CATALOGS AND PRICE LISTS,, 1891-2005

Summary: Catalogs, mostly illustrated, together with either separate or integrated price lists, intended primarily for dealers, Lenox employees and members of the china industry. The catalogs and price lists, while focusing primarily on china dinnerware, crystal and giftware, reflect all of Lenox's product lines to at least some degree, including lamps, flatware, business gifts and awards, silver hollowware, melamine dinnerware, luggage (Hartmann), plastics (Alladin) and jewelry (Rosenthal), as well as several linen (Lenox Linens by Sunweave) and candle (Lenox Candles by Beeswax Designs) product lines that received a license to market under the Lenox name. Included in the series are catalogs and price lists for individual products lines, "full-line" catalog binders, price change notices, order forms, promotional brochures and leaflets, as well as memoranda regarding the transmittal, revisions and use of the catalogs and price lists. Beginning with 1990, Gorham and Kirk Stieff catalogs are included, filed at the end of each year.

Full-line catalogs, ranging in date from 1984 to 1999, are comprised of binders with assemblages of individual product line catalogs, most of which can also be found separately elsewhere in the series.

Among the Lenox catalogs are copies of the 1891 (photocopy only) and 1897 Ceramic Art Company's whiteware catalogs. Other catalogs of note include the Fiftieth Anniversary Catalog, originally issued in 1939 and updated in 1942, which attempted to chronicle Lenox's 3,000 shapes and 4,000 decorations, as well the Centennial Catalog entitled "Celebrating a Century of Progress," which includes a retrospective of significant Lenox pieces and achievements. Also included are the disbound contents from a loose-leaf volume entitled "Commercial Crystal," dating from 1968 to 1970 and filed with the 1969 catalogs, which lists prices for apparent high-volume commercial crystal sales, such as those to hotels.

Several price lists from after 1986 include a California-specific version in order to comply with "The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986," known informally as Proposition 65. Such price lists are often distinguished by a black triangle and inform users of any Lenox items that contain lead.