Featured Western Stoneware Monmouth Ill. pottery restaurant-style Christmas mugs.

I picked up these 7 mugs at the GW last week.

They have the stamped maple leaf Western Stoneware Monmouth Ill. mark on the bottom & 2 of them (the Christmas 1987 & the one with Santa looking at his list) have the shield mark also. The Christmas 1987 mug is the only mug that also has the large maple leaf on the backside of the mug that is shown in the photos below.

The six stacked mugs also have the number 3014 & U.S.A. impressed marks on the bottom.

They are 3 3/8" to the side edge & are 3 1/4" across the top.

I have searched online & have not seen anything like them anywhere. I even spent an enjoyable 30 minutes watching a PBS special about the Western Stoneware museum in Monmouth. Here is a link to the special if you are interested.



I am assuming these are from the 1980s but you would think there would be more of them around.

Has anybody heard or seen these mugs? Are there other pieces of Christmas dishes such as bowls & plates? What is the significance of the shield stamp?



Thanks for any & all advice or opinions!!!!

 

Plates! I kept asking the search engine for Western Stoneware Monmouth Illinois Christmas mugs and it gave me plates so I just did a search specifically for plates. (When you get search results to Ruby Lane and it says the item is sold, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Sometimes you can still see the pictures and description.)
https://search.brave.com/images?q=Monmouth+"Western+stoneware"+Christmas+plate&source=web

 

I just looked in my Lois Lehner Pottery Marks book, pages 513 and 514, published 1988. She doesn't have a shield mark for Western Stoneware included.

But she does say that Western stoneware shut down in 1985 and a group of local residents took over the company and renamed it De Novo Ceramics Ltd. I am guessing that is what the DN stands for in the shield. De Novo.

 

@LauraGarnet02 - I did see those Christmas plates but I still thought it strange that I couldn't find any other ones out there.

I did find this listing on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194980320031

So your assumption regarding the shield mark is correct.

Thank you so much for the research & information.

 

Lois spelled it De Novo in her book, but if you close the space and spell it DeNovo the search engine gets a few hits.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194980320031

Sorry I lost the link for the bunny rabbit.

 

It just seems to be impossible to find any of these Christmas mugs. There has to be more out there somewhere! Maybe we'll see a flurry of them as it gets closer to Christmas.

 

I might try contacting that museum I mentioned & see if they know anything about these mugs.

It is strange that only 2 have the DeNovo shield mark. So maybe Wester Stoneware started the mugs before they closed down & DeNovo kept them going.

Thanks again!!