Manufacturer: Sterling China
User: Leader Restaurant
Pattern name: Daytona #110
Date of mug: Unknown
Notes: Leader Restaurant was a chain of restaurants spread across Ohio, with locations in at least Marietta, Zanesville, Willard, Canton, Cleveland, Mansfield and Athens.
The earliest reference found was in a column in the July 5, 1950, Mansfield New Journal titled Up and Down the Street: "Among the odd things being unearthed during the razing of the old Bowman school building is a card at the Leader restaurant in Mansfield. … The card was found among relics in the attic of the oldest part of the building, erected in 1886. As far as he has been able to learn, the Leader restaurant was at Fifth and Main Sts."
The Leader Restaurant located on Front Street in Marietta seems to have the most ephemera available online. A rubber-stamped ad from the Marietta location appears on the cover of a 1937 supplemental text for school use, and it includes the motto: Leader Restaurant, Day and Night, Since 1908."
It was known for its "Coffee That Will Bring You Back" and sold its own Leader Grind Coffee next to the counter. Photos of the front window and postcards show the Marietta proprietors as Hootsel & Ray.
Sterling's Daytona border pattern #110 is most often seen in black on a white body, where its Art Deco influence is most striking. And on this mug it is placed around the rim with the restaurant's name – Leader – found inside the rim of the cup in a script font with an underline coming behind the R. A postcard on ebay – again for the Marietta restaurant – showed what seemed to be the same script font used to embellish the back of the restaurant's chairs with Leader across the back. And the postcard below, when enlarged, also shows the Daytona pattern on stacks of china in the kitchen.