I haven’t been able to find much information on Arcadia Ceramics, Inc. beyond the fact that they mostly made miniature salt and pepper shakers in the 40s-50s. However, unlike a lot of other companies, they are actually named for the city that the business was in - Arcadia, CA. I’m very familiar with this area and often drive through and visit the thrift stores located throughout the city. I’ve been wondering if I might come across some Arcadia Ceramics shakers, but so far have not recognized any.

One reason for that may be the fact that many of their miniatures were not marked at all. You see this very frequently with smaller items produced by the older California Potteries. And these miniature shakers were REALLY tiny in some cases. However, some of their ceramics are indeed marked with “Arcadia” or “Arcadia Ceramics” and sometimes even a PO Box address and item ID#. Many pieces seem to have been shipped with a paper label covering the shaker’s fill hole as opposed to a cork - I’ve seen a few that state “Reseal with this label - or Adhesive tape”.

Their novelty shaker sets were both detailed and whimsical - a specialty of theirs seems to have been miniature food. I believe that many pieces were handpainted. There were many other companies that made this type of miniature, most notably Treasure Craft. Also, note that Arcadia Ceramics should not be confused with the Arcadia line made by Pacific Clay Products. See that gallery page for an example of the dinnerware line that bears an inmold stamp that says “Arcadia” on it.

It’s highly probably that I’ve missed seeing them since I don’t collect this type of ceramics. I suspect there is more information about the company in salt and pepper shaker collector books. If you do collect these shakers, we’d like to feature one of your photos here.

Note: We've tried to provide as much info as possible on this pottery maker or artist. For further info, you may want to research the items they have on Ebay listed under this name. We've tried to hand tailor the searches below so they will bring up the most accurate results. If there are no results, it will list general California pottery.