Produced by Sterling China in 1977, this vintage vitrified china compartment plate was created for Piccadilly Cafeteria and its young diners. Three divided sections feature wonderfully simple black illustrations of an astronaut, a rocket, and planets circling the sun, finished with a graphic black border around the rim.
Piccadilly referred to these as its “Satellite Plates,” serving children's meals on specially designed compartment plates and advertising them to its young “junior astronauts.” Period advertisements document the Satellite Plate program from the 1960s through the end of the 1970s, and a 1975 photograph taken inside a Piccadilly Cafeteria shows one of the distinctive divided plates in use.
The reverse is stamped “STERLING Vitrified China, East Liverpool, Ohio, U.S.A.” along with the factory code M-3. Sterling's surviving production records identify M-3 as the date code for April through June 1977, allowing this particular piece to be dated unusually precisely.
Heavy, glossy, and originally made to withstand the daily rhythm of a busy American cafeteria, the plate now feels like a wonderfully preserved artifact of the era when space travel had found its way into everything from children's television to the dinner table.
A charming collectible for lovers of vintage restaurant ware, Americana, Space Age design, or simply objects with a story to tell.
DETAILS
Maker: Sterling China Company
Original user: Piccadilly Cafeteria
Pattern: Satellite Plate
Date: April–June 1977
Origin: East Liverpool, Ohio, U.S.A.
Material: Vitrified china
Design: Astronaut, rocket and solar system
Original purpose: Children's divided restaurant plate
Marked: Sterling Vitrified China / M-3
Macondo Room Object No. 011
Produced by Sterling China in 1977, this vintage vitrified china compartment plate was created for Piccadilly Cafeteria and its young diners. Three divided sections feature wonderfully simple black illustrations of an astronaut, a rocket, and planets circling the sun, finished with a graphic black border around the rim.
Piccadilly referred to these as its “Satellite Plates,” serving children's meals on specially designed compartment plates and advertising them to its young “junior astronauts.” Period advertisements document the Satellite Plate program from the 1960s through the end of the 1970s, and a 1975 photograph taken inside a Piccadilly Cafeteria shows one of the distinctive divided plates in use.
The reverse is stamped “STERLING Vitrified China, East Liverpool, Ohio, U.S.A.” along with the factory code M-3. Sterling's surviving production records identify M-3 as the date code for April through June 1977, allowing this particular piece to be dated unusually precisely.
Heavy, glossy, and originally made to withstand the daily rhythm of a busy American cafeteria, the plate now feels like a wonderfully preserved artifact of the era when space travel had found its way into everything from children's television to the dinner table.
A charming collectible for lovers of vintage restaurant ware, Americana, Space Age design, or simply objects with a story to tell.
DETAILS
Maker: Sterling China Company
Original user: Piccadilly Cafeteria
Pattern: Satellite Plate
Date: April–June 1977
Origin: East Liverpool, Ohio, U.S.A.
Material: Vitrified china
Design: Astronaut, rocket and solar system
Original purpose: Children's divided restaurant plate
Marked: Sterling Vitrified China / M-3
Macondo Room Object No. 011
