CALIFORNIA POTTERY INDEX - VINTAGE CALIFORNIA POTTERY, DINNERWARE, CERAMICS, FIGURINES - INCLUDING GLADDING MCBEAN POTTERY

Gladding McBean Pottery

Gladding, McBean & Company, founded in 1875 by Charles Gladding, Peter McBean, and George Chambers in Lincoln, California. They soon became the major manufacturer of sewer pipe west of the Mississippi. In the early 1930s Gladding McBean began producing dinnerware decorated with solid glaze colors.
GMcB's most popular line was its Franciscan Ware dinnerware, and that is covered in a separate category. Covered on this page are Gladding McBean's Tropico Pottery, which preceded Franciscan, as well as Catalina Pottery which the company acquired in 1937, the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspired Tiempo line, and most anything else not branded Franciscan.
As with most California potteries, Gladding, McBean and Company found competing with cheap imports difficult. After a series of mergers and sales, the company was closed in 1984.

Gladding McBean Pottery