I’ve seen a number of these Wilhite of California items previously, but am still trying to find out more information about the company. At first, I thought perhaps that sellers were mistaking it for White Pottery which has a mark that can be confusing because of the way that it is signed and the blurriness of the stamp. However, I’ve seen enough of these now to know that it’s a different pottery.

Most of the items seen have a script impressed stamp on the bottom that says “Wilhite of California”. Sometimes there are ID numbers. The pottery seemed to focus on casseroles, planters and dinnerware. One of the more common pieces seen is an oval casserole that came with a metal cradle. From the look of the cradle, I estimate the date range to be around 1950-1970. So far I’ve only seen solid color undecorated items in various glazes including chartreuse, dark green and pink.

Update 5/2009: Recently, I came across the mention of the name “Wilhite” in the listing for the 1951 copy of Registered California Pictorial. Incidentally I’d really like to get my hands on a bunch of these periodical issues - I believe they have invaluable information about California companies. Unfortunately, this person was selling them instead of publishing the knowledge so that all could benefit from it. Anyhow, the mention was for a company called Wilhite Machine Works. This seems too much of a coincidence so I’m assuming this is the Wilhite in question. That would mean that my guess of 1950-1970 is correct at least on the early end of the scale. Would still like to find out more information - there was nothing about Wilhite Machine Works online.

Update 8/2009: Had a chance to check out a few “Ceramics Industry” periodicals this summer, and came across one mention of Wilhite so far. From the March 1955 issue, there was this blurb: “More should be said than has been said about the use of solid brass and filigree metal bases, creations that combine beautifully with colorful pottery. A striking display was that of Wilhite of California, Playa del Rey, Calif. The items are in solid brass, the colors in pottery employed most successfully with them being emerald green and pink. Wall pockets as well as items intended for use on the table, or on shelves for decoration, are enhanced by filigree.”

This is interesting, because the use of metal filigree seems to tie in with the above mention of a Wilhite Machine Works. In addition, they mention a location for the company, so I’m now going to assume that was at least one location of the company. The date of this publication was 1955, so we should also assume that they existed before that year.

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.