National Silver Company pulled a fast one on me.

I’d picked up this extremely heavy duty, cocoa colored mug thinking that it was California Pottery because of the backstamp. It read: “Hollywood Craftsmen, Styled and made in California”. I figured that it might be a variant on Robertson Pottery which was based in Hollywood and known to have the city’s name in their backstamp. It was only a dollar so it was cheap enough to take a chance on.

But when I got home, I couldn’t find the backstamp in any of the California ceramics books. Then I checked for the name in Lehner’s book on marks. Imagine my surprise to find that the stamp was actually from the New York based National Silver Company, sometimes known as Nasco.

They actually have a number of different California based stamps including “Hollywood Silverplate” and “Royal Hawaiian Made In California”.

Actually, it may not be completely wrong to call this item California Pottery. It turns out that a host of different California companies produced pottery, ceramics and dishes that were stamped with the Nasco brand, or as “Hollywood Craftsmen”. Probably done because at the time the name “California” and other related things such as Hollywood were such hot items. Some of the companies who were known to rebrand their products were Gladding McBean and Santa Anita Potteries.

I sort of think the extremely heavy nature of the mug looks like it was from a company like H.F. Coors or Wallace. If anyone knows the company that made this shape, please let me know…