I’d been meaning to visit the Bauer Pottery showroom that is open to the public for their yearly Holiday Sale. Today, I finally went down there to check it out. It was pretty overwhelming for me, even though the amount of items displayed was quite modest. They’re actually planning on having a showroom sale every month starting in March 2009. The first weekend of the month it will be open to the public.

For those that haven’t visited yet, besides ordering online (or buying their pottery through one of the many retail stores that carry Bauer now) the showroom is the only place that you can buy directly from them. The factory in Highland isn’t open to the public currently. The showroom is currently between the 2 FWY and 5 FWY, sort of at the edge of Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The address is 3051 Rosslyn Street, Los Angeles, CA 90065.

One of the best things about going to the showroom is that you have the opportunity to buy the factory “seconds”. These are pieces which have small blemishes that are extremely minor, in my opinion. The prices are much cheaper, and I ended up buying some Monterey tumblers and a flower pot for an Xmas gift. I had to physically restrain myself from loading up the cart with other items.

Keep in mind that nearly all of the newer Bauer items are marked as “Bauer 2000″ in order to distinguish them from vintage Bauer. I think this will make the established collectors very happy, as the new ware is of very good quality - it’s almost difficult to tell, but then I’m a novice collector. I’m glad they used incised marks instead of foil stamps.

We would really like to pick up one of the teapots shown above one of these days. Actually, the main item that I went to look for was the “Cat” pet bowl - but unfortunately, all their seconds of this item were gone. So I guess I’ll have to make another trip back there in March…

Visit their website for more information about the store or the sales.