POTTED HISTORY No.5:
BAUER POTTERY
Because this is an American ancient industry the history is rather short and not terribly ancient. The story of Bauer Pottery is not unlike that of Clark Gable; it was born somewhere in the middle of nowhere, with a funny face and no prospects. After a rigorous makeover (in Clark's case: new teeth, new voice and pots of brilliantine) it was passionately embraced by the public, and became symbolic of a new age of seductive modern beauty in America.
In 1885 J. Andy Bauer began a pottery in Paducah, Kentucky. His pottery was not original or beautiful; he answered a local need by making whiskey jugs and other bits of humble crockery. Asthma and the transcontinental railroad lured him to Los Angeles in 1909, where the locals eschewed whiskey jugs in favour of the growing Arts and Crafts movement.
Here, J. Andy Bauer and his asthma leave our story. When the company had enjoyed some success with aesthetically minded people, a new designer called Louis Ipsen was hired and in 1929 he was joined by Victor Houser, a ceramics engineer. They were inspired by the citrus groves, palm trees and Pacific Ocean. Houser experimented with glazes in solid bright colours and Ipsen created the California Colored Pottery range, followed by the famed Ring-Ware line, and thus Bauer as we know it was established.
Bauer thrived during the Depression as it swiftly replaced granny's chipped flowered china with something streamlined and bright at affordable prices. The idea of mix and match colours was introduced which was entirely new. Bauer was widely imitated and its reputation was eventually eclipsed by Fiesta, which responded with its own bright concentric ring patterned tableware in 1936. During the post war boom, instead of flourishing as it should have done, the company faltered and closed in 1962.
But Potted Histories is only concerned with the happy ending, so here it is. Ninety years after the first factory opened in Los Angeles, Bauer Pottery was re-launched by an enterprising Englishman in a factory just around the corner. Ancient Industries is very proud to sell Bauer which, like Clark Gable, could only have been made in California.
