The Micmac Indian Legends of the Little People (Fine China Set) 1964

An unexpected opportunity for the Micmac Indian Craftsmen (MIC) was a collaboration with Royal Tuscan, a long-established British fine porcelain manufacturer known in the postwar period for producing export-oriented tableware and for adapting licensed decorative designs for international markets. Through this partnership, designs by Michael Francis were incorporated into a line of white china cups, saucers, creamers, and sugar bowls, extending Mi’kmaq imagery into the realm of industrially produced domestic objects.

The saucers were clean and unornamented, with a light blue sans-serif text labelled “The Micmac Indian Legends of the Little People” around the rim. This framing reinforced the narrative origins of the imagery. The line featured six cup designs, matching those on Francis’s Micmac Indian Legends of the Little People Hasti-Note card set, 1963, underscoring the role of the cards as a foundational design source that could be translated across media.

Sales and international distribution were handled by Hayward and Warwick, a venerable china and tableware importer in Saint John, New Brunswick. As demand for MIC goods continued to grow, and new items were added, the co-operative produced a twelve-page catalogue in 1964 listing its full range of offerings. The catalogue included the Royal Tuscan china set. This collaboration illustrates how MIC designs moved from small-scale graphic production to international commercial circulation, revealing both the opportunities and complexities of bringing Mi’kmaq stories into global commodity systems.