The first thing you might think when seeing a Harold Landaker ceramic sculpture is, “What in the world?” His creations are very whimsical, with an extremely handmade (and some might say sloppy) look to them. A former painter, he turned to pottery in the 40s and created mostly animal and human figurines and giftware. Apparently, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and then moved to LA around 1940. His humorous animal creations may have something to do with his work as a set decorator for the circus before he came to California.

The studio where he produced his artwork was originally in LA, but he later moved up to the Monterey area, in Pacific Grove. His animal figurines are almost grotesque caricatures at times, and are deceptively simple in style. The first time I saw a pair of his dogs with their googly eyes, I thought they were someone’s pottery class joke. A lot of his figures make use of non-glazed stained bisque areas in conjunction with crackle glaze. I haven’t found much information on Landaker’s ceramics at all - I’ve been wondering if perhaps he was more well known as a painter. Most of his items, when found, are signed as “Landaker Original Ceramics” or something similar.

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.