Franciscan Montecito

Montecito was released under the Franciscan name in 1937. The shapes were newly designed, with a turn toward elegance. The colors offered where a combination of tested favorites and new additions.

Montecito was not favored by the buying public. Because of the low interest, the pieces offered were not expanded, and production span was only five years.

Many Franciscan collectors are drawn to Montecito for the elegance of the sculpted handles, the depth of the colors and the acorn finials that grace the tops of the covered pieces

The Montecito pattern offered four sizes of plates, from dinner to dessert. The cream soup was coupe shaped with a pair of elegant shaped handles and a 7 inch liner.

Rimmed bowls were offered for sherbet, fruit and soup/cereal. The sherbet and soup bowls are slightly taller then the fruit bowls.

Hot water, cider or your favorite beverages can be served from this pottery carafe. The handle is wood, attatched with a metal band with a rubber pad between the metal and pottery. The stopper has a deco look that blends nicely with some of the promotional pieces made by Franciscan during the same time period.

The line also has both individual and regular sized teapots, coffee or chocolate pot and a demitasse pot. There were no mugs created with this line, but there were two sizes of tumblers, and both regular and demitasse cups and saucers.

Serving pieces included a round chop plate, hexagonal platters in two sizes, a large footed salad bowl.

There is also a round serving bowl for vegetables and covered casseroles in large and in the individual size. Shown below are the veggie bowl and both casseroles without lids.

The creamer is one of the few shapes that were redesigned during the short life of this pattern.
On the left is the original designed creamer in coral, and on the right a very rare oxblood creamer in the newer flaired style.

Montecito is found in a varity of colors. In the gloss finish, the colors were marketed as Glacial Blue (Turquoise), Yellow, Coral, Eggplant, Copper, Celdon and Light Blue. In the satin finish there were pieces in Ivory, Gray and Shell Pink. Other colors have been spotted, including oxblood, but they are rare.



Color combinations were also produced, with a gloss interior and a satin exterior. They are refered to as Duotone. The most common is Glacial Blue (inside) and coral (outside). Other combinations are Coral (inside), Turquoise (outside), Burgundy (inside) and oatmeal (outside), Burgundy (inside) and yellow (outside).

We hope you enjoy browsing the images below from our collections and from friends. Click on the image to see an enlarged view.

Dual-tone demitasse cups,
Yellow teapot, copper carafe, coral satin coffee pot, with regular sized coffee cups.

Eggplant - salt and pepper, cream soup, and tumbler, coral dinner plate,
Eggplant - sugar, old style creamer, carafe and regular cup and saucer,

After dinner pot with demis in eggplant, dual-tone, celdon, coral and copper,
Mango teapot, Copper coffee pot, demis in copper and celdon,

Large celdon platter, Yellow dinner plate, turquois bread, eggplant saucer, coral berry bowl and copper demi,
Yellow dinner plate and cream soup, tuquoise regular tea cup and saucer.

Sizes and shapes

Plates:
dinner - 10.5"
luncheon - 9.5"
salad - 8.37"
dessert - 6.5"

Bowls: (meassured across)
rimmed sherbet 4.75"
rimmed fruit 6"
rimmed soup\cereal 7"
cream soup - 5.75" and saucer 7"

Beverage service: (meassured for height)
sugar bowl
sugar bowl - individual/demitasse
creamer
creamer - new style
creamer - individual/demitasse
coffee pot - individual/demitasse
coffee or chocolate pot
teapot - cup
teapot, individual/demitasse
Jug, handled with stopper 8.5" tall
cup 3" tall and saucer 6" across
demitasse cup  2.5" tall and saucer 4" across
tumbler footed 5.5"
tumbler, small 3.5"

ServingPieces:
salad bowl- hexagonal with handles
salad bowl - footed 11.25"
cassarole with lid, individual 5.5"
casserole with lid, full sized  8.75"
chop plate 14"
platter hexagonal 13.25" and 16.12"
gravy boat
salt and pepper

Assesories:
ashtray

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