This page will list all the pottery books and other related references that may be helpful for collectors of California Pottery. Most can be found on Amazon.com
Collectors Encyclopedia of California Pottery
by Jack Chipman
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
This is a great book that any pottery collector should have in their library, even if you don’t really focus on pottery made in California. It features a great selection of the different potteries with marks, examples, pictures, values and some basic historical information. The back of the book also has a section that deals with smaller and lesser known California potteries - along with some pictures. While it would be nice to see that section expanded greatly, that’s one thing we’re attempting to do on this site. Still, it’s the best book for getting a general feel on what’s out there… after getting the book we were able to pick up many more pottery pieces that we wouldn’t have known about previously. - Read Reviews
California Pottery Scrapbook
by Jack Chipman
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
This is a decent secondary reference for California Pottery - however, we would recommend you get Chipman’s Encyclopedia above first before purchasing this book. Some have complained that the book is not organized by company, but by approximate time period (30s-70s). There is an index at the back that IS in alpha-order. (By the way: to save flipping back and forth, its a good idea to photocopy the index to make looking up companies faster).
Regardless, we find that the method of presentation is interesting and allows for leisurely absorption - it’s presented like a scrapbook after all. It also contains a host of smaller and less well known companies that aren’t even talked about at all in the Encyclopedia, which has been extremely helpful. - Read Reviews
Lehner’s Encyclopedia of U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain and Clay
by Lois Lehner
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
While this book is a general U.S. pottery reference rather than one focusing on California, it’s a great resource to have with almost 2000 different companies and 8000 marks. This is the go-to book to identify a pottery or porcelain mark. The bulk of the 600+ page book are the listings by company, which give some basic info and the marks. However, there’s an easy to search index which lists by name AND by the mark (helpful to try and identify unknown marks). The companies are also listed in various ways in the back of the book, including by locale. In particular, it’s nice to have a reference for U.S. pottery because many other books focus on English pottery. - Read Reviews
Collector’s Encyclopedia of Metlox Potteries
by Carl Gibbs, Jr.
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
I feel this Metlox book is actually one of the best collector books period for pottery because of its depth of detailed information and its organization. This was the first pottery book I ever bought, even before Chipman’s. One warning is that there is a TON of information in here, and it may take awhile to get used to the way it is formatted. Instead of patterns listed in alpha order or by date, they are listed by “shape”.
For a beginner, this can be somewhat confusing - but after awhile, you realize this is one of the best ways to try and collect because you will start to recognize Metlox by shape rather than the color, pattern or backstamp. The book covers artware and dinnerware for both the Poppytrail and Vernon Divisions along with prices. - Read Reviews
Collector’s Guide to Bauer Pottery
by Jack Chipman
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
Jack Chipman wrote one of the bibles on Bauer Pottery for collectors - unfortunately, as of writing it is out of print and a little pricey. However, it may be worth it as no other Bauer book currently comes close. There are tons of gorgeous photographs of Bauer items as well as the history of the pottery.
It is meant by the author to be as complete an identification guide as possible and also contains pricing on the various pieces. Keep in mind that the book was published in 1997 and therefore those prices should be taken more as an overall guideline rather than set in stone. I believe there was a reprint where the prices were updated around 2001 - Read Reviews
Bauer Pottery
by M. Tuchman, P. Brenner
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
Although this book should not be looked on as a collector’s guide for Bauer, it still is very helpful when you’re first starting out collecting California Pottery. We have this book and although it is a little thin at 103 pages, it makes a great coffee table book and has even helped us with limited identification. Peter Brenner’s photos of Bauer items in the book are amazing, and the information about the pottery is very detailed and an interesting read.
The book is set up mostly as a pictorial guide of the history of the Bauer Pottery. They also highlight several different lines from the pottery and go into detail about glazes and production issues. Some of the lines and persons mentioned include Louis Ipsen, Matt Carlton, the Rebekah vases, Fred Johnson, Ray Murray, Brusche, and Russel Wright. The back of the book presents 10 different specialized Bauer pottery “collections”. Keep in mind there are is absolutely no pricing in the book. - Read Reviews
Collector’s Encyclopedia of Howard Pierce Porcelain: Identification and Values
by Darlene Hurst Dommel
Prices on: Amazon | Ebay | AbeBooks
It’s unfortunate that this Howard Pierce reference is out of print - it can still be found in secondary places online but is quite expensive currently. Because we don’t own this book we can’t comment on the content except that the reviewers on Amazon seemed to like it. It covers Pierce’s life and work and gives photo examples and values (based on 1997 prices). It is 144 pages long. I’m curious as to how well this book covers the different items and lines that Pierce made. - Read Reviews
