I haven’t done a California Pottery Hunting episode in awhile. There are actually a ton of backlogged thriftstore photos still, but here are a few found this summer. None of these were purchased - like I said earlier, we’ve been seriously cutting down.

For awhile, I’d grab pretty much any Vernon Kilns pattern I saw at the thrift. But lately, we’ve cut it down - just too many patterns to collect. This was a good sized cache of the Sherwood pattern. I actually don’t even have a gallery made for Vernon yet, have to get on that.

La Mirada is another California pottery that we collect, but that we don’t have a gallery for yet. This one is difficult to write about because it’s intertwined with Gabriel, Winfield and the umbrella company known as American Ceramic Products. We’ll have to figure out how to present those companies later on. We ended up not picking up this piece because it was just too big. The color combo is typical of La Mirada, however.

We do have a gallery for Laurel Pottery, and I would’ve picked up this casserole from the California Life line if it didn’t have so damage. It was also rather pricey - for a thrift, even though it was in the “antique” section.

Awhile back, I saw a ton of Bauer Pottery appear in many different thrift stores. We did pick up a few pieces (will be shown in an upcoming post), but most of the pieces were damaged so we passed on them. The “Alladin” GPK teapot shown above was probably the best Bauer piece we saw recently at a thrift. It had chips to the spout and rim, however, and was priced rather high for damaged pottery. Unfortunate.

We also spotted this Bauer vase, or cookie jar bottom(?) that was interesting because it had part of a painted decal still on it. We rarely see decorated Bauer at thrift stores.

I was heartbroken that this Fred Johnson designed blue Bauer vase had a big crack in it. His hand-turned stuff is never (as far as I know) marked on the bottom. Once you learn some of the shapes and his techniques, there’s a very good chance at snagging it from underneath the noses of thrifter-sellers who pass it over because of no markings. As well, thrift store workers usually don’t price these pieces very high - again because of the lack of markings.

This single handled brown Bauer bean pot or crock would’ve been a nice pickup - except you can see the large crack running through the entire pot. A few years ago, I probably would’ve gotten it anyhow.

Last up for Bauer is this nice green pitcher, I believe from the Monterey Moderne line. I was torn about not purchasing it, but in the end the high price won out.

KTK, otherwise known as Knowles Taylor Knowles, pops up once in awhile. It’s often unidentified at thrifts, but because of the telltale pinkish-blue color combination from the 40s, is sometimes priced a little higher. Very similar in color and style to both West Coast and La Canada at times.

We’ll end with this cute figurine from DeLee Art. This little guy is known as “Dude”, and had an original foil sticker still attached. It was reasonably priced, and I would’ve picked it up to resell. However, it just had too much damage. A lot of these DeLee figurines have no markings, except for a sticker which is often missing. You can sort of tell from the design and style that it’s from DeLee. The rectangular foil sticker with name in all caps is also sometimes an indicator.

OK, hopefully I’ll have another California pottery hunting episode up next month.