Hallcraft Century: The Perils of Porcelain

WAY BACK BEFORE 1stDibs, and definitely back before eBay became the largest flea market on earth, the place online to find people who had mid-century modern things to sell was a little forum on AOL called Deco Echoes. There was no real-time bidding, sniping, or Paypal. You posted what you were looking for or what you had to sell, and wait for the e-mails to come. Once a sale is made you snail mailed your check or money order to the seller, and, if you happen to be buying something as fragile as china, you held your breath until the package arrived at your doorstep. Which brings me to Century.

Hallcraft Century creamer, sugar bowl, and teapot

Century was the second of the three lines that Eva Zeisel designed for Hall. Showing unusual restraint this time around, the company only made a few lines available with applied decoration, the most common of which are Fern, Sunglow, and Garden of Eden. Pure white pieces are exceedingly rare and highly desired. Although aesthetically as beautiful as (some might even argue that it was a more sophisticated design than) Tomorrow's Classic, it had a fatal flaw—it was prone to breakage during shipment. Released in 1956, Century is distinguished by its teardrop-shaped plates, platters and bowls. One of the most iconic photographs of Zeisel's designs is a nested stack of white Century bowls and platters against a black background. Used on the cover of the exhibition catalog "Eva Zeisel: Designer for Industry", the pieces resembled a frozen milk drop caught on a high-speed camera.

Left: Century bowls and platters; right: book cover, Eva Zeisel: Designer for industry

Unfortunately, the lovely points of the teardrop shapes did not stack well and would chip or break during shipment. Of the close to thirty pieces that we bought from our lovely Deco Echoes seller for $200 (which was quite a big expense at the time!), only a handful survived the shipment. Of course, the fact that he just threw all the pieces into a box with no bubble wrap in between the pieces, or insulation on the outside walls of the box, probably did not help. Although we managed to get only some of our money back (the seller got the bulk of the insurance money and we were refunded the considerably lesser purchase price), we did learn what eventually became the mantra of our collecting—bubblewrap, double box, insurance!

Bottom stamp: Hallcraft Century