Manufacturer: Grindley Hotel Ware, England
User: Vegetarian Cafe, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Distributor: Gibsons and Paterson, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Date of cup: circa 1920s-1932

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Notes: Weekly newspaper ads for the Vegetarian Cafe began appearing in 1905 for a location on Hunter Street in Sydney, with a second location on Clarence Street opening in January 1914. By 1916, the Hunter Street location closed and moved to George Street, and the Clarence Street shop was still advertised as well.

By 1925, most ads featuring the Vegetarian Cafe were placed by Marmite or Granose Biscuits under the auspices of Sanitarium Health Food Co.

Founded in 1898 in Melbourne, Sanitarium Health Food Co. is now Australia's largest (and first) health food company, owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The Seventh-Day Adventists were frequently mentioned in ads related to the Vegetarian Cafe, so it is assumed that at some point in the business' history they were its owners and eventually moved on from ownership of the Sydney restaurant and other vegetarian cafes in Australia and New Zealand to opening retail shops. Per the Sanitarium website's history and reflected in its Vegetarian Cafe ads, the "cafes became centres for nutrition advice, cooking demonstrations and health lectures across Australia."

By the early 1930s, newspaper ads were far less frequent, and the last mention found was in 1933, not for the cafe itself but as the place to pick up a "lost cornet" that was placed in a lost-and-found ad.

Based on the Grindley Hotel Ware entry at ThePotteries.org website that includes also information on the distributor, Gibsons and Paterson, this Grindley backstamp is described as an "early mark 1908 +"; after 1932, the ware also carried the month and year of manufacturer. Gibsons and Paterson opened in 1909 in New Zealand but did not open a branch in Sydney until the early 1920s. Given the limitations, a date range of circa 1920s-1932 seems reasonable.

The unhandled cup, perhaps a bouillon, has a garter – or buckle – topmark so popular in English ware, with Vegetarian Cafe within the outer circle border and a fruit motif that includes grapes in the center. This fruit motif, while not a perfect match, corresponds to ads placed by the restaurant in the late 19^th century, shown above.

As you can see from the backstamp, this cup came from Grindley's vitrified china line, but gauging by the crazing, its quality was greatly improved with the later addition to the Grindley line of "Super Vitrified" ware.

Sources:
The Methodist, 1892 – ad
Sydney Morning Herald, 1892 – ad
The Watchman, 1923 – ad
Vision Quarterly, 1923 – ad
Sydney Morning Herald, 1892 – menu
Daily Telegraph, 1892 – ad
The Newsletter, 1905 – ad
Sydney Morning Herald, 1914 – new location
Daily Telegraph, 1916 – new location
Sydney Morning Herald, 1922 – exhibition photo
Sydney Morning Herald, 1922 – ad
National Magazine of Health, 1926 – Editor Visits Sydney

Contributors
Susan Phillips: ID and cup photos
Roland Burritt: research