Manufacturer: Scammell China
User: Ships Cafe, Des Moines, Iowa
Distributor: Jacklin Co. Des Moines, Iowa
Date of platter: 1927-1930

exterior sign

Sept. 2, 1925 opening

1926 ad

1927 opening

1929 ad

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Notes: On Sept. 2, 1925, the Ships Cafe opened in the basement of the Harris-Emery Co. department store in Des Moines.

Harris-Emery merged with Yonker Brothers in 1927. In February 1927, George H. Jacobson, head of the newly incorporated Ships Cafe Co., purchased the entire equipment of the Ships Cafe, which had been operated by Harris-Emery.

Jacobson took a 10-year lease on the basement of the Des Moines National Bank's Arcade Building. The new location had 6,000 square feet of floor space. On April 12, 1927, The Ships Cafe opened in the National Arcade, at 518 Walnut Street.

In January 1930, Des Moines National Bank merged with the Iowa National Bank. The new Iowa-Des Moines National Bank announced in May 1930 that the Arcade Building would be demolished and replaced with a new bank headquarters building. Liquidation of the entirety of Ship Café's equipment, including its china, began around July 1930.

Scammell produced Trenton China crested with a transfer illustration of a sailing ship with "Ships Cafe" below. Orange and blue lines at the rim and verge flank the crest. The Jacklin Co. was the distributor, as shown in an April 1927 opening advertisement. Harris-Emery, the department store where Ship Cafe opened in 1925, was at that time a distributor Maddock Pottery. This suggests that there might have been different Maddock china used when the cafe was in the department store.

Sources:
Des Moines Tribune, Sept. 2, 1925 – opening
Iowa Jewish Historical Society – exterior sign
Des Moines Tribune, Feb. 23, 1927 – Jacobson purchases equipment

Contributors:
Roland Burritt: ID, research
Larry Paul: research, author