Lefton China

George Zoltan Lefton was a refugee from what was then a war torn country, Hungary. He immigrated to the United States in about 1939, and his hobby was collecting fine china.

The business of this immigrant, strangely enough, was designing and making sporting goods. It was his hobby, curiously enough, which would make him famous. Lefton was absolutely appalled a t the quality of china that was available in the United States  coming from Japan, and was well aware of the perfection of those works that had been availalble in the past from the same country.

Because it was a passionate hobby, Lefton traveled to Japan and sought out the best  ceramic artists he could find.

He then set them to work, and himself as well, in 1941 at Lefton China, designing for a market in the US that was hungry for a better quality product. He began by designing ceramic giftware and moved up from there.

Leftons company has been quite successful and continues to be. The Lefton China collector appreciates a better quality and design, both standards that Lefton China company insists on.

The Lefton collector can today find a wide array of collectibles in the Lefton line, such as vases, quality china, figurines and specialty lines such as the Birthday figurines that many people collect.

There are imitators of Lefton China, as there will be with any quality product, however the collector can, by inspecting the finished quality of the piece,( as well as the presence of the company’s mark of course), be able to tell the real from the imitation.

My own Lefton pieces have tripled in value since purchase.

I love the Lefton Violet Chintz pattern and was fortunate enough to purchase a teapot and covered sugar bowl and creamer as a set, sold by someone who had it left to her in an estate.

The purchase cost was about 35 dollars just a few years ago, and I’ve found that the teapot alone now retails for about 180 dollars, which certainly isn’t a bad return on your investment, so your pieces are in fact going up in value.