Haviland

Manufactured: 1840 to present day

David Haviland was a young American china importer with with a retail shop in New York. In 1840 he travelled to Limoges, France to set up business with a manufacturer who could produce the high quality Limoges porcelain for the American market. The existing French manufacturers however, were unable and unwilling to supply in large quantity of dinnerware porcelain in line with the American taste in shapes and decorations. David Haviland then moved to France to build a factory in Limoges himself. It was the first company that attracted artists to do the decorating on the factory site itself. The company was also the first to introduce innovative transfer printing techniques for decoration china.

After 1890 David's son Theodore built a factory of his own. It was to be one of the largest and most succesfull factories in Limoges. in 1936 David's grandson William D. Haviland started production of dinnerware in the United States. The company has gone through several changes in ownership but the “Haviland” brand still remains today.