By Mark Seavy 

Artists have long had designs on the tabletop market and suppliers are increasingly setting a place for them through licensing. 

For example, artists and designers that once labored in the background were featured front and center at the New York Tabletop Show last week.  

Industrial designer Marc Newson, who has long worked with Japanese tabletop supplier Noritake on dinnerware for Quantas Airways, is now releasing a collection that includes pasta bowls, mugs, and dinner, bread and butter, and appetizer plates. The company has also established the Noritake Design Collective under Chief Creative Director Yuichiro Hori to focus on new designs, the first of which is the Hoshikage collection with design studio Yabu Pushelberg.  

Johan Lindeberg, known for denim designs at Diesel and Justin Timberlake’s William Rast, meanwhile, unveiled an all-glass chess set ($15,000) developed with Orrefors Kosta Boda and its former Creative Director David Carlson. Orrefors also struck an agreement with Swedish chef and restauranteur Bjorn Frantzen for hand- and machine-made beer, wine, and champagne glasses.  

“It is always good to have a [designer] name, and we are always trying find new ways to attract the younger consumer,” said Orrefors Kosta Boda Marketing Manager Emma Ross. “Younger people are moving to their own place much later now and renting more. They are not buying entire collections so, if you don’t have something unique, you risk losing the 20- to 30-year-old consumer.” 

Many companies at the show were also making a play for nostalgia-based themes that are surging in popularity with younger consumers (and older ones, too).  

Lenox extended the Reed & Barton brand—better known for its non-licensed glassware—into the Peanuts brand with snow globes, coin banks, keepsake boxes, and baby cups. It also expanded its collection of Peanuts figurines along with dinnerware, serving trays, and other products.  

Zrike Brands, meanwhile, extended its Peanuts line with figurines and dinnerware as part of the brand’s promotional campaign marketing its 75th anniversary. Zrike also showed the first of its Laura Ashley-licensed products, including storage containers, dinnerware, and water bottles.  

Additionally, anime is showing signs of edging into the tabletop market, with Noritake selling licensed products (dinner and accent plates, bowls, mugs) through its website based on Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro franchise. 

Lenox also added new Kate Spade-licensed products (including picture frames, keepsake boxes, and a colander) to expand its line in the wedding business, a category where it previously licensed wedding dress supplier Marchesa’s brand for dinnerware.  

Gibson Homewares, meanwhile, launched its first items under Newell Brands’ licensed Calaphon label (bakeware, kitchen gadgets) and discontinued its Gap Home cookware line as Walmart winds down its Gap homegoods products. 

“There has been a lot of interest in the traditional and classic characters for licensing, but right now we are all paralyzed by the proposed tariffs,” said Zrike CEO David Zrike, whose company also has a Disney license (dinnerware, kitchen textiles).