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Ernest Batchelder
established a tile studio in Pasadena, California, in 1909 and expanded
until 1916. Then he built a larger factory with a new partner. The
Batchelder-Wilson Company made tiles, garden
pots...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Bauer Pottery Starting
in Louisville, Kentucky, and then flourishing in Los Angeles, California,
J. A. Bauer Pottery Company created simple, yet beautiful
stoneware from...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Marc Bellaire was born
in 1925 in Toledo, Ohio. Marc Bellaire studied
at the Toledo Museum of Art while employed at the Libby Glass Company. He
moved to California...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Sascha Brastoff
made decorative accessories, ceramics, enamels on copper, and plastics
of his own design. He headed a factory, Sascha
Brastoff of California, Inc., in West Los
Angeles...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Durlin E. Brayton made
handcrafted vases, lamps, and dinnerware in a small kiln at his Laguna Beach,
California, home beginning in 1927. With his wife as his partner,
Brayton Laguna Pottery became a successful
business...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Catalina Island pottery
was produced on the island of the same name, about 26 miles off the California
coast. Catalina Clay Products produced mainly
brick and tile for island construction, but garden pieces were also produced,
and later...CLICK FOR MORE |
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The California
Cleminsons, George and Betty, Started their business at their El Monte,
California home in 1941. The Cleminsons were
so successful that they eventually expanded to a modern plant with over 150
workers. Clemenson produced...CLICK FOR
MORE |
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Kay Finch Ceramics began
in 1939 in a studio next to Kay and Braden Finch's home in Corona del Mar.
With early success Kay Finch moved to a studio
and retail showroom on the Pacific Coast Highway...CLICK
FOR MORE |
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Florence Ceramics The
Florence of Florence Ceramics Company was Florence
Ward, who started the company in her Pasadena garage in 1939. After attending
a ceramics class...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Franciscan Ware
The Franciscan Dinnerware and China Company started
up in 1875 as a sewer tile manufacturer. The company expanded slowly over
a period of 60 years...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Freeman-McFarlin
Potteries began in the mid-1940s as a partnership between Gerald
McFarlin and Maynard Anthony Freeman. McFarlin was the businessman of the
pair and an established...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Gladding, McBean &
Company, founded in 1875 by Charles Gladding, Peter McBean, and George
Chambers in Lincoln, California. Gladding-McBean
soon became the major manufacturer of sewer pipe west of the Mississippi.
In the early 1930s...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Hagen-Renaker
Pottery got its start in Culver City in the early 1940's, when John
and Maxine Renaker, began experimenting in their garage with various types
of ceramics. When Maxine sculpted three small ducks...CLICK
FOR MORE |
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Haldeman Pottery was
founded by Virgil and Anna Haldeman in Burbank in 1933. Previously Virgil
had worked at Catalina Clay Products, specializing in glaze chemistry.
Haldeman Pottery was sold under the Caliente
trade-name...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Brad Keeler was born
in Lincoln, where his father was a ceramic engineer for the local Gladding-McBean
plant. After studying art at USC, Brad Keeler
opened his own Glendale studio where he created naturalistic figures
of birds and animals. These were air-brush...CLICK FOR
MORE |
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William Manker,
fresh out of design school, began his ceramics career with Batchelder-Wilson
Tile Company in 1926. In 1932 William Manker opened
his own Pasadena studio and quickly attracted a
following...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Metlox Potteries of Manhattan
Beach was founded in 1927 by T. C. Prouty and his son Willis for the making
of ceramic outdoor signs. After T. C. died in 1931, Willis reorganized
Metlox Potteries and moved into the manufacture
of dinnerware. The first colored set, California Pottery, came out in
1931...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Betty Lou Nichols first
discovered ceramics at Fullerton Junior College where she was an art major.
When her husband joined the military in 1940, Betty
Lou Nichols moved in with her parents in La Habra and set up a small
kiln in their backyard where she began to produce
figural...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Pacific Pottery
began as Pacific Clay Products Co. in the Lincoln
Heights district of Los Angeles when William Lacy brought together several
potteries in the early 1920s to create the firm. The company's early products
were focused on...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Howard Pierce moved to
California in 1935, soon finding employment in ceramic production at William
Manker's Claremont plant. Howard Pierce opened his
own studio in Claremont in 1941 but due to World War
II...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Roselane Pottery was
founded in 1938 by William and Georgia Fields, working out of their Pasadena
home. Roselane Pottery at first produced figurines
for the local florist trade, but by the early forties their attractive figurines
were finding a retail market...CLICK FOR MORE
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Hedi Schoop
was an accomplished dancer in Germany, married to a well-known composer,
Frederick Hollander. In 1933 Hedi Schoop and her
husband fled Nazi Germany. After settling in Hollywood she
began...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Twin
Winton Ceramics was started by twin brothers Don and Ross Winton
in Pasadena in 1936. While still in high school the twins, along with partner
Helen Burke, had a profitable business making and selling clay cartoon animals.
In 1939 the brothers...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Vernon Kilns was founded
in July 1931 after Faye G. Bennison purchased Poxon China Company in Vernon,
now part of Los Angeles. Vernon Kilns continued
using Poxon shapes for some time before an earthquake in 1933
forced...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Wallace China
was founded in 1931 by Wallace B. Wood, his son Frank. and other former
associates of Poxon China Company. Wallace China
moved into a large factory in Huntington Park and George Poxon was hired
by the company which...CLICK FOR MORE |
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The Will-George Company
was founded in 1934 by William and George Climes in William's Los Angeles
garage. Will-George manufactured high-quality artware
of porcelain and earthenware. In the late thirties their work came to the
attention of actor Edgar Bergen who...CLICK FOR MORE
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Barbara Willis studied
ceramics at UCLA and after graduating in 1940 opened a small studio behind
the family home in Los Angeles. By 1942 Barbara Willis
was producing her "Terrene Pottery," mostly vases and flower bowls, for
the local...CLICK FOR MORE |
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Winfield Pottery was
founded in Pasadena in 1929 by Leslie Winfield Sample. With just one kiln
he produced a line of distinctive art pottery and in the evenings ran the
"School of Clayworking." In 1935 Winfield Pottery
moved to a larger Pasadena...CLICK FOR MORE
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