NORLEANS

[aj_houser]

Has anyone ever heard of this company ever making anything besides china?  I have a silver plate/plaque with a sticker on the back that says Norleans  Hand made in Italy.  Yet all I can find this company having made is china.

[ironlord1963]

     What you have is a pewter plate.  Found lots of hits by typing in Norleans pewter, will go back and look around some more, just wanted to mention that.

[ironlord1963]

    There are several metal items listed on ebay right now made by Norleans from italy.  Appears to have made more then pewter, I saw brass, some figurines of unknown metal as describe by the seller.  Mostly when looking for Norleans you get china made in japan. Pretty sure not the same company.  Was not able to find anything about the company.  I do have 3 good pewter books but they are American and old pewter stuff.  Pewter fell out of favor at the turn of the century.  Many items were and still made of pewter but mostly for decorative purposes.  I would say you have a plate made in the mid century much like a commerative plate.  Hopefully someone will come up with something more solid then I have.  If I was to take a guess at this I would say import item from italy worth $20.00 tops

[ironlord1963]

    O.K. now I'm finding China, Porcelain made by Norleans Italy too, also saw a item at Rubylane Norleans Japan with a label much like your except it says Japan.  Maybe they are one and the same, Starting to think Norleans is a big Import company.  The Only thing is it appears Norleans China is collectible, which would be somewhat odd for a import company, better bring in the big guns like wendy and sapphire bet they can dig to the bottom of this one 

[KC]

We have had several postings of pewter plates over the years here on the site.

They were very popular ornamental pieces in the early 1900's.

Yours appear to be molded and not hammered.  (Hammered are older ususally.)

[luxetveritas]

Yeah, I remember a duck one a while back I think. They were common in Germany during the early 20th and exported probably.

[wendy177]

Thanks for the vote of confidence ironlord this is what I have turned up and you are correct!! A search for “Norleans” resulted in figurines & such with labels marked “Italian,” “Japan,” and “Korea.” Norleans was a brand name dating from the late 1950s through the early 1970s used by a US wholesaler of generic giftware, many pieces of which were knockoffs of brand names even hummel copycats. I was not able to locate the wholesaler’s name or more US company info. but will try again later Ironlord I do not think they are very sought after collectibles Of the 244 Norleans pieces listed today on eBay + 53 china , only three have attracted  bids. Opening bid requests range from $0.98 to $95.00 . The obvious conclusion is that there is little to no secondary market for Norleans items.

[aj_houser]

Thanks for all the help guys.  I did not figure it was of any value, just interesting that as others have said all I could find was Norleans China.  Anyhow, the interesting thing I thought about this piece was it was given as a prize in a dog show, it was for the winning bitch Bull Terrier, according to the label that was a fixed to the back.

[wendy177]

cool history AJ that may boost price if dog show folks collect old prizes / trophies I would look into that it is a large community.

[KC]

Neat history!

Value $10 - $20