This little owl was a lucky find at an estate sale last month. Because it was unmarked, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. But I was pretty sure that it was a California pottery piece. The seller had no idea who it was by either, and I picked it up for 50 cents. Something about the way that the piece was hollow caught my attention - the eyes are actually holes instead of being sculpted. On a hunch, I looked up some photos and found that this indeed looked like a Hildred Reents owl.

Actually, I got a chance recently to correspond with Hildred’s daughter on Flickr, and it was she who confirmed that the owl was made by her mother. I’ve put up a gallery for Hildred Reents and most of the information on that page is from her daughter. Hildred lived in the Padua Hills art colony area, which was a hotbed for so many great California ceramicists. So it was really nice to find this little owl made by her.