(133) Antique Oneida Silverplate Pieces. Marked on backs with "Community Plate," indicating they were made by Oneida some time between 1899 and the mid 1920s. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Largest (Server): 2 1/2 x 10 3/4 in. 

#3662 . 

Oneida Limited was one of the world’s largest designers and sellers of stainless steel and silver-plated cutlery and tableware to consumers and the foodservice industry. The company arose out of the utopian Oneida Community, which was established in Oneida, New York, in 1848. In 1880, the Oneida Community voted to transfer much of the common property to a joint-stock company to be known as Oneida Community Ltd. Oneida Community started production of silver-plated flatware and hollowware in 1899 using the “Community Plate” mark. Oneida Community purchased the William A. Rogers and 1881 Rogers companies in 1926 and started producing a somewhat lower-quality line of products using those companies’ marks instead. In 1935 Oneida Community changed its name to Oneida Ltd. Early on the company recognized the importance of marketing and advertising, hiring the American illustrator Coles Phillips during its inception to illustrate dozens of ads for the company. Later artists who crafted advertisements for them include Maxfield Parrish and John Whitcomb. Oneida also focused on print advertisements in home, fashion, bridal, and epicurean publications, and their style was so popular that it contributed to a shift in trends and styles across the country. The company made an innovative transition to the manufacture of stainless steel flatware in 1961, which eventually dwarfed its production of silver-plate. By the 1980s, Oneida made at least half of all flatware purchased in the United States. In 1983, the company acquired Rena-Ware, a Bellevue-based kitchenware manufacturer, but sold it three years later. In 1984, it acquired D. J. Tableware, a flatware and china manufacturer that targeted the foodservice industry. At the end of the 1990s, the company encountered tough economic times, further compounded by international market instability in the aftermath of 9/11. Starting in 2002 Oneida began selling off its assets, and the company was taken private in 2006. Oneida no longer operates manufacturing in the United States and has passed through several corporate holding companies since.

Commensurate with age.