The Things We Look At

A couple years ago we bought a fairly large collection from someone that had been employed in the one of the pottery factories.  The pieces are diverse in nature and most are not marked.  As a new collector years ago we may not have purchased such a collection because few of the pieces are marked with a stamp from the pottery but we recognized the unique features of the pieces and had seen many of them in photos or heard about them from other collectors.

Here is a list of pottery plants:

Medalta Potteries Factory:
1912-1914: Medicine Hat Pottery Company Limited
1915-1924: Medalta Stoneware Limited
1924-1954: Medlata Potteries Limited
1958:          New Medalta Ceramics
1960-1966: Sunburst Ceramics Limited

Clark's Factory
1916-1922: Gas City Pottery Limited
1922-1924: Canada Pottery

Alberta Potteries Factory:
1931-1936: Alberta Potteries Limited (Jesse W. Wyatt)
1936-1938: Albert Potteries Limited (Perry and Matuska)
1939:          Provincial Industrial Enterprises or P.I.E.
1941-1966: Alberta Potteries Limited (J. Harlan Yuill)
1966-1986 Medalta Potteries (1966) Limited

Medicine Hat Potteries' Factory:
1939-1955: Medicine Hat Potteries
1955-1989: Hycroft China Limited

All photos are from our collection.  The Spaniels are from a different person's whose husband worked at the factory.  The texture of the clay is quite different from the clay used by the other potteries but the spaniels were made in Medicine Hat, one of them was a gift from her husband when he worked in one of the plants.

I hope everyone has a wish list ready for Santa and that he manages to find that elusive piece of pottery that you have been looking.  Merry Christmas to all and good wishes 2020!

And the Search Continues.........

Preserving our Past

I am of the age that I find myself saying "when I was a kid" and yet I remember how annoyed I was when my parents and grandparents said things like that.  As I get ready to start thinking about retirement I find myself looking back at how we did things when I was young and all the things I learned from grandparents and parents.  My Grossmama always made sauerkraut, a Mennonite lady that truly believed if you couldn't make it you didn't need to eat it, in a huge crock and sometimes had pickles in a crock in the cellar.  Although I don't do that I do remember pounding cabbage and waiting for it to ferment enough to can.  For most us now crocks are largely decorative and are not used for food processing.

It is interesting to research how and when things were made and where they were produced.  For us it is keeping the history alive that keeps us looking for the next piece of pottery.  It has been a fairly quiet summer on the collecting front, it is not that we were not looking just that we never saw anything.  For a change this year we traveled into eastern Canada and I was surprised to not see anything other than an odd crock or Gaylord piece in any of the dozens of antique/flea markets we went to.

The photos in the blog today are the main books I use for reference material and I have notes written in them and marks beside certain information...they are well used.  Ron Getty has several books that are sometimes available at the Museum in Medicine Hat and the book by Richard and Jean Symonds I think I actually found on an online auction site.  We don't collect lamps but there is also a book available that has lamp information.

There have been many people that have also been a great resource for us and we cannot thank them enough.  Although many collectors are helpful there are lots of collectors that are fairly silent and do not share information easily, it takes time to meet them and build a rapport. 

I have added a couple pieces that we picked up early in the summer.  As fall is upon us there is a whole new set of antique show and sales for us to check out and keep us out of trouble, once winter gets here and it gets cold I just may hibernate until spring. 

Here is a blog for everyone to check out:  http://www.editingluke.net/2019/09/clay-creativity-comeback-documentary.html

Until next time.....happy hunting!

And the Search Continues......

Photo Blog.....

It has been a busy summer, or at least it feels to me like it has been a busy summer.  We made a couple road trips and loaded the car on both trips which meant that we had to clear out some other things to make room for new things.

We added some Medalta Pottery, Medicine Hat Potteries, Albert Potteries, Athabasca Pottery as well as one piece of New Medalta Ceramics.  Can you tell which one is the New Medalta Ceramics piece?

That is enough words for this blog, next month should have more words and less photos!

This piece looks like a pie plate to me, much to the amusement of a friend.

Medalta Potteries

When we first started collecting Medalta I had read about the other companies and seen other stamps from the other potteries but rather naively referred to them all as "Medalta".  The more I read and researched and talked to people the more I learned and before too long was able to recognize pieces from the different potteries by the shape, decoration and color.  There are some of the styles that did transition form one pottery company to another company through the staff that moved from one pottery to another.

Medalta Potteries' Factory

1912-1914:  Medicine Hat Pottery Company Limited
1915-1924:  Medalta Stoneware Limited
1924-1954:  Medalta Potteries Limited
1958:           New Medalta Ceramics
1960-1966:  Sunburst Ceramics Limited


Clark's Factory

1916-1922:  Gas City Pottery Limited
1922-1924:  Canada Pottery

Alberta Potteries' Factory

1931-1936:  Alberta Potteries Limited (Jesse W. Wyatt)
1936-1938:  Alberta Potteries Limited (Perry and Matuska)
1936:           Provincial Industrial Enterprise or P.I.E.
1941-1966:  Albert Potteries Limited ( J. Harlon Yuill)
1966-1986:  Medalta Potteries (1966) Limited

 

Medicine Hat Potteries' Factory

1938-1955:  Medicine Hat Potteries
1955-1989:  Hycroft China Limited

These links have some great information:
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17142/22847

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17156/22857

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17062/22922

Summer has finally started to show its face in our part of the world and we are planning to enjoy the sunshine and green grass while we can.  Of course we will also do a little hunting to see what we can find!  Happy hunting........

And the Search Continues.......

Another Little Known Alberta Pottery Company

Provincial Industrial Enterprises (P.I.E.) 1939 is a pottery company from Medicine Hat that operated for a very short time, before Hop Yuill took over Wyatt's Alberta Potteries Limited the plant was occupied by P.I.E.

There is not much information available about this company as it appears no one has done much research to this point in time, perhaps because it was short lived there is not a whole lot of interest in the company or perhaps there is not much information to be found on the company.  What ever the reason there is very little information to be found.

P.I.E. starting operating in 1939 for a short time and produced a number of items including vases, jardinieres, bulb bowls, cream pitcher and sugar bowl and a mixing bowl just to name a few.  Some of the pieces were decorated with the Dutch Windmill scene, others a sailboat scene.

No one knows why the company was so short lived and if the records survived no one knows who has them or where they may be.  Either way the P.I.E. pieces are difficult to find and often will show up in the strangest of places and without research not many people know the significance of the pottery.

In the "Kilns of South Eastern Alberta" the author Ron Getty states:  "Whatever the reasons there is no doubt in my mind that this small factory could not effectively compete with the two larger ones in Medicine Hat.  Its product line was not different enough from Medalta's or Medicine Hat Potteries' to fill a niche in the market.  So after being open for less than a year, they closed."

It is interesting to note that many of the vase styles were made by Medalta,  Medicine Hat Potteries and P.I.E.  There have been vases found in collections that have had stamps from two different companies and decorated in a style usually found by a third company.  Medicine Hat, although a good sized city, had a closely knit pottery production occupying different factories and producing products similar to each other, often with the employees from one pottery moving to work in a different one.  Perhaps this is why the companies have similar  styles or perhaps it is molds left behind when one company closed and another one took over the factory, we may never know for certain.  It is these things that keep us interested and always looking to find pieces, talking to people and doing some traveling.

We only have two pieces of P.I.E. in our collection and in both cases we were very fortunate to find them in good condition, although the painting one on is quite faded.  It has been fun looking for other pieces to add.

Here is a webpage with more information:   https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17156/22857

Once again the photos are pieces in our collection, I have also included photos of the stamps on each piece.

And the Search Continues.....

Medalta Vases and Decorations

Today's blog is more photos than written text.  Medalta made many different styles of vases in many different colors, glazes and decorations over the years.  The photos are all pieces in our collection and I know there are many more out there and probably still some that have yet to be found. 

The real fun in collecting is the time we spend looking and the many people we have met along the way.  I am always amazed at how quickly people you meet in the collecting/antique world begin to feel like friends.  They may live far away or they be located closer but conversation is always robust and free flowing talking about many and varied things including the things we collect.  The stories about where and how different pieces were found and stories about the one got away are interesting and sometimes quite funny.  It is always fun to have other collectors come for a visit and poke around to see what they can find in corners. 

We very much enjoy the search for the elusive piece that we don't even know we want until we see it.  Then we get it home and on the shelf it goes and we look at it in awe for a few weeks and then it is on to the next piece. 

Vase No. 104 made in 7, 10, 12, 15, 18 and 24 inch sizes, produced in 1930-??

                         

                             


                           Vase No. 107 made in 10.25 inches sizes, produced 1931-1933

          
                                         

Vase No. 101,  11 inches, Vase No. 102, 9.75 inches, Vase No. 103  9 inches, all produced from 1931-??.  Not all sizes are pictured here.



  Lake Louise #101                                                                Vase No. 63, 8", 1936-??

                                                       











   Vase No. 105, 9.75", 1931-1933                              Vase No. 106, 9.75", 1931-1932


                                                                                   











 Vase No. 112, 11.5", produced 1931-1934                                        Vase No. 101

                                                                     














Vase 105                                                                      Vase No. 111, 9.5", 1931-1934

                                                                         

It has been a journey that has been so much fun to find all these pieces and bring them home.  I often wonder what they would have to say about their life so far if they could tell the story.  I am amazed at how well some of the vases have been cared for in the last 70-80 years as there are lots of them with very little paint lose and there are some the bumps and bruises that happens with use and age.

Until next time.....

                             And the Search Continues....