Continental cup and saucer

The industrial design firm of Raymond Loewy, a pioneer in the field with offices in the U.S. and France, designed the Continental China line in 1952 for Rosenthal-Block China Corporation, founded the same year by Joseph Block, Rosenthal's distributor in the United States. It truly was an international transaction on many levels: Loewy was given shares in the corporation in exchange for his design services to create tablewares that would appeal to the American public and also sell well in Europe. Continental, known as Exquisit in Europe, was a huge seller in the United States and overseas until it was discontinued in 1975. It was clearly modern without being avant-garde, dared to include black, but was available in white or in one of twenty-three patterns.