Question:
Curiosity has brought me to your website – could you please assist with information and value of these lovely 4 compartment trays? They are simply marked Red Wing USA and measure 12 x 8 1/2 in a high glaze and are perfect!

Answer: You have a set of "Festive" supper trays. These were made in four colors (you have one of each color) in the early 1950s. A squarish cup was also made in the same four colors. The cup is designed to fit in the small center compartment. A second supper tray/cup set named "Patio" was made during the same time period. Patio trays are shaped like an artist’s palette; the cup has a round shape similar to a Town & Country cup.

The Festive and Patio supper sets were part of a larger group called Informal Supper Service. Other than the two supper sets, all Informal Supper Service pieces are borrowed from the Town & Country dinnerware pattern but are glazed in the same four colors as your trays. The four colors (mulberry, chartreuse, copper glow and ming green) in turn were borrowed from the Quartette pattern in the Concord shape. Quartette is the only Concord pattern that is entirely solid colored (no handpainted decoration), and all pieces were available in any of these four colors. All this sharing of colors and shapes between dinnerware lines can be quite confusing. The supper sets, Informal Supper Service, and the Quartette pattern were all introduced in 1951.

Festive trays are more common than the Patio shape, but the values are similar. A Festive tray in excellent condition is worth $15 to $25. Adding the matching cup would double the value.

Larry