Sequoia / Arcadia, Part II

by Dave Rankin
Issue No. 253 - May 1994

Beyond the information on Sequoia/Arcadia line in Willard Kolb's article, I found the patent drawings and the mold orders. The patent drawing from each of the design patents is shown on the following page without all of the accompanying verbiage that adds little.

[NOTE: Instead of repeating the same information here, you can view the patents for Arcadia items by number. Wait for the images to load, then hit your browser's "Reload" button and the patent drawing should appear.]

On July 15, 1941, orders 5829 through 5846 were entered in the mold order book for items in the 3800 line as follows:

  • 5829 - 3800/21 4 1/2" berry dish
  • 5830 - 3800/26 6 1/2" bread and butter plate
  • 5831 - 3800/42 individual sugar and cream
  • 5832 - 3800/52 10 1/2" belled bowl, 4 toed
  • 5833 - 3800/56 12 1/2" belled bowl, 4 toed
  • 5834 - 3800/60 cupped salad bowl
  • 5835 - 3800/71 2 1/4" candlestick
  • 5836 - 3800/72 3 1/2" candlestick
  • 5837 - 3800/86 5" mayonnaise bowl
  • 5838 - 3800/87 6 1/2" mayonnaise plate
  • 5839 - 3800/95 8 1/2" 3 compartment celery and relish
  • 5840 - 3800/96 6 1/2" 2 compartment relish
  • 5841 - 3800/97 10" 3 compartment celery and relish
  • 5842 - 3800/100 8" low footed comport
  • 5843 - 3800/106 6" tall comport
  • 5844 - 3800/108 6" candy box and cover, 3 toed
  • 5845 - 3800/110 80 oz jug
  • 5846 - 3800/114 ice bucket
  • {On July 17, 1941:)
  • 5847 - 3800/73 6" 2 lite candlestick

On November 28, 1941, order numbers 5831, 5834, 5835, 5840, 5842, 5843 and 5845 were canceled. The remaining orders were marked "OK." The item numbers assigned to each item were apparently revised before being put into use. The mold numbers in 1955 mold inventory list more closely correlate with the list included on an undated 1940 catalog supplemental page.

The earliest trade reference to Arcadia appeared in the March 1943 issue of Crockery and Glass Journal. No trade references to Sequoia were found. This suggests that it took from the summer of 1941 until the end of 1942 to complete the molds and produce an inventory for release in early 1943.

Since Willard has proved that Cambridge intended to call this the Sequoia Line, what happened between the summer of 1941 and the end of 1942? The encyclopedia suggests an answer.

On the day after the attack at Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill proposed a conference with President Roosevelt. From December 22, 1941 to January 14, 1942, Churchill, Roosevelt and their chief civil and military advisors conferred at Washington. The leading item on their agenda was the development of a combined war strategy. I will not go into all of the details of the strategy adopted. On the political side, this conference brought forth the declaration of the United Nations. A carefully drawn document, it embodied the general war aims of the Allies and committed all signatories to making no separate peace or armistice. It declared the purpose of the Allies "to defend life, liberty, independence, and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice." This conference had the code name ARCADIA.

The Arcadia conference was a very significant event in that it yielded early war strategies and spawned the "Declaration of the United Nations" signed by 26 nations on January 1, 1942. Was not this event of such significance as to cause the Cambridge Glass Company to adopt ARCADIA as the name for its next major line?

Arcadia Catalog