Pacific Pottery (aka Pacific Clay Products)

American
(1892–1942)

Coffee Carafe

circa1938

8.25 x 7.5 x 5.5 in.

Coffee Carafe is from the Hostessware line that debuted in 1932. It and other larger pouring vessels featured a wooden handle and, originally, a lid. The Pacific Clay Products line was more extensive than that of J. A. Bauer, and a commitment to quality pervaded their production. In 1935, Pacific listed over two hundred separate items for sale. Though Pacific had been making utilitarian pottery since the 1920s, it became attracted to colored dinnerware like Bauer and Catalina Island were producing. Pacific’s outstanding glazes and streamlined styling are what set its colored pottery apart from lines like Bauer’s.

Pacific Clay Products was founded 1892 and later became one of the Big Five Southern California potteries in the production of ceramic tableware, kitchenware, and artwares from 1930 to 1942. The Big Five, all located in the Los Angeles Basin, included Metlox; Vernon Kilns; J. A. Bauer Pottery; Gladding, McBean, and Co.; and Pacific Clay Products. These five companies persuaded homemakers to put pottery instead of porcelain on their tables. In October of 1942, after only ten years of dinnerware production, the factory retooled for the full-time production of war materials. Pacific Clay Products never produced tableware or artware again.

Billie Sessions, PhD.

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This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Unearthed , 8/23/2022 - 5/14/2023

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