Vintage Red Wing Tampico Dinner Plate Futura Watermelon Mid Century Modern Pottery 1956-1967

One of Red Wing Potteries’ most exuberant Mid Century Modern dinnerware designs, this vintage Tampico dinner plate combines saturated color with the free-form graphic style that made the company’s Futura line so distinctive. Introduced in 1956, Tampico features a lively “South of the Border” inspired composition of hanging melons, including a vivid pink watermelon and yellow melon, alongside a striped brown and orange jug with turquoise neck, stylized brown foliage and sweeping dark linear accents. The decoration is set against Red Wing’s warm beige flecked ground, giving the plate wonderful period texture and unmistakable 1950s-60s character.

Tampico was produced from 1956 through 1967 and became the best-selling pattern in Red Wing’s Futura dinnerware line. The Red Wing Collectors Society notes that its unusually elaborate decoration required more brush strokes than any other Red Wing dinnerware pattern, helping explain the wonderfully animated appearance of these pieces. This dinner plate measures approximately 10¾ inches across and retains its faded red Red Wing Potteries backstamp on the reverse.

No chips, cracks nor crazing are visible. With its watermelon motif, speckled glaze and highly graphic atomic-era design, this is an especially display-worthy piece for a Red Wing or Tampico collection, Mid Century Modern kitchen, vintage dinnerware collection, retro bar or dining display, or colorful 1950s-60s décor.