Manufacturer: Unknown, Germany – Bavarian Hotel China
User: American Kitchen
Distributor: Albert Pick & Company
Date of examples: circa 1910s

Ad in the Arizona Republican on Sunday, August 12, 1917

Postcard of Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona showing the American Kitchen (on right)

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Notes: The location of the American Kitchen has not been determined with certainty. There are a number of establishments named the American Kitchen which date to the 1910s. The most likely match is the American Kitchen located at 33 North Center Street in Phoenix, Arizona, which for a time was the most popular eating establishment in the city. The restaurant was in operation from around 1903 to 1951; the majority of time the proprietor was Yee Sing.

The blue pattern topmark features a Chinese-style building with a circular entrance and the establishment name, American Kitchen, in a distinctive font. Virtually the same building graphic is named Pattern #18 by Mayer China in the L. Barth & Son catalogue dated 1911. The blue border design consists of two outer stripes with equally spaced ornaments consisting of ribbons and three flowers. The border design is strikingly similar to the Carlisle Pattern P-2170 shown in red on page 28 of Mayer China's Book of Decorations No. 10. The backstamp – Bavarian Hotel China – is possibly an Albert Pick tradename. 

Sources:
Arizona Republican – Sunday August 12, 1917

For additional info:
Mayer China Book of Decorations No. 10

Contributors:
ID: Edward Babcock
Photos: Plate – Rodric Coslet
Author and postcard – Steven Koska