4, Franciscan Desert Rose Plates
Updated September 5, 2026
| Lot number | 178 |
| Auction | Hancock Estate Auction |
| Date | September 25, 2026 at 9:30 AM CDT |
| Auction house | Harrison Auction & Realtor |
| Location | Gracemont, Oklahoma |
FOUR FRANCISCAN DESERT ROSE DINNER PLATES - EARLY CALIFORNIA HAND DECORATED CIRCULAR MARK Four Franciscan Desert Rose dinner plates in hand-painted California earthenware, approximately 10-1/2 inches in diameter, with the pattern's molded scalloped rim and raised relief decoration. The painting on this group is particularly generous, with several large fully opened pink wild roses per plate, bright yellow centers dotted in dark brown, closed pink buds, broad green leaves, and a thorny olive-brown vine that wraps the entire rim. What sets this set apart from the other Desert Rose plate lots in this sale is the backstamp: instead of the brown dotted oval, these carry the earlier dark circular mark reading FRANCISCAN, MADE IN CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., HAND DECORATED, GLADDING, McBEAN & CO., OVEN-SAFE. That circular California stamp is one of the older Franciscan strikes and is a mark collectors of the pattern actively look for. These coordinate with the Desert Rose bowls, cup and saucer sets, gravy boat, cookie jar, and other serving pieces offered elsewhere in this sale, making this a good lot for a bidder building or completing a service. Excellent for holiday and everyday table use, cabinet display, or wall hanging. Sold as a lot of four pieces. Description Four (4) matching dinner plates in the Franciscan Desert Rose pattern, glazed earthenware, round with a molded scalloped and lightly waved rim Each plate measures approximately 10-1/2 inches in diameter per the tape-measure photographs, with the hook set at the top rim edge and the far rim edge falling near the 10-1/2 inch line. Decoration is the full Desert Rose border: multiple opened five-petal pink roses with elongated bright yellow centers dotted in dark brown, closed pink buds, green leaves in two tones, and a continuous thorny olive to yellow-brown vine following the rim, all in raised relief under a glossy glaze Rim edges carry the pattern's olive to brown wash along the scalloped border Center wells are undecorated cream white with soft concentric shaping rings Undersides are fully glazed white with a recessed foot ring and small round stilt or kiln-support points, which are normal firing artifacts of the manufacturing process rather than damage Backstamp, photographed close up, is a dark circular stamp reading arched FRANCISCAN across the top, then MADE IN / CALIFORNIA / U.S.A. inside the circle, then HAND DECORATED, then GLADDING, / McBEAN / & CO., with OVEN-SAFE curving across the bottom of the circle. Beneath the circle is a faint line with a letter and one or two additional characters that are not legible in the photographs Attribution note Desert Rose was introduced in 1941 by Gladding, McBean & Co. of Los Angeles, California, and became the best-selling pattern of American dinnerware ever produced, with California manufacture continuing into the mid-1980s. The Gladding, McBean Franciscan archive documents the mark sequence: the dark circular stamps reading Franciscan, Ma
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