Custard cup ONLY!
WILDERNESS WITCH custard cup (or tea cup or witches brew cup!?). The cup has 3 flower images (no witch graphic). Stands about 3" tall. Perfect, 'never-used' condition. The date code is AA-3 for March-1946. Wilderness is now known as the Seattle area districts of: Maple Valley, Lake Wilderness and the eerily wiccan-named towns of: Ravensdale, Black Diamond and Covington (was there a witch coven in the area?!). It's very possible that the flower is hellebore. Hellebore was a hallucinogenic plant that witches used for "broom flying" (getting high) and, almost a century later, these towns still hold an annual "Hellebore Tea". There just seems to be to much coincidence for this not to be wiccan related?
Witches aside, the most logical explanation for this pattern is that it is a yet-to-be-identified railroad line. The flying witch, a symbol of swift transportation. Railroad china patterns often pictured indigenous plant life (flowers you might see out the window of your railway car) and the flower has been officially documented as the Pacific Northwest Syringa (wild lilac, Philadelphus lewisii or Lewis' mock-orange after explorers Lewis & Clark). The chimney-ed building on the plate (not included) is almost certainly the roof of the original Maple Valley train station. We've been told that a WILDERNESS railroad Stop has been found on a circa 1920s map archived by the Lake Wilderness Historical Society but we have yet to confirm. If that Stop was renamed the Maple Valley depot is not clear. Companies known to use the route were the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad, later becoming the Pacific Coast Railroad. And we have found numerous business transactions between the distributer M. Seller & Co. and Great Northern Railway.
Another possibility is a restaurant. The Jacobsen family settled in the area in the late 1800s and, in the 1920s, built three Lake Wilderness fishing resorts with dining facilities. But witches are known for serving poisonous food (apples etc) so what restaurant would use a witch as a logo?!
Or, maybe a small air service? Speeding over the top of the Maple Valley depot as a snub to reach Seattle quicker?!
Shipping will be $10.95 to any U.S. address ($18.00 foreign).
We would love to hear from Railroad, Wiccan and Seattle / Maple Valley area historians. This is a new discovery and we will update this listing as information comes in.