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Fiesta is a line of dinnerware glazed in differing solid colors manufactured and marketed by the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell, West Virginia, since 1936 -- with a hiatus from 1973 to 1985.

Original shapes were designed by the company's art director, Frederick Hurten Rhead. Some of the redesigned original shapes, and other new shapes were designed by the late Jonathan O. Parry, who became the company art director in 1984.

As a line of open-stock dinnerware, Fiestaware allows buyers to select by the piece, rather than requiring the purchase of entire sets. Notably, buyers can mix and match from the color range. According to David Conley, the company's director of retail sales and marketing, Fiestaware's current colors derive from home decor and fashion trends, and according to the Smithsonian Institute Press, Fiestaware's appeal lies in its bright colors, modern design, and affordability.

See: Color Chronology of Fiestaware glazes

The Fiesta Name

The name of this line of dinnerware has always been simply Fiesta; however, after the Homer Laughlin China Company began marketing other lines of dinnerware in similar solid color glazing, and especially after other manufacturers began imitating the very successful Fiesta line of dinnerware, the public began to refer to all solid color dinnerware as \"Fiestaware\".

Fiesta's Popularity and Marketing

Introduced at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January of 1936, Fiesta was not the first solid color dinnerware in the US; smaller companies, especially BauerPottery in California, had been producing dinnerware in solid color glazes for the better part of a decade by the time Fiesta was first introduced to the market. However, Fiesta was the first widely mass-promoted and marketed solid color dinnerware. At the time of its introduction, the decoration of dinnerware and kitchenware ceramics was still very much Victorian era inspired, with full predetermined sets all decorated with the same decal designs. Fiesta represented something radically new to the general public with its solid color glazes and mix-and-match concept. At its introduction, the Fiesta line of dinnerware comprised some thirty-seven different pieces, including such unusual items as Candleholders in two designs, a Bud Vase, an Ash Tray, and a set of seven Nested Mixing Bowls ranging from the smallest at five inches in diameter up to a giant having nearly a twelve inch diameter. Although basic table service sets for four, six and eight persons made up of the usual dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, and cup and saucer were available, the promotion and presentation of Fiesta from the start was as a line of open stock items from which the individual purchaser could combine serving and place pieces as personal preference desired and need dictated. To quote from an early Homer Laughlin Company brochure listing items available in the Fiesta line at that time:

Read more at Wikipedia.org