Because DeLee Art was much more famous for their hand-decorated figurines, flower holders, and cookie jars, I haven’t come across their items much. It’s just harder to pick these items out at the thrifts. Plus, I’m not as big a fan of California pottery figurines than I am of household and garden items. However, I did come across the pink mid-century modern looking bowl below recently that was made by DeLee.

Images

This bowl is kidney shaped and has a matte glaze with a grayish rim. It’s flat on the bottom without marks that I could see - however it did have the remnants of a silver foil stamp. Originally, this stamp would have been gold or silver with black lettering. It’s been worn off due to usage and washing, but I could still make out the imprint of the lettering. It reads “DeLee Art California Hand Decorated”. I’ve seen other similar bowls in different shapes and colors - they are definitely not representative of the company’s output, but we really like them nevertheless.

DeLee was started by Jimmy Lee Stewart - according to Chipman. I later found some other info that said she started up the company with funds obtained from an automobile accident lawsuit. It also said her last name changed to “Kohl” later on, although the company remained DeLee. I believe that she also became friends with Barbara Willis later on.

Her pieces are pretty distinctive - someone mentioned the long eyelashes many figurines have. The backstamps are hugely varied, ranging from in-mold, ink stamps, foil / paper stamps, hangtags and hand-painted marks. Some pieces have a combination of these markings. Because some pieces had foil stamps as the only markings, you’ll sometimes find them seemingly without any identification on the bottom.

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.