I have twelve place settings of prewar Noritake china that my dad purchased in Yokuska, Japan right after the war. It has pieces and shapes that I have not seen in other newer sets, such as squarish luncheon plates and double handled connsume cups. It has a wide gray border and in the center is a round branched tree-like arrangement of flowers. There was no pattern name or number printed with the lable, just the Noritake mark with the M in the center. When we were stationed in Hawaii in the mid 50's my father, a Navy pilot, was in Tokyo and went to the factory taking a piece in order to purchase a few extra serving pieces. At first the girl there looked at the pattern and said it is not Noritake as she did not recognize it. But obviously after seeing the marking on the back said it had to be, but they would not have any replacement pieces. An old gentleman in another office came in to see what all the fuss was about. He looked at the piece and asked my father where he got it as before the war, cases of china including that pattern were hidden in caves to keep them safe during the war. But after the war, when the Noritake people went to retrieve it, they found that the caves were empty. (The US military found the stash of china in the caves and took it to their base to be sold at the PX, where my father purchased it.) The old man said that he had always wondered where that china went to and commented that it was far superior to the quality of the newer Noritake. He called the pattern Tree of Life and a year or so ago I passed that information on to Replacements.com and they have since given it a place on their pattern list. Anyway, due to it's unique history and the difficulty in finding any more pieces I was wondering what the value would be? Only one piece got broken over all the years and that was the creamer. In searching for my pattern, I found that Noritake produced another pattern after the war with the same central floral motif and called it Granada. It has no gray border and has an additional line for green, but it was close enough to buy and use as a temporary replacement.

prewar noritake would be quite rare and acceptable to pursue for a value accomplishment, but I can't do that for you. I would have tto have the whole lot in front of me to assess it and that is not possible here, even a picture would not do the whole set justice.

Please visit the noritake website accessed from Google and from there you will find a dealer perhaps who can assess the whole set for you and I am sure it is quite beautiful as all noritake is. I don't think missing the creamer will matter.

Thanks for responding. You suggested to "visit the noritake website accessed from google", but there are many sites that pop up . I could not find one with any information regarding dealers that might be able to appraise a set. Can you give me a specific web address?