Manufacturer: Iroquois China and McNicol China
Name of user: Weber Duck Inn – Wrentham, Mass.
Distributor (for McNicol): Morris Gordon & Son Inc.
Date of Iroquois demi cup and saucer: 1928
Date range of McNicol demi cup: circa 1931-1942 (the year the inn closed)

{"arrow":"false","pagination":"true","speed":"1000","autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"2000","loop":"true","slide_to_show_3d":"2","slide_show_ipad_3d":"2","slide_show_tablet_3d":"1","slide_show_mobile_3d":"1","slide_to_scroll_3d":"1","auto_stop":"false","centermode_3d":"true","space_between_3d":"0","depth":20,"modifier":20,"img_rotate":0,"img_stretch":0}

{"animation_fancy":"zoom-in-out","transition_fancy":"fade","fancy_box_loop":"true"}

Notes: Weber Duck Inn opened on April 19, 1923, on Route 1 between Boston and Providence, Massachusetts. This section of the main highway between Maine and Florida was still in the process of being paved at that time. The Weber family designed the restaurant to be an outlet for some of the ducks they raised on their nearby 200-acre farm that produced 100,000 ducks a year.

Leon Pini was hired to manage the Duck Inn. It operated only during the warm months, from April to Thanksgiving. A couple of years in the 1920s, it reopened for the Christmas season. There were three dining rooms in the inn.

Pini believed in advertising and promotion, and he used his connections in the newspaper business to get articles published about events in Weber Duck Inn. The good meals and good publicity attracted many of the rich and famous, including movie stars from Hollywood, who were working in the area.

Ducks appeared on everything from menus to matchbooks. There was even candy that was sold in the restaurant. All of these ducks seem to be looking forward to being served for dinner.

Baby ducks were featured on the Inn's china service, which was made by Iroquois and McNicol.

Duck dinners began to lose their appeal by the early 1940s, and gasoline rationing during WWII ended drives to country restaurants. Weber Duck Inn closed in 1942. It was unused for a few years before being destroyed by fire in the 1950s.

In 2010, the Fiske Library in Wrentham had an exhibit of items from Weber Farm and the Duck Inn. And there is an interesting 1 hour, 20 minute video on YouTube given by Ross Pini, Leon Pini's grandson, about the Weber Duck Inn and his grandfather's involvement in the operation. Click here to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0965EMyKw

The pattern, seemingly identical whether produced by Iroquois or McNicol, has a drawing of two white Pekin ducks on grass, with a ribbon banner behind them: The Weber Duck Inn. Above the ducks is a bold red line, and running around the mid-rim is an orange pin line that is interrupted by the topmark.

A 1927 Iroquois sample plate featured the Weber Duck Inn.

Sources:
Norfolk & Wrentham News – April 29, 2023
Norfolk Community TV video – April 21, 2014

Contributors:
Larry Paul: ID, research
Sean Meredith: demitasse photos