Manufacturer: Unknown, likely Maddock Pottery Co. or Greenwood Pottery
User: Baltimore Lunch
Distributor: The Mellen & Hewes Co., Hartford, Conn.
Date of pieces: late 1800s-circa 1925

Baltimore Lunch - H.L. Bowles distributor backstamp

The Mellen & Hewes, Co., Hartford, Conn. Distributor

Baltimore Lunch - H.L. Bowles photo from K. Lathom Collection

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Notes: In 1897, Henry Leland Bowles borrowed $1,000 to start his first Bowles Lunch business in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1904, he expanded under the firm name of H.L. Bowles & Co. (Charles C. Gilbert parent company) in Detroit, Michigan; and in the years that followed, quickly grew the Bowles Lunch chain within the United States and Canada.

By 1915, Henry Bowles was also the proprietor of several Baltimore Lunch locations in Springfield, Mass., Hartford, Conn., as well as Syracuse and Buffalo, New York. (Source: Who's Who in New England, 1915, published by Albert Nelson Marquis.) He later served as a US Congressional Representative from 1925-1929.

Before starting his own lunch business, Henry Bowles served James Arthur Whitcomb, founder of the original Baltimore Dairy Lunch in Boston and Lawrence, MA. (Source: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, 1910, published by Lewis Historical Publishing Co.) This lends explanation to the similarity between the Baltimore Lunch and Baltimore Dairy Lunch patterns, as well as the Baltimore Dairy Lunch – H.L. Bowles piece shown in the collection photo above.

White body with large swag border of green flowers, leaves & bows. Topmarked in green with a bull (cow) head in a center circle and the words "Baltimore Lunch – H.L. Bowles" around the circle within another ornamental design.

For related info:
Baltimore Lunch 2 by Maddock Pottery Co.
Bowles Lunch by Scammell China
Baltimore Dairy Lunch by Grindley China
Yearley's Lunch by Grindley China

Photos contributed by kathleen