J.A. Bauer Pottery is an American pottery that was founded in Paducah, Kentucky [1] in 1885 and operated for most of its life in Lincoln Heights Los Angeles, California. [2] It closed in 1962.
Contents
J.A. Bauer Pottery is an American pottery that was founded in Paducah, Kentucky [1] in 1885 and operated for most of its life in Lincoln Heights Los Angeles, California. [2] It closed in 1962.
In 1885, John Andrew "Andy" Bauer [3] bought out Frank Parham's Paducah Pottery in Paducah, Kentucky, a pottery whose main products were brown-glazed, hand-thrown wares including crocks and jugs. J.A. Bauer moved his family to Los Angeles in early 1909, and selected a new site for a pottery. J.A. Bauer Pottery Company was built at 415-421 West Avenue 33 in Lincoln Heights, [3] an area between Los Angeles and Pasadena, California. The first products were the same products J.A. Bauer produced in Paducah. Demand from the nursery trade added new products to the pottery's wares including flower pots, garden ware, and planters.
Louis Ipsen was hired around 1912 as a designer, adding fancy redware items to the pottery lines. Matterson (Matt) Carlton, an accomplished turner, joined the company producing hand-thrown vases, rose jars, and carnation vases for the nursery trade. In 1922, J. A. Bauer retired and in 1923 died. [2] One third of the company was sold to his daughter Eve, and her husband Watson E. Bockman. The other two thirds was sold to Bernard Bernheim. Bockman became president of the company. By 1928, Bockman resigned and the heirs of Bernard Bernheim, sons Sam and Lynn Bernheim, ran the company. In 1929 W. E. Bockman bought out the Bernheims and once again became president of the company. Bockman hired ceramic engineer Victor F. Houser to develop new glazes. "The introduction of Houser's brilliant new colors on Ipsen's dishes proved a momentous event.", [3]
Around 1930, Bauer Pottery introduced California Colored Pottery. [3] Other Southern California potteries producing solid colored earthenware tableware and kitchenware products around the same time period as the introduction of Bauer's California Colored Pottery were Gladding, McBean & Co.'s Franciscan Ware , Metlox Manufacturing Company, Pacific Clay Potteries' Hostess Ware, Vernon Kilns' Early California, and Catalina Clay Products' Catalina Pottery. By 1933, the company added ridged or "ring" dishes, including its distinctive Ringware line, named for the concentric circles that mark the pieces. [2] In 1934, Fred Johnson, Matt Carlton's nephew and an accomplished hand-thrower formerly with the Niloak Pottery in Benton, Arkansas, joined the company. Fred Johnson added new shapes to Bauer Pottery's table and art ware lines.
In 1938, Bauer Pottery sought to expand their market to the East coast by purchasing, and converting to a pottery, an old winery in Atlanta, Georgia. W. E. Bockman died before Bauer Atlanta was opened. John Herbert (Herb) Brutsche took over management of the Atlanta plant, and James (Jim) Bockman became the Los Angeles plant's general manager. A line of art pottery produced in the Atlanta plant was designed by industrial designer Russel Wright in 1945. The Russel Wright Bauer line was not successful and was discontinued shortly after its introduction. The Bauer Atlanta plant was converted into a sanitary ware production plant, Georgia Sanitary Pottery.
In 1962, Bauer Pottery ceased operations; [2] Eva Bockman shut down Bauer Pottery rather than settle a general labor strike which began in the fall of 1961. [3]
Bauer Pottery was revived in 2000 by collector Janek Boniecki in a small ceramic studio outside Los Angeles. The new company introduced a new line, Bauer 2000, featuring pieces based on original shapes and colors from the 1930s and 1940s. Unable to locate any original Bauer dies or molds, Boniecki reverse-engineered the new line from pieces from his own collection and other vintage purchases. [2] [4]
Fiesta is a line of ceramic glazed dinnerware manufactured and marketed by the Fiesta Tableware Company of Newell, West Virginia since its introduction in 1936, with a hiatus from 1973 to 1985. Fiesta is noted for its Art Deco styling and its range of often bold, solid colors.
Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California, US. The pottery factory closed in 1989.
Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880–1942) was a ceramicist and a major figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. A native of England, he worked as a potter in the United States for most of his career. In addition to teaching pottery techniques, Rhead was highly influential in both studio and commercial pottery. He worked for the Roseville Pottery, established his own Rhead Pottery (1913–1917), and in 1935 designed the highly successful Fiesta ware for Homer Laughlin China Company.
Blue Ridge is a brand and range of American tableware (dishware) manufactured by Southern Potteries Incorporated from the 1930s until 1957. Well known in their day for their underglaze decoration and colorful patterns, Blue Ridge pieces are now popular items with collectors of antique dishware. The underglaze technique made the decorations more durable, and while basic patterns were reused consistently, the fact that each piece was hand-painted means that no two pieces are exactly alike.
The Fiesta Tableware Company is a ceramics manufacturer located in Newell, West Virginia, United States. Established in 1871, it is widely known for its Art Deco glazed dinnerware line, Fiesta. In 2002, The New York Times called Fiesta "the most collected brand of china in the United States".
McCoy is a brand of pottery that was produced in the United States in the early 20th century. It is some of the most collected pottery in the nation. Starting in 1848 by J.W.McCoy Stoneware company, they established the Nelson McCoy Sanitary Stoneware Company in 1910. They continued on almost into 1991, but had to close down due to declining profits.
Red Wing pottery refers to American stoneware, pottery, or dinnerware items made by a company initially set up in Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1861 by German immigrant John Paul, which changed its names several times until finally settling on Red Wing Potteries, Inc. in 1936. The pottery factory that started in 1861 continues to the present day under the names of Red Wing Pottery and Red Wing Stoneware. There was a respite in production when Red Wing Pottery Sales, Inc. had a strike in 1967 causing them to temporarily cease trading. The company still makes both zinc/Bristol glazed products as well as salt-glazed, hand-thrown, kiln fired items.
Heath Ceramics is a B Corp certified American company that designs, manufactures, and retails goods for tabletop and home, and is best known for handcrafted ceramic tableware and architectural tile in distinctive glazes.
Gladding, McBean is a ceramics company located in Lincoln, California. It is one of the oldest companies in California, a pioneer in ceramics technology, and a company which has "contributed immeasurably" to the state's industrialization. During the heyday of architectural terra cotta, the company "dominated the industry in California and the Far West."
Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, US from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood closed the Los Angeles plant, and moved the production of dinnerware to England in 1983. Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood in 1986, becoming Waterford Wedgwood. KPS Capital Partners acquired all of the holdings of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009. The Franciscan brand became part of a group of companies known as WWRD, an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." WWRD continues to produce the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple.
Catalina Pottery is the commonly used name for Catalina Clay Products, a division of the Santa Catalina Island Company, which produced brick, tile, tableware and decorative pottery on Santa Catalina Island, California. Catalina Clay Products was founded in 1927. Gladding, McBean & Co. acquired all of the assets of the company in 1937 and moved all production to its Franciscan dinnerware division in Los Angeles.
Pacific Clay Products, founded 1892, was created by the merger of several Southern California potteries in the US. The company began producing utilitarian pottery in the 1920s, and introduced solid color earthenware dinnerware in 1932. The primary site for the production of ceramic tableware, kitchenware, and art ware was based in the company's Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles plant at 306 West Avenue 26. Pacific Clay ceased production of ceramic dinnerware and art ware in 1942. After 1942, Pacific Clay produced sewer tile and brick. The company ceased production of sewer tile in 1997. The company continues to produce brick products in Lake Elsinore, California. The company has been owned by David H. Murdock since 1973.
Vernon Kilns was an American ceramic company in Vernon, California, US. In July 1931, Faye G. Bennison purchased the former Poxon China pottery renaming the company Vernon Kilns. Poxon China was located at 2300 East 52nd Street. Vernon produced ceramic tableware, art ware, giftware, and figurines. The company closed its doors in 1958.
California pottery includes industrial, commercial, and decorative pottery produced in the Northern California and Southern California regions of the U.S. state of California. Production includes brick, sewer pipe, architectural terra cotta, tile, garden ware, tableware, kitchenware, art ware, figurines, giftware, and ceramics for industrial use. Ceramics include terra cotta, earthenware, porcelain, and stoneware products.
The Shawnee Pottery Company was a manufacturing company best known for producing Corn King pottery and the Pennsylvania Dutch lines of pottery. Both of these lines are considered highly collectible.
Cemar Clay Products was a California pottery operating between 1935 and 1955. Cemar's art pottery products, including tableware, are sought-after collectables today.
Brayton Laguna Pottery produced ceramics (pottery) in Laguna Beach, California from 1927 to 1968.
Garden City Pottery was founded in 1902 in San Jose, California, with an office and manufacturing facility on 560 North Sixth Street. Like many Californian potteries of that period, their original product lines focused on commercial tile and pipe, sanitary and gardenware products, and by the 1920s, Garden City was the largest pottery in Northern California.
San Jose Mission Potteries refers to a group of tile and pottery workshops founded by Ethel Wilson Harris in the San Antonio, Texas area starting in the 1930s.
Mary K. Grant, was an American industrial designer. Grant is known for her ceramic designs for Franciscan Ceramics manufactured by Gladding, McBean & Co. Grant designed several fine china and earthenware shapes for Gladding, McBean. Grant designed the American Franciscan dinnerware shapes for Desert Rose, Apple, and Ivy. Grant's Franciscan fine china shape Encanto was chosen by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for good design in 1951.