Manufacturer: Syracuse China
User: Montreal Canadiens
Distributor: Cassidy's Ltd., Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Date of examples: 1959
Notes: From Wikipedia: "The Montreal Canadiens … and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. Since 1996, the team has played its home games at the Bell Centre, originally known as the Molson Centre. The Canadiens previously played at the Montreal Forum, which housed the team for seven decades and all but their first two Stanley Cup championships.
"Founded in 1909, the Canadiens are the oldest continuously operating professional ice hockey team worldwide, and the only existing NHL club to predate the founding of the league. One of the earliest North American professional sports franchises, the Canadiens' history predates that of every other Canadian franchise outside the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, as well as every American franchise outside baseball and the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals. The franchise is one of the 'Original Six,' the teams that made up the NHL from 1942 until the 1967 expansion. The team's championship season in 1992-93 marked the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.
"The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times, more times than any other franchise, having earned 23 victories since the founding of the NHL, and 22 since 1927, when NHL teams became the only ones to compete for the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens also had the most championships by a team of any of the major North American sports leagues until the New York Yankees won their 25th World Series title in 1999."
It is not known where this pattern was used. Possibilities include at the club's business office commissary or an administration lunchroom, or that it was used at the Forum Coffee Shop, shown in the 1945 photo above. The Montreal Forum is where the Canadiens played their home games for 70 years, from 1926 to 1996. The china was made in 1959, and the Forum Coffee Shop was in operation until 1973.
White body china with slightly scalloped rims is made on the Winthrop shape. The creamer has the Montreal Canadiens' logo on the side with a red pinstripe and a blue stripe around the body. The logo is a stylized letter "C" in red, outlined in blue. In the center of the letter "C" is the letter "H" in blue and white.
This info, that also comes from the Wikipedia, explains why the logo has the "H" in addition to the "C":
"One of sport's oldest and most recognizable logos, the classic 'C' and 'H' of the Montreal Canadiens was first used together in the 1917–18 season, when the club changed its name to 'Club de Hockey Canadien' from 'Club Athlétique Canadien,' before evolving to its current form in 1952–53. Previous logo iterations had simply a 'C' for 'Les Canadiens' from 1909-1910 or later a 'C' with an 'A' inside from 1913-1916 with the 'A' referring to the word 'Athlétique' in the team name. The 'H' stands for the word "Hockey" in the 1917-18 team name ('Club de Hockey Canadien'), not 'Habitants,' a popular misconception. In Quebec history, habitants were francophone settlers who farmed the land along both shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As a nickname for the hockey team, 'Habitants' is attested in French on 9 February 1914 in a report in Le Devoir of a 9–3 win over Toronto. According to About.com, the first man to refer to the team as 'the Habs' was American Tex Rickard, owner of the Madison Square Garden, in 1924. Rickard apparently told a reporter that the 'H' on the Canadiens' sweaters was for 'Habitants.'" And the name stuck.
Sources:
Wikipedia – history of the team
Sylvain Pastor – photo of the Forum in 2012
Contributors:
Anne-Sophie Kuentz: ID and china photos
Ed Phillips: research and author