1893 founder wilder austin pickard headquarters antioch illinois usa key people andrew pickard morgan products tableware website www.pickardchina.com pickard china is a porcelain decorating and manufacturing company in antioch illinois united states . the company was founded in 1893 and continues to produce ceramic tableware and art ware today . contents 1 history 2 official sets 3 references 3.1 sources 4 external links history edit pickard china was incorporated in edgerton wisconsin in 1893 . wilder austin pickard 1857 1939 started the company in 1894 by offering his customers hand painted giftware artware and eventually dinnerware . he moved the company to chicago in 1897 . the company was originally called pickard china studio and it specialized in hand decorating dessert and tea sets . pickard assembled a group of men and women china painters many emigrating from europe to create this uniquely american style of hand painted china . many of the original artists were from the art institute of chicago . at first all the porcelain was manufactured in europe . pickard would import the blank plates and decorate them in their studio . wilder pickard s son austin pickard began to work at the company and made the decision to begin manufacturing the blank plates and dishes themselves . in 1930 the first experimental china was made . pickard also worked on making its own glazes . in 1937 after the experimentation was complete a production facility was opened in antioch illinois . austin s son henry a. pickard aka pete pickard was the third generation to enter the family business and served as president from 1966 until his retirement in 1994 . pete s brother in law eben c. morgan ii succeeded him as the president of the corporation and remained until shortly before his death in june 2008 . 1 2 richard e. morgan and andrew pickard morgan the founder s great grandsons both joined the company and represent the fourth generation of the family in the business . pickard inc. remains a family owned business . the company s sales are primarily in fine china dinnerware decorative accessories and collectibles . official sets edit barack obama white house state china in 1977 pickard was selected by the u.s. department of state to manufacture the official service of china used by american embassies and other diplomatic missions around the world . the special decoration has an embossed gold border of stars and stripes and an embossed reproduction of the great seal of the united states . pickard was also selected to produce exclusive fine china services for heads of state 3 4 corporations and hotels including the king of saudi arabia hilton hotels sheraton hotels and resorts marriott corporation general motors the u.s. air force new york s gracie mansion the united nations air force one blair house and camp david . the 3 520 piece obama state china service was introduced on april 27 2015 . references edit remembering eben morgan . eben morgan former president of pickard china died on june 7 at his home in winnetka il . mitchum robert june 24 2008 . eben c. morgan former pickard china executive . chicago tribune . eben c. morgan jr. was a fierce center for duke university s basketball team setting the single season record for fouling out of games in the 1954 55 season ... but in his professional life mr. morgan dealt in a more delicate trade as an executive for antioch based pickard china makers of fine china place settings . koncius jura january 8 2009 . to serve twin needs white house unveils a china accord . washington post . the bush white house has adopted a two china policy . laura bush unveiled not one but two new sets of china yesterday pierri vincent . antioch s pickard china creating obama pieces . antioch daily herald . whether it s campaign buttons posters historic front pages of newspapers or bobblehead dolls it seems anything with an image of president elect barack obama is a hot collectible . sources edit reed alan b. 1995 collector s encyclopedia of pickard china with additional sections on all chicago china studios . collector books paducah kentucky . isbn 0 89145 646 5 platt dorothy pickard . 1970 the story of pickard china . everybodys press inc. external links edit pickard official website pickard collectors club website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pickard china & oldid 732251466 categories ceramics decoratorskitchenware brandsmanufacturing companies based in illinoisceramics manufacturers of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export 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