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00copperrm
Price: SOLD
EIGHT (8) Vintage COPPER ROOM RESTAURANT WARE PLATES_BEECHCRAFT AIRPLANE_YUCCA VLY AIRPORT
Set of eight (8) 1950s Vintage COPPER ROOM ceramic dessert plates with Beechcraft D-18S airplane logo. Cataloged on RWCN, see details below. Marked: "ELEPHANT BRAND, TAMS Vitrified, Made in England". After Dr. John Bendall built the Yucca Valley Airport with the Copper Room restaurant many notable celebrities stopped in for cocktails and dinner. Bartenders remember "a very happening spot in 1970's Yucca Valley. It was pretty hip and all, and a favorite destination amongst big money guys who flew in with guests for dinner in their Cessna's, Mooney's, and Pipers." Gene Autry brought many on their way to Pioneertown where he shot over 75 movies. Also, since Jimmy Van Heusen (Come Fly With Me) was a resident and honorary mayor of Yucca Valley, Frank Sinatra & various Rat Pack members made appearances. Maybe the most prominent customer during the early 70's was Gram Parsons who was remembered ordering pitchers of margaritas stopping off on his way to Joshua Tree. There is definitely a memorable history to the Copper Room. These plates represent it well! Plates are all original 1950s vintage, NOT a modern make or reproduction.
Approximate Measurement:
8 3/8" Diameter
Condition:
Excellent vintage condition. Each plate shows very minor blemishes to the glaze from general use mostly on the bottom or edges and not readily seen from the top. One plate shows a faint hairline under the glaze and one plate has minor bites at the edge. For what would be considered general wear & tear on most restaurant ware, they are in very good shape!
Information from Restaurant Ware Collectors Network:
Dr. John Bendall, who was born in England but educated in the United States, was a practicing physician in Yucca Valley, California. He was also an accomplished pilot, and in his early years of medical service flew to more distant hospitals across the state in Twentynine Palms and Palm Springs.
After a medical emergency in 1956, which was exacerbated by transportation problems, Bendall decided that he and Yucca Valley needed to have an airport. Shortly thereafter he purchased 8o acres at Warren's Well and moved his office and home to the original adobe dwelling on the property.
He also started constructing and grading an airstrip at the south end of the property, where he built a restaurant named the COPPER ROOM. A year later, 1957, this new private airport was flourishing, and offered gasoline services, food at the restaurant, overnight tiedown and taxi service to local motels.
It is unusual that a midcentury American business would have ordered its china from England, but this might be explained away by the fact that Bendall was himself British. The image of the Beechcraft D-18S on the plates would seem to definitely point to the airport's Copper Room as the venue, and the italic font on the airport's sign is similar to that on the plates as well.
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