Manufacturer: Maddock Pottery
Name of customer: Coffman's – candy and confectionery
Distributor: Prael Hegele & Co., Inc., Portland, Oregon
Name of pattern: #5070 border
Date of plate: circa 1914
Notes: Coffman's was in operation in Portland as early as 1896, according to an ad in the Feb. 11, 1896, issue of the Oregonian for "BON-BONS AND CHOCOLATES made fresh every hour at Coffman's, Morrison street, one door from Sixth."
In 1903, it was officially incorporated by A. J. (Jack) Coffman, J. C. Muehe, and George McMillian, as a candy and confectionery business. By 1912, their wholesale department was located at 43 Front St.
In 1912, things started going downhill for the business. In June, Coffman was charged with substituting a lesser brand of malted milk powder into a Borden's container. In October, Coffman was accused of "offering unwholesome walnuts for sale" that were "wormy and badly decomposed," some of which "were found in candy being made." And by December, and facing bankruptcy, Coffman disappeared.
Within a month, and after having stopped in San Francisco and then Los Angeles to try to figure out how to put his life and business back together, Coffman "made an assignment of his five confectionery stores to [attorney] R. L. Sabin for the benefit of creditors." When he returned to Portland, he found that his business had been sold "to a firm known as the Coffman Candy company."
Things did not work out smoothly for him on the home front either. When he fled Portland, he also abandoned his wife and 3-month-old baby girl (Helen Margaret), and on Jan. 9, 1913, Mabel Inez Coffman filed for divorce from her husband. (Just in case anyone wants to know more of the prurient details of the ill-fated marriage and the decidedly unsweet nature of the candy man's personality, click here.)
On Oct. 27, 1913, an advertisement was placed in the Portland Morning Oregonian by Sabin, offering "for sale the confectioner and restaurant business formerly belonging to the Coffman Candy Company, located at 203 Morrison St."
At that point, the newspaper trail of information on Coffman's gets thin. It is listed in 1922 and 1925 newspapers as located at 152 Broadway. And a 1926 newspaper ad listed it as a coffee and sandwich shop at 2111/2 Broadway.
Maddock Pottery made this service plate with an Egyptian-theme decal border known as border #5070. In the center is an illustration of an Egyptian warrior riding on a chariot. Below the illustration is "COFFMAN'S."
This plate was distributed by Prael, Hegel & Co., which opened in 1866. In 1901, the name became Prael, Hegel & Co., Inc., which closed around July 1916, when it was purchased by M. Seller & Co. Based on the backstamp information, this plate was probably made after new owners took over around 1914, and before July 1916.
Sources:
Oregonian – Feb. 11, 1896
Oregon Daily Journal – June 11, 1912
Oregon Daily Journal – Oct. 23, 1912
Oregon Daily Journal – Dec. 7, 1912
The Oregonian – Dec. 14, 1912
Oregon Daily Journal – Jan. 7, 1913
Contributors:
Susan Fitzgerald: plate photos
Larry Paul: author