Pacific Pottery (aka Pacific Clay Products)

American
(1932–1942)

Coffee Carafe
circa1938

8.25 x 7.5 x 5.5 in.

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

Pacific Clay Products was founded 1892 and created by the merger of several Southern California potteries. Pacific Clay was one of the Big Five southern California potteries in the production of ceramic tableware, kitchenware, and art wares from 1930 to 1942. The Big Five Southern California potteries are comprised of Metlox, Vernon Kilns, Gladding, McBean & Co., J.A. Bauer Pottery, 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 the production of dinnerware, the factory committed to full-time defense work for the war and retooled for the 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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