California Pottery and Metlox Poppytrail

Lately, I've been buying a lot of California pottery -- Bauer, Franciscan & Metlox.  Two of the more recent pieces I've gotten were a swordfish vase & two swirl candlesticks by Metlox, and they made me want to know more about their history.

Sailfish vase & swirl candlsticks

Over the years I've become pretty familiar with the whole whole West Virginia/Ohio/Pennsylvania pottery industry (including the factory tour at Homer Laughlin -- a must-do, if you ever get the chance).  I didn't know much about California pottery, though, so I did what any so-last-century person does:  got a book out of the library!

This is a great book by Carl Gibbs Jr. -- all the information (and book pictures) in this blog post come from this book & he gets full credit!

1920s:  Metlox was started by TC Prouty & his son, Willis.  They'd moved from Michigan to California and began working in tile in 1920.  They started Metlox in Manhattan Beach, CA in 1927 & made outdoor signs and insulators for neon tubes.  The name Metlox is a combination of Metal and Oxide, which refers to the pigments in their glazes.  In 1931, Willis took over when his dad passed away and, after seeing what Bauer was doing with pottery dinnerware & how popular it was, he started the pottery lines we're familiar with now.

Their dinneware was equally colorful and pretty as Homer Laughlin's Fiesta line!

1930s:  In 1934, he had the '200 series' or Poppytrail line (my swirl candlesticks), followed by the artware line in 1935 (my swordfish vase -- which I found out is really a sailfish).  My sailfish was designed and signed by Carl Romanelli.  That was followed by Pintoria, Yorkshire and Mission Bell.  All of these were solid color pottery pieces.

1940s:  They stopped production during WWII and Prouty sold to Evan Shaw in 1946.  Shaw hired Bob Allen and Mel Shaw (no relation), who were animators & created lots of animal lines for Metlox.  They started doing painted pieces, like this California Ivy relish dish.  The hand-decorated lines were their most popular and rivaled Franciscan's Desert Rose line.

Vernon Kilns plaid salt & pepper and a California Ivy relish dish

1950s:  They bought Vernon Kilns (of the Blair plaids, like this salt and pepper and painted pot) and started using their molds & patterns.  This is the same way Homer Laughlin continued to produce pieces for companies they bought out in the midwest.

Blair handpainted decorative pot

1954 Free Form gravy boat -- I love this line, with its atomic-era shapes!

My newest find at the antique mall -- a large (13") Free Form platter!

1960s:  This was the high point for Metlox -- by then, their only main competitor was Franciscan.  They sold lots of their lines to department stores.

1970s:  Hand-decorated and open-stock dishes went out of style and people wanted boxed sets.  Metlox couldn't compete with foreign manufacturers (mainly Japan).  They still had the little animal line, though, and some planters called 'Poppets' that were designed by Helen Slater & which were very popular.

1989:  Metlox closed its doors for good.  They were the last California pottery works to go out of business. This is all that's left of the Manhattan Beach factory.

The old Metlox sign -- all that's left at Manhattan Beach

Here are some other California pottery pieces:

Franciscan Autumn Leaves divided dish

Franciscan ceramic tray, Gladding McBean (Franciscan) butter dish and Patio line salt & pepper

Franciscan condiment set

That's what I love about buying, selling & collecting vintage:  no matter how much I know, there's always something new to learn about!

Soggy Friday Sales

Last week, I took Thursday night off, which really means that I didn't get anything ready to take to the mall.  Instead of fluffing the booth, I hit a few sales to the south of our town.  It was a chilly, rainy day and the yard sales are almost all gone, so it was lots of windshield time with very little shopping.  I went to an estate sale where everything was super-high, except for the unpriced stuff in the basement (always a good place to dig).

A great old camera -- lovely for display

I filled up a bin with Christmas stuff from several piles in a corner.  The sellers priced the whole bin at $5!  I was pretty happy then, but even happier when I put this little beauty together at home:

This is a 'Crystal Pine' tree from the 1940s.  It's layers of clear plastic 'boughs' separated by plastic tube dividers.  It's wonderful!  

Next stop was a Craigslist sale about a 1/2 hour away.  It was a woman (in her 50s) and her mother (70s) who had a very interesting ad. The opening lines were about how they were both avid collectors and were having a sale so that they wouldn't be on TV in an upcoming episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive.  I can relate.

They had 3 portable car-port tents in their tiny front yard with everything sorted by category & organized (nice), but most of what they had was priced like an antique mall (not nice).  There were a few goodies that just jumped out at me, though:

 This sweet set of Royal Sealy kitties, Made in Japan, from the 1950s:

This Made in Japan Santa.  I love his happy look, but can't figure out what he was made for.  He has slits all around his back and sides and little holes in his hat (like salt & pepper shaker holes).  Not enough room underneath for a light bulb and no place for the cord and too big a hole in the bottom for a stopper.  He  almost looks like one of those napkin lady dolls, but that doesn't make sense on a Santa.  Any ideas?

This was under a table in the kitchen tent -- I was so excited and did the happy dance through the raindrops all the way to the car!

A Pyrex red with gold holly.  AND the serving rack  AND a lid!
I'd seen these in books, but not in person -- I'll definitely be keeping this one!

I had thought these were casseroles -- it's actually a 404 bowl.  

Last stop was Treasure Mart in Ann Arbor, an 3-story resale shop that has really fast turnover and usually has great items.  I was disappointed to see that their prices are getting higher -- almost as high as mall prices.   they have a 10% discount per month on anything over $5, but there were very few things therethat were even one month old.  I did find a few good buys, though:

A custard glass plate with ruffled edge

Metlox Californial Ivy divided relish and a Vernon Kilns salt & pepper set

A Monmouth Pottery Western Stoneware bean pot.  I really had to dig to find out about this one.  Monmouth Pottery was in Illinois and Western Stoneware was one of their main lines.  I like its art deco look.

I've been picking up so much more American pottery than I used to (Franciscan, Vernon Kilns, Metlox, Monmouth, Paden City).  I'm going to have to learn more about it!

Mid-century Sweetness!

Last week I drove to many sales and found all frogs, until the very end.  I had worked through the entire list of ones from the paper and craigslist and found almost nothing, but was making my way to the mall to fluff my booth.  At the end, I passed one pretty close to the mall and it turned out to be a prince!

The family was selling many items from their mom, who had passed away about 3 years ago.  She must have been a lover of mid-century or just a lady who couldn't throw anything away, because they had some very nice stuff.

Odds & ends -- Melmac, chartreuse china, bakelite handled pickle forks

Some cool 1960s ivy painted glasses and a tiny pitcher

A covered casserole with great decoration

A very unusual tall triangle lucite pitcher -- with a handle at the bottom and turquoise & yellow plaid side.  

A kitty cookie jar -- no maker's mark or identifier

I showed this to you yesterday, but it deserves a second mention in the mid-century sweetness post because it's so totally sweet:  a dark turquoise beverage set with hand-blown stir stick & 4 little glasses.  There's no maker's mark, but the shape of the pitcher and handle placement is so much like Blendo that I think it must be West Virginia Glass.

Here are the day's best mid-century finds -- a Metlox Poppytrail Swordfish vase (art pottery designed and signed by Romanelli) and 2 Poppytrail spiral candleholders.  They're so fine!  The only flaw is a VERY tiny flea bite on the end of the swordfish's nose (bill? sword? -- whatever it's called).  I just love these!

Another great find was this glass ceiling light cover with cowboys on bucking broncos.  It's also in near-mint condition with no color loss.  It had hung in the seller's brother's bedroom the whole time they were growing up, was taken down and immediately packed away.  Lucky for me!

Fun Finds at the Local Thrift!

I made a quick trip to the local thrift store after work the other day and found a few really nice things, including a couple of unusual ones.  Since I arrived well after the 'bric-a-brac' shelf stockers had gone home, it meant that other people had just not noticed these great things!  I didn't see the gravy boat or carafe on my first trip through, but I always walk around one more time to see if I missed anything.  I'm glad I did!

Pyrex Spring Blossom Cinderella mixing bowls

A juice carafe, a gravy boat & a REALLY big old glass fish bowl.  It was pretty dirty, so I think people didn't want to mess with it.  I don't know how old it is, but there are bubbles in the glass (does that mean anything)?  Even if it's not old, I thought it would be great in the booth for display.

Here is GREAT FIND #1:  A Metlox Poppytrail Contempora pattern gravy boat. 
Isn't it fantastic?  I just LOVE this mid-century stuff!  I wish I could keep it all!

GREAT FIND #2:  a wonderful 1950s carafe! 
The handle looks like black bakelite (but isn't) and the silver is painted inside the neck.  It was made by Inland Glass and is labeled 'Hand Blown' and even has it's original cork stopper (which is often missing).  It's in really good condition, but was pretty dirty.  Do you think that's why people skipped it?

So my quick trip (and long day) and final walk-through paid off!