Manufacturer: Maddock Pottery
Distributor: Mitchell Woodbury
User: Frost & Dearborn Restaurant, Boston, Mass.
Name of pattern: #5065 Frost & Dearborn
Date of example: 1912 – 1923

Sherd from Maddock dump site #1

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Notes:  The Frost & Dearborn Restaurant was operated by Merrill Frost and John N. Dearborn. Its roots go back to 1839, when Morrill Frost opened a restaurant in the basement of Boston's old State House. In 1855, he moved to Congress Square. And in 1870, Dearborn joined Frost to form the Frost & Dearborn Co.

(Based on a page in the 1889 King's Handbook of Boston Harbor, shown above, it might be that Samuel E. Kendall, a successful Boston restauranteur, was a somewhat silent partner of Frost and Dearborn. Kendall died in 1875.)

After its destruction in the Great Fire of 1872, the restaurant moved to 8-10 Pearl Street. Frost retired in 1891, but the restaurant continued operating as Frost & Dearborn. In 1898, the restaurant was remodeled and a new cafe was opened in the basement of 6 Pearl Street.

In 1910, German and Dutch rooms were advertised in addition to the cafe for ladies and gentlemen. That renovation had kitchen equipment supplied by Morandi & Proctor, but the china supplier is not mentioned. The last mention found for the restaurant was a lawsuit in 1915 for unpaid wages.

Maddock produced this Lamberton china that is crested with an overlapping "FDCo" monogram in three colors. The decoration on the china is a decal ornament connected with hand-painted lines. This ornament was designed for Frost & Dearborn, and is shown in the Maddock pattern sample book as #5065 Frost and Dearborn.

This was a decal ornament that the Lamberton Works also sold to a number of other customers. A fragment of china with this monogram crest was found in the Maddock dump site #1, which was used between 1918 and 1923. The dump site fragment's logo appears to be a slightly different color combination. This china is backstamped with Frost & Dearborn as well as Mitchell Woodbury Co. The use of "Lamberton China" without mention of Maddock suggests a 1912 to 1924 production time frame.

Sources:
Boston Post and Boston Globe – newspaper articles 1883 to 1915
Dan E. Allen, eBay listing – cream photographs
King's Handbook of Boston Harbor – published 1889
Hunter Research, Trenton, N.J. – Dump site information and fragment photograph

Contributor:
Larry Paul: author