Book Signing with Local Colorado author Corinne Joy Brown at January Open House at RMHDC

January 22, the Rocky Mountain Home & Design Center will be hosting a meet and greet and book signing with Colorado author Corinne Joy Brown at their January open house. Corinne Joy Brown is the author of the recently published book "Come and Get IT: the Saga of Western Dinnerware." The open house will run from 10: 00 AM to 5:00 PM. There will be free refreshments of chili, cornbread and beverages. RMHDC is located off I70 at the Floyd Hill exit on US Highway 40. Call 303 679 2575 for more information.

Corinne fell in love with Western dinnerware while on assignment for the magazine Western & English Today. That first delve into a little-known niche of material culture introduced her to several contemporary patterns and one vintage reproduction enjoying major circulation today. "If there was one vintage pattern," she thought, thoroughly seduced by its illustrated charm, there must have been others." And so began a journey of over 400 plates, a personal collection she amassed during the following two years. But collecting wasn't enough - she needed to know who made them, for what purpose, and when. The search often down a myriad of side roads, resulted in her new nonfiction book released by Johnson Books this December, covering a 70-year continuum of art, inspiration and product. Brown is no stranger to the history of the West: since 1998 she's been a staff writer for Persimmon Hill, the publication of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. She's also a senior writer at Working Ranch Magazine, a publication serving the core cattle industry, and author of two best selling novels, both set in the West.

Western-themed china and tableware emerged in the 1940s, thanks to the popularity of Western cinema and the growing dude ranch industry, exposing many to the Western way of life. With the invention of the barbecue grill in the 1950s, casual dining moved outdoors, further bringing a need for tableware that would reflect America's joyful rediscovery of grilling around an open fire.