Ceramic Pitcher
Abingdon Pottery
Abingdon Pottery as artware was produced for only 17 years from 1934 through 1950. Art pottery was produced by The Abingdon Sanitary Manufacturing Company of Abingdon, Illinois, as a way of supplementing lagging production of its main line of products – plumbing fixtures – during The Great Depression.
The artware ceased being produced once production had again ramped up for plumbing fixtures in the post- World War II housing boom. At that time, the company, re-named in 1945 to Abingdon Potteries, Inc. and still located in the town of Abingdon in rural Illinois, was sold to Briggs Manufacturing in 1951.
The original company dates to 1908. With the rise of indoor plumbing, Abingdon pioneered some of the first colored fixtures and self-ventilating toilets in the 1920’s. The company was led much of the time by president Raymond E. Bidwell. The Chicago World’s Fair chose Abingdon fixtures exclusively for its facilities in 1933.
It was in that time frame that the company decided to explore the design and manufacture of art pottery. Designer Frances Moody, engineer Leslie Moody, and designer Eric Herslet are credited for making this new product line a success.
Another company president, John M. Lewis, held that the products should exhibit an appeal based solely upon their looks and functionality – not based upon the fame or reputation of any designer. He also saw to it that production of any particular design was limited in number, thus adding to collector value later on. A surprisingly large number of Abingdon pottery designs are original, and not direct copies of others.
Abingdon art pottery featured art deco and some classical design. The glazed colors of pink, blue, green, and grey were commonplace on such items as vases, bowls, ash trays, cookie jars, pitchers, urns, book ends, and even chess pieces.
Most were marked “ABINGDON USA” in ink on the bottoms. In addition, they usually had mold numbers stamped into the surfaces. Edges around the bottoms were often ground, and some surviving pieces still exhibit their original foil stickers from the manufacturer. Genuine Abingdon pottery is almost as translucent as hard-paste porcelain (although it is decidedly not porcelain), and light-weight.
The same durability as was known for its plumbing ceramics was present in the company’s art ceramics. Georgia clay, South Dakota feldspar, and Illinois silica, were glazed with nearly 200 varieties and colors. Most valuable were the multi-colored pieces and those that featured hand painting (begun in the 1940’s). Certain pieces of the “Fire Red” color, which is more orange in color than red, are also deemed valuable.
It is the density and durability that sets Abingdon pottery apart from subsequent creations by Japanese and other sources. The fine quality of the heavy and dense vitreous clay resists hairline cracks and breakage. Abingdon glazes, however, were sometimes prone to crazing.
In all, over 6 million art pottery pieces were created. First sold in gift shops, Abingdon pottery was eventually marketed in fine department stores of the era, such as Gimbals, Marshall Field, and Wanamaker’s. Today, Abingdon pottery is highly collectible and also found in a number of museums in the Midwest.
About the Author
Lawrence R. Bell is Editor for The Antiques Bible at
Abingdon Pottery
. The Antiques Bible is an illustrated glossary of antique terms with helpful links to related resources.
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