What you’ll notice first about many items from the Wallace China Company is that they are usually very sturdy and heavy vitrified china. I’ve seen a number of different pieces of restaurant and hotel ware marked as Wallace at the thrifts, but haven’t picked up too many for a few reasons.

The first is that I thought that like the H.F. Coors company, they were still in business producing restaurant and table ware. In truth, the Wallace company was actually absorbed into the Shenango China company in 1959 and eventually production of those items came to a halt in the 60s.

Secondly - many of the items I see are rather plain without any of the fancy marks or patterns that are attractive to restaurant ware collectors. Still, I’ve picked up a few of the plain examples recently just for fun. Here’s a simple small cereal or berry bowl in a solid green color:

Backstamps on Wallace China vary; some include the pattern or line name but many just have a simple stamp along with a date code like this one that I have:

Many will also say “Los Angeles” on the back. If you’re looking for information on the date codes for Wallace restaurantware there is a good reference at the Restaurant Ware Collectors Site. The company, which was founded by former members of Poxon China including Wallace B. Wood and son Frank Wood, began producing their wares in the 30s in Huntington Park. Chipman gives an address of 5600 DeSoto Ave, but I think this may actually be today’s Soto Street.

Popular patterns among collectors are the western themed Westward Ho line (produced in conjunction with MC Wentz) and El Rancho. Willow was produced earlier on and mimicked English designs in various colors. Other popular patterns included Hibiscus and Shadowleaf. Wallace also produced a ton of different customized patterns produced for various hotels and restaurants.

Here are a few pattern swatches, with obvious apologies to the real Wallace China collectors out there - I don’t collect this stuff…

Note: We've tried to provide as much info as possible on this pottery maker or artist. For further info, you may want to research the items they have on Ebay listed under this name. We've tried to hand tailor the searches below so they will bring up the most accurate results. If there are no results, it will list general California pottery.