Manufacturer: Scammell China
Distributor: Taunton Supply Corp., N.Y.
User: Michael's Pub, 3 E. 48th Street, New York City
Date of examples: 1954

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Notes: Around April 1954, Michael Pearman opened Michael's Pub at 3 E 48th Street, in New York City. Pearman, who was born in Warwickshire, England, on May 25, 1911, came to the United States as a young man to pursue a theatrical career. Pearman moved to Hollywood and became a theatrical agent. With the backing of several friends, including movie star Tyrone Power and agent Gloria Safier, he returned to New York and opened Michael's Pub.

The pub specialized in roast beef served English pub style, and it became the go-to luncheon spot for Madison Avenue advertising agency employees. Luncheon reservations needed to be made several days in advance.

Michael's Pub did not stay long at 3 E. 48th Street; by 1957, it had relocated.

A number of actors and musicians performed in Michael's Pub over the years. The best known was probably Woody Allen, who played jazz clarinet there on Monday nights for about 25 years. However, most of these performances happened after Pearman no longer owned it.

In August 1962, he sold Michael's Pub for $170,000 to a restaurant syndicate. By 1996, it was leaving a location on 55th Street and moving to the Bar Montparnasse inside the Parker Meridien hotel on 57^th Street. By 2000, it was in the Renaissance New York Hotel in Times Square.

The Ivory Lamberton China that Scammell made for Michael's Pub was probably produced in early 1954, and it was one of the last orders that was made before the Lamberton Works was sold to Sterling China. The brown transfer crest features a man in a top hat with a pear on top, surely a nod to Pearman's last name. Coupe-shape plates have the crest located near the upper left, below the rim.

(As an aside, looking at the design from a 21^st century perspective, it seems inspired by the work of the surrealist painter, René Magritte and his famous Son of Man. That, however, was painted 10 years after this china was designed, and yet Magritte was certainly painting mysterious apples and hats in the mid Fifties so it's fun to imagine that Pearman or the Scammell designer was aware of his work.)

Taunton Supply Corp was the distributor.

It is not known whether this pattern was ever reordered from Sterling, or any other maker, or was used after the pub moved from 3 E. 48th Street.

Sources:
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, April 27, 1954 – opening information
Valley Times, Feb. 18, 1956, Jimmie Fidler Column – Ty Power owner
Cleveland Press, Sept. 20, 1956 – Pearman info
The Times, Sept. 24, 1962 – roast beef
The Times, Aug. 17, 1966 – pub sold
Palm Beach Daily News, June 11, 1998 – Pearman obit
Daytonian in Manhattan, Nov. 7, 2019 – 3 E. 48^th Street building info

Contributor:
Larry Paul, author