Came across these very interesting Bauer Pottery cups in a thrift the other day. I had a feeling they had to be Bauer right away because of the shape and the “two-tone glaze”. They I’ve never seen the two-tone glaze before in person, but I remembered reading about it in Jack Chipman’s Bauer book.

Sure enough, each cup was marked “Bauer” on the bottom. This is nice, because Bauer cups often have no markings at all. What I didn’t realize what that these cups were the alternate “Mission Moderne” line that resembles the well-known “Monterey Moderne” line. According to Chipman, Mission Moderne was introduced in the 50s, was designed by Tracy Irwin and strongly resembled Monterey Moderne. They were so similar that for a time, Mission Moderne was thought to be merely variations within the Monterey Moderne line.

I think that many of the pieces are identical or near identical between the two lines. There are a couple of differences - Mission Moderne cups are taller and with straighter sides and most notably the handles have a distinct “point” on them. The pointed handles actually remind me a lot of standard Bauer ringware cups.

The sizes of the plates in the lines are also different. More subtle differences also occur in items like vegetale bowls, where you probably need to have them side by side in order to tell them apart. I certainly wouldn’t be able to, since I’m not familiar with Monterey Moderne to start with.

I believe that there were differences in the glazes colors used for the two lines as well. However, as Chipman notes, both lines used the two-tone and blended glazes like the one on the cups I found.