Soup, salad, cereals, salsa, snacks! There is a perfect bowl for everything, according to Fiestaware Factory Direct. (Image courtesy of fiestafactorydirect.com)

April 2026

Making dinner delightful

Fiestaware brings color to the party

The return of Red

By 1950, Fiesta’s original colors were Blue (cobalt), Green (light green), Yellow (deep golden), Old Ivory (yellowish cream), and Turquoise (robin’s egg blue). The original Red (orange red) had been discontinued in 1944 – perhaps another reason for Fiesta’s sales slump in the mid-1940s). New colors introduced throughout the 1950s included Rose (dark brownish pink), Gray, Forest Green, and Chartreuse.

Fiesta sales jumped again in 1959, when the line’s original Red was reintroduced. This color was created using uranium, and the American government’s lifting of federal regulations on uranium with the Atomic Energy Act cleared Homer Laughlin to resume production of items made with a radioactive glaze.
Fiesta sales slumped throughout the 1960s, and the line’s vintage era concluded in 1969, when the company restyled the tableware to keep in step with changing home décor trends. Fiestaware’s look was changed to look more modern, and colors were added to the product line that reflected more popular hues at the time – colors such as Turf Green (avocado) and Antique Gold (brownish yellow). For a brief period, the name of the line was even changed to “Fiesta Ironstone.” The changes that Homer Laughlin believed would revive the line, however, didn’t find favor with the public, and the Fiesta line was discontinued in 1973.

Baby Boomers give second life to brand

Baby Boomers, establishing their own homes, renewed interest in Fiestaware, with collectors snatching up pieces in secondhand stores and garage sales. The interest in Fiesta surged only shortly after the line was discontinued, with some of the rarer items sold for hundreds of dollars. The Homer Laughlin China Co. responded in kind, reintroducing Fiesta in 1986 for the line’s 50th anniversary. Though these newer pieces were noticeably smaller than their vintage counterparts, they came in different shapes and the glaze in which they were coated was glossier, and new colors were added – Rose (pink), Black, Cobalt (dark navy blue), White, and Apricot (pale pinkish tan). Altogether, newer Fiesta pieces come in 39 different colors.

In 2020, the Homer Laughlin China Co. was partially sold, and the company was rebranded the Fiesta Tableware Co.
Of course, differences exist between the vintage and contemporary Fiestaware.

“Thankfully, the manufacturers used distinctive stamps for the old and new collections. The old inkstamp says “GENUINE fiesta (fiesta will be in a stylized text and all lower-cased words) HLCo USA. This marking will be in a straight line. In contrast, the new collection will have Fiesta with a capital “F” and the marks will be in a circular/curved format,” according to vintage lifestyle blog Cause a Frockus. “In addition to this inkstamp on the bottom, you will find a mold marking on practically every original piece created. You may or may not find rings around the wording. The variations in text include: Fiesta HLC USA, Fiesta MADE IN USA HLC, HLC fiesta MADE IN USA, fiesta MADE IN USA (with a trident-like logo above it).”

Since the reintroduction of Fiesta in 1986, collectors groups have popped up. One of the largest is the Homer Laughlin China Collectors Association (www.hlcca.org). The organization hosts an annual conference every July and even publishes its own quarterly newsletter titled The Dish. And on Facebook, the Fiestaware Collectors Group boasts nearly 12,000 members.

And, according to Collector’s Weekly (and countless collectors worldwide), though other tableware lines have tried to match Fiesta in both color and popularity, there’s nothing quite like the original.

“All of these have their followings,” the publication’s website notes, “but Fiesta remains king.”