Question:

Hello!

I am wondering if you can tell me anything about this carafe in the blue/purple color with  the Red Wing Pottery Blue Star mark?

I have never known it to have a wooden handle and was wondering if you have any information in regard to this carafe? When was it made and did it originally have a handle? I cant find another one like it.

Kind regards,

Debbie

Answer:

Your blue 565 coffee server is from the Gypsy Trail line. All 565 Gypsy Trail coffee servers were sold with a wooden handle attached around the neck, although the cover was optional for a time.  Your server was made at the beginning of Gypsy Trail  roduction, or perhaps even earlier. This color scheme and the star ink stamp mark were vailable very briefly.

A brochure dated June 1935 marks the introduction of Gypsy Trail with 19 items available. All items are described as available in the standard Gypsy Trail colors – white, turquoise, blue, yellow and orange – except the 565 coffee server. Coffee server colors were blue, black, blue-green and orange. We have found this server with the star ink stamp mark in blue, blue-green and black but not in orange. Blue servers with this mark are a lighter shade than standard Gypsy Trail blue. Also, servers with the star  mark have “dry” (unglazed) bottoms and the interiors color matches the exterior. Standard 565 coffee servers have glazed bottoms marked only with “565″ and they have white interiors. These early coffee servers are the only Gypsy Trail pieces we have found marked with the star ink stamp.

The black and blue-green colors were not included in subsequent Gypsy Trail brochures, thus after the initial brochure the coffee server was available in the same standard colors as other Gypsy Trail items. The non-standard aspects – unusual colors, dry bottom, ink stamp and colored interior – lead me to believe production of these coffee servers may have begun prior to the introduction of Gypsy Trail. Today these early servers are quite hard to find, but they do turn up occasionally. Value for a complete ink stamped blue coffee server is around $100 in excellent condition. Your server is missing the wooden handle which would reduce the value somewhat.  However it would be easy to “borrow” the handle from a more common 565 server to
make yours complete.

Larry