Holly Hobbie

Designer	Holly Hobbie
Maker	WWA inc.
Marks	Stamp to base “Holly Hobbie Country Living Collection Stoneware and Ovenproof  WWA Inc MCMLXXXI Cleveland USA 44144 Made in Korea”
Material	Stoneware
Description	Heavy stoneware lozenge bowl with knob handled lid and long perforated closed ended knob handle Cream glaze to interior and exterior, unglazed flat base. Decal of Holly Hobbie character to exterior side of bowl with various homily sayings on side.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	1980
Width at rim	110mm
Width at Base	110mm
Depth	50mm
Length (with handle)	185mm
Weight	Ramekin 415gm, Lid 160gm.
Volume	375ml
Acquisition	1 on E-Bay 1 Jun 2012, 1 at Vinnies Oakleigh 30 May 2012
Rameking Reference Number	HOH-001-003

These ramekins were made for Holly Hobbie, a creation of Denise Holly Ulinskas born in 1944.  In 1964 she married author Douglas Hobbie and now lives in Conway, Massachusetts, USA.  She began drawing profile views of a little girl in a bonnet and rural style dress around 1968.  For many years she was a contract artist at the curiously named Humerous Planning Department at American Greeting Corporation Incorporated based in Brooklyn Ohio.  The character became very, very popular and a line of greeting cards soon followed.  Later the character was marketed under license in many ways by dozens of different companies, hence these ramekins.  She also authored the popular “Toot and Puddle’ series of books.  Holly Hobbie merchandise is now very collectable.

Look up Wikipedia for the (almost) full story and for much more detail, go to   www.hollyhobbieworld.com  For their ramekins, read on because they are part of their Country Living Collection that included various Canisters, a Teapot, Milk Jugs, Casserole Dishes, Tea & Coffee Cups, Egg Cups; Lidded Butter Dish, Salt Cellar, Salt & Pepper Shakers, (the ramekins also came with soup tureen (crock))

It appears that their range of this type of dinnerware was made between 1973 and 1982. As mentioned earlier, like many companies in America at the time, Holly Hobby licensed their products.  Anchor Hocking for their Ironstone and glassware, Chilton Globe for their cookware.  Anchor Hocking is still around, but Chilton Globe had a number of brands associated with them that have now all lapsed.  Chilton Globe (Far East) Ltd.  Hong Kong was established on the 4^th of August 1971 and dissolved on the 11^th of April 2003.  The Chilton Globe trademark is now owned from 30^th May 1992 by Strombecker Corporation.  I think that their stuff was actually manufactured by the Chaozhou Chinaware Factory, Fenxi, Chaozhao, China.

These ramekins were made by WWA Incorporated.  It appears that they were sub-contracted yet again to a Korean maker as the design and making is similar to other Korean or Japanese ramekins.  The backstamp says “Made in Korea”.  The premier Korean manufacturer at the time was Haeng Nan who also made for Ji Stoneware.  The slip appears similar.

WWA inc stands for “World Wide Art Incorporated” an American company from Cleveland Ohio, USA who manufactured for Hollie Hobbie in the Republic of China, Japan and Korea during the 1970s and 80s, producing a variety of collectable ceramics including these ramekins.