Skip Navigation

Vegetable Serving Plate, Residential Line

Decorative Arts and Design

Because of its low cost and easy care, plastic attracted both consumer and designer in the postwar era. Russel Wright worked with the chemical company American Cyanamid to develop a line of dinnerware from its patented plastic, Melamine. Although that venture was not successful, Wright soon found other companies to produce his designs for plastic dinnerware. Originally intended for institutional use, plastic dinnerware also found a place at home, and by 1957 Wright’s Residential line, produced by Northern Industrial Chemical, had door-to-door sales of $4 million.
MEDIUM Plastic
DATES 1953 (pattern introduced)
DIMENSIONS 1 1/2 x 8 x 9 1/4 in. (3.8 x 20.3 x 23.5 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS no marks
SIGNATURE not signed
INSCRIPTIONS no inscriptions
ACCESSION NUMBER 1999.29.48
CREDIT LINE Gift of Paul F. Walter
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Russel Wright (American, 1904-1976). Vegetable Serving Plate, Residential Line, 1953 (pattern introduced). Plastic, 1 1/2 x 8 x 9 1/4 in. (3.8 x 20.3 x 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Paul F. Walter, 1999.29.48. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1994.165.61_83.108.104_1999.29.48_83.108.104_83.108.91a-b_83.108.103_83.108.107.jpg)
IMAGE group, 1994.165.61_83.108.104_1999.29.48_83.108.104_83.108.91a-b_83.108.103_83.108.107.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
Russel Wright (American, 1904-1976). <em>Vegetable Serving Plate, Residential Line</em>, 1953 (pattern introduced). Plastic, 1 1/2 x 8 x 9 1/4 in.  (3.8 x 20.3 x 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Paul F. Walter, 1999.29.48. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1994.165.61_83.108.104_1999.29.48_83.108.104_83.108.91a-b_83.108.103_83.108.107.jpg)