is a list of Distributors, for which we owe in large part to the tireless efforts of historian Larry Paul.

If you have any photos you’d like to share, I’d be very grateful if you’d let me know.  E-mail ed@carrchinacompany.com.


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