Gay Fad Studios
Lancaster, OH - 1945-1963
Fran Taylor began Gay Fad Studio by working out of her home from 1938-1945 painting waste baskets with bright oil paints. In 1945 she opened Gay Fad Studio in Lancaster, Ohio.
Fran purchased blanks from many glass companies including Anchor Hocking, Hazel-Atlas, Federal, and Imperial among others. Many different designs were applied to these items and they were resold. Designs include everything from fruits and flowers to people and cartoon characters to geometric designs. One of the best known is the peach flower that has 5 petals.
Gay Fad was the best known of the many companies that produced art work for dishware in the 1940s - 1960s and many items are claimed to be Gay Fad when, in fact, they are not. Gay Fad employed as many as 50 people at their peak and the pieces were sold primarily in high end gift shops in larger cities.
Bartlett-Collins pieces are often attributed to Gay Fad - but GF never decorated any Bartlett-Cololins pieces; they had their own in-house department for that.
Sources:
GayFadStudio.com, SantaFeTradingPost.com, JournalReview.com