The HLCCA's Conference 2000 started on the 9th, but I didn't arrive in Pittsburgh until Saturday the 10th. I was very honored that Matthew Whalen had asked me to be one of three judges for the Exhibitions. Since I had already made plans to go to the East Liverpool Convention, which would be held a week later and basically in the same area, I made an extended (and much needed) vacation out of the conferences.

To the right is an image of the awards for the conference. (From here on out, click on any image to view a larger version.) The Milly Vase was for best article for the HLCCA's newsletter, The Dish, and the others were for the exhibits.

To the left is 1/2 of Andy and Jane Flach's “Dinner for Four with Serenade.” This is one of Homer Laughlin's pastel lines and difficult to find. They presented just about every piece in every color which made for an impressive display.

To the right is the other 1/2 of the display. Here are the very rare Serenade KK casserole bases in various glazes: (from left to right) Fiesta's light green, Serenade's blue, pink, yellow, and Swing's white glaze. They also featured a photocopy of Rhead's journals which explains why the bases are commonly found without the lids: they were made special order for Royal Metal (which produced the metal bases for the casseroles) so that they could take a pyrex (glass) lid. Though they didn't have the Serenade green base, they do show a KK casserole lid in that color.

This next picture is of Fred Mutchler's “Decorated Toilet, Tea, and Dinner Ware” - Mugs, Brushes, and the Unusual. I've never seen so many examples of HLC shaving mugs in one group! Everything was identified with cards giving the shape name and approximate dates of production.

“A Spanish Fiesta” was the name of this fun display and was presented by Bill Beck and Kevin McCarty. This was a tough one to evaluate in comparison with the others since it was more of a theme presentation and the other five were "straight" collections. There are some very nice pieces of Fiesta shown: red carafe, cobalt 12" vase, yellow demi pot and some medium green. This won the People's Choice award.

Here is Joe Keller and David Ross' (Keller&Ross) showing of Epicure. Along with place settings were some very hard to find pieces such as the coffeepot and tid-bit tray.

Vintage ads and even a promotional nut dish in its original wrapper completed the display.

Marv and Debbie McNuss' display of “The Wonderful World of Laughlin Art China” focused on the Currant and Dreamland treatments, but there were examples of others such as White Pets.

Marv McNuss held an informal round table discussion on Laughlin Art China later that day. He was kind enough to explain the "pouncing" technique (a decoration method on many Art China pieces) to me which I never really understood.

This display took a "gold" award and the grand prize -- Brad and Sarah's (Fiesta Online) “Distinctive & Joyful - HLC's Riviera.” It had an excellent representation of the Riviera line, cards explaining its history and colors, and some of the most unique Riviera pieces found: complete red batter set, hollowware cobalt pieces, spruce green handled tumbler and a marked sugar base.

The above pictures are close ups of the Riviera display

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Shown in the image to the far right is the very hard to find "Harlequin" perfume bottle (tall version) in light green along with a Fiesta stick handled creamer in an experimental deep red glaze.