*****UPDATE 12/5/2017: OPEN HOUSE AT HEARST CASTLE! We got the opportunity to attend the annual holiday Open House at Hearst Castle at the invitation of our son James. We were able to casually stroll around the ground floor of the main "Castle" building, which includes the main kitchen and the grand dining room. Both of these areas provided the opportunity to photograph Phoebe Hearst's Blue Willow "China". After writing this article, I was extremely excited to view these china patterns for myself. The 2 photos are below - enjoy.
Figure A: Hearst Castle Kitchen display of their Blue Willow China. It can't be seen in the photo, but there is a glass pane separating us "tourists" from the China, so we can't touch it or get an "up close" photo of it.
Figure B: I was able to get a bit closer to the Blue Willow setting in the enormous dining hall. I was still 6 or 8 feet away from it, and could only get this marginal photo with bad lighting. Likely that this particular Blue Willow China from "Gilman Collamore" of New York was made in the 1920's. Note that this version of Blue Willow is both scalloped and gold-trimmed!
