Manufacturer: Shenango China
Pattern: Viking #3280
Date of pattern: circa 1934 – circa 1948

different backstamps on bowls

Page 6 of Shenango's Nov. 8, 2934, price list #19; and also in Shenango's Feb. 15, 1936, discount sheet

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Notes: It is with great satisfaction that we can put to rest the "Penzance" name for this pattern that was first used by Ered Matthew on his Dinner in the Diner website circa 2003. Also at that time a cruise ship director, Ered chose a perfectly whimsical Gilbert & Sullivan reference for this beautiful pattern, and it stuck.

On the flip side, a bunch of us stick-in-the-muds have spent our years as restaurant china fans resisting the urge to name patterns and hoping that somehow, with enough time and luck, the true manufacturers' names or numbers will eventually turn up. And because of Norman Noble's persistence in documenting – in particular – Shenango and Syracuse patterns, lo and behold, he discovered the proof, shown above, of Viking #3280.

He located it on page 6 of Shenango's Nov. 8, 1934, price list #19 and also in Shenango's Feb. 15, 1936, discount sheet.

Stylized nautical looking design in blue, gold, orange with white clouds that can appear to be an airplane but is probably a ship or ships with mast and sails with their reflection showing in the water.

For more info:
Viking, unrelated pattern by Syracuse China
Viking 2, unrelated pattern by Iroquois China

Contributors:
Matt Hanne: plate photos
Linda Way Whitney: bowl photos
Norman Noble: pattern ID