Bauer Indian Bowl with unusual stamped marks to bottom. early. Great condition.. circa 1915-1940. Bowl measures 9″ x 14″.

Bauer Pottery, strictly speaking J.A. Bauer Pottery, was an American pottery founded in Paducah, Kentucky, however operating for most of its life in Los Angeles, California.

In 1885, J. A. Bauer bought out Frank Parham’s Paducah Pottery in Paducah, Kentucky, a pottery whose main products were brown-glazed, hand-thrown wares including crocks and jugs. J.A. Bauer moved his family to Los Angeles in early 1909, and selected a new site for a pottery. J.A. Bauer Pottery Company was built at 415-421 West Avenue 33 in Lincoln Heights, an area between Los Angeles and Pasadena, California. The first products were the same products J.A. Bauer produced in Paducah. Demand from the nursery trade added new products to the pottery’s wares including flower pots, garden ware, and planters.

Louis Ipsen was hired around 1912 as a designer, adding fancy redware items to the pottery lines. Matterson (Matt) Carlton, an accomplished turner, joined the company producing hand-thrown vases, rose jars, and carnation vases for the nursery trade. In 1922, J. A. Bauer retired and in 1923 died. One third of the company was sold to his daughter Eve, and her husband Watson E. Bockman.  In 1929 W. E. Bockman bought out his partners and became president of the company. Bockman hired ceramic engineer Victor F. Houser to develop new glazes. “The introduction of Houser’s brilliant new colors on Ipsen’s dishes proved a momentous event.”. Around 1930, Bauer Pottery introduced California Colored Pottery. By 1933, the company added ruffled or “ring” dishes. In 1934, Fred Johnson, Matt Carlton’s nephew and an accomplished hand-thrower formerly with the Niloak Pottery in Benton, Arkansas, joined the company. Fred Johnson added new shapes to Bauer Pottery’s table and art ware lines.

In 1938, Bauer Pottery sought to expand their market to the East coast by purchasing, and converting to a pottery, an old winery in Atlanta, Georgia. W. E. Bockman died before Bauer Atlanta was opened. John Herbert (Herb) Brutsche took over management of the Atlanta plant, and James (Jim) Bockman became the Los Angeles plant’s general manager. A line of art ware produced in the Atlanta plant was designed by industrial designer Russel Wright in 1945. In 1962, Bauer Pottery ceased operations.

Today, Bauer ware has been reintroduced by a ceramics studio in Los Angeles, located just minutes from the original plant.  The new Bauer line, Bauer 2000,  is being produced using original pieces as models, with an emphasis on items originally manufactured by Bauer in the 1930s and 40s. The colors of the original Bauer however remain unmatched.

SOLD.