Manufacturer: Carr China
User: Universalist Ladies Aid Society – ULAS
Pattern name/line treatment: The Ballaret L-22
Date of examples: Circa 1920s-1930s

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Notes: The Universalist Ladies Aid Society is a women's organization within Universalist churches that focuses on charitable work and community support. Specifically, however, we know this pattern was used at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Pittsfield, Maine – a group dedicated to progressive social justice – because an eBay seller who had listed the china said the church was being sold and she was selling the dishes to help with a local food project.

From the congregation's website: "For more than a century the ULAS (formerly known as the Universalist Ladies Aid Society) has served the community of Pittsfield, Maine and the surrounding area by supporting elders, those in grief, transition, and suffering from illness. Their loving support is appreciated by many. Don't let the name fool you, individuals of any gender identity are graciously accepted and appreciated in the ULAS."

In 1889, the Universalist Ladies Aid Society became formally incorporated. The Universalist Church building in Pittsfield was originally built in 1857 as a non-denominational meeting house. The Universalists bought and remodeled the building in 1871, and it was rededicated as the Universalist Meeting House in 1872. The Ladies Aid Society met in this building.

From the Pittsfield Historical Society: "The Union Meeting House was begun as a community project, and wishing to remain unsectarian, engaged circuit-riding ministers to preach the morning service. Universalism, with its doctrine of salvation for all souls, was growing in popularity all over Maine, and in 1866, The Rev. James M. H. Smith was engaged to preach every other Sunday. For two years Rev. Smith's hopeful liberalism soothed the fire and brimstone of his Baptist alternate, and on May 25, 1867, forty-two of the leading citizens of the town signed a constitution establishing 'The First Universalist Society in Pittsfield, Maine,' in order to promote the cause of 'Liberal Christianity.'"

The design on Carr's Ballaret pattern (or line treatment) has three dark green lines, a heavier one at the rim and two more narrow lines set close together about half an inch away from the first. For ULAS, those lines end in curlicues found so often on china of this age, that are interrupted by the all-caps, intersecting script logo of U L A S with a short flourish of greenery on either side.

Sources:
Unitarian Universalist Meeting House of Pittsfield
Pittsfield Historical Society 

Contributors:
Roland Burritt: ID
Ebay seller everyday-antiques: plate photo and additional ID information