FILTER RESULTS × Close
Skip to Content
Showing 3 of 3


Catalina Island Pottery

American

Catalina Beverage Set
circa 1930s

Earthenware
8 x 9 x 7 in.
Gift of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation
1998.29

William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum tycoon, founded Catalina Clay Products, which for ten years produced brick, tile, tableware, and decorative pottery on Santa Catalina Island, twenty-six miles off the Southern California coast. Until 1931, Wrigley insisted on using the local dark brown and red clays found on the island; however, this clay body chipped easily. After Wrigley’s death in 1932, white clay from mainland California was combined with the local clay, until finally only white clay was used. Glazes were made with local minerals mined on the island, as on the Catalina blue pitcher and cups seen here. At first, wares were sold in Avalon, Hollywood, Los Angeles, and in the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. Dinnerware and artware were sold through department and jewelry stores. In 1937, Catalina Clay Products, including all equipment, stock, molds, and trademarks, was sold to Gladding McBean & Co. (of Glendale and Hermosa Beach, California), who continued to produce artware and dinnerware shapes for their Catalina Pottery line until 1942.

Initially the pottery used local clays as part of Wrigley’s development campaign to bring tourists to the island, and also to provide much needed year-round employment for island residents. Bricks and tiles were used to build hotels and public buildings, for fountains, and for the decorative sea walls in Avalon (the primary town on the island). In 1930 Wrigley brought artisans to Catalina to design decorative and functional pottery, including souvenirs, vases, candlesticks, bookends, figurines, and tableware. In its prime the pottery had twelve kilns and produced between ten and fifteen thousand pieces a week.

Billie Sessions, PhD.


Keywords
Click a term to view the records with the same keyword
This object has the following keywords:
  • blue
  • cups
  • pitchers - Vessels, generally of ceramic, glass, metal, or plastic, that have a wide mouth with a broad lip and usually a handle at one side, but sometimes having two ears; includes those accompanied by a washbowl and used for personal hygiene.

Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Also found in
Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios:


Your current search criteria is: All Objects records and [Objects]Artist is "Catalina Island Pottery".





This site facilitates access to the art and artifact collections by providing digitally searchable records for thousands objects. The information on these pages is not definitive or comprehensive. We are regularly adding artworks and updating research online. We welcome your comments.