Founder Mildred Mottahedeh | ||
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Headquarters New York City, New York, United States | ||
Mottahedeh & Company is a company in New York City that makes tableware and decorative accessories. The company has made porcelain for the President of the United States, the U.S. State Department and the Diplomatic Corps. The company, over 85 years old, was purchased from the Mottahedeh estate in 1992 by Wendy and Grant Kvalheim with a minor partnership with Jeffrey and Pamela Mondschein. Mildred Mottahedeh continued to collaborate at Mottahedeh for five more years and died in February, 2000. Today Wendy Kvalheim is the CEO and Design Director of the company. Mottahedeh is the recognized leader in antique reproductions and adaptations in luxury ceramics, primarily hard porcelain, and metals. It specializes in Chinese Export porcelain and early European porcelain. It holds licenses with Metropolitan Museum of Art, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Historic Charleston Foundation, Mount Vernon Ladies Association, Winterthur Museum and Gardens, and Tony Duquette, and has a history of working with many more. The most recent license is with National Geographic Society.
The qualities that distinguish Mottahedeh porcelains are a large selection of complex shapes produced in small quantities, clarity of body both in bright white and historic gray body, and delicate, bold, and complex colors. The industry average for colors is 4 to 8. Mottahedeh starts with 4 and may use as many as 27, with the average number of colors on an item being 16. The original inspirations were made for kings and nobility in a non-industrial age. Mottahedeh products are primarily manufactured in Europe, with the largest production in Portugal. Mottahedeh hard porcelain items are durable and can be placed in the dishwasher and oven.
The company manufactures and/or distributes these brands of tableware and decorative accessories: Mottahedeh, R. Haviland & C. Parlon, Jars,and Milestone by Mottahedeh.