Frankoma Pottery is an American

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

company located in

Glenpool, Oklahoma Glenpool is a city in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area (TMSA). As of 2020, the population was 14,040, which represented an increase of 29.9% since the 2010 census, which reported the to ...

. The company is known for its

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

dinnerware Tableware is any dish or dishware used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. It includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, and other items for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of obj ...

although the company made many other products including

figurines A figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many medi ...

, trivets, and

vases A vase ( or ) is an open container. It can be made from a number of materials, such as ceramics, glass, non-rusting metals, such as aluminium, brass, bronze, or stainless steel. Even wood has been used to make vases, either by using tree species ...

. All Frankoma pottery is made in the US from locally excavated

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

History

Frankoma was founded in 1933 in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

, by John Frank, who was a professor of ceramics at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

from 1927 to 1936. The name Frankoma was derived from "Frank" plus the last three letters of "Oklahoma". Frank moved the company to Sapulpa in 1938, but rebuilt the factory later that year after a fire. Frankoma used light-hued local

Ada Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

clay in its early products. The light clay was replaced by a Sapulpa OK based brick-red local clay in 1953. John Frank operated the pottery with his wife Grace Lee Frank until his death in 1973. The factory was rebuilt in 1984 after a September 1983 fire destroyed most of the facility. The company filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy protection in 1990. The Frank's daughter Joniece ran the pottery until 1991 when she was forced to sell the struggling company. The buyer, Richard Bernstein of Maryland, resold the business in 2005 to Det Merryman. The company was closed for six weeks and then sold again during the summer of 2008, reopening on August 18 under new owner Joe Ragosta. Ragosta planned to bring back all the employees and continue the Frankoma line of pottery. The year 2008 marked the company's 75-year anniversary. The company closed in 2010 and was auctioned on May 18, 2011. Over a thousand pieces of pottery plus showroom fixtures and equipment were sold. The 1,800 original molds and the Frankoma name were not included in the sale, nor was the real estate. In August 2012, the factory building was sold to a non-pottery manufacturer and the original Frankoma molds and trademark name were sold to FPC LLC. As of April 2020, pottery continued to be made but in lower volume, focused on artware. The 2012 exhibition, ''Oklahoma Clay: Frankoma Pottery'', documented Oklahoma culture through pottery; it took place at the

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Overview The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art holds over 20,000 objects in its permanent collection. The museum c ...

. In November of 2022, Frankoma opened a new manufacturing site and storefront in

. Owner Dennis Glascock constructed the facility in hopes of exposing more people to the company’s products and revitalizing the program.

References

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External links

Official website

Ceramics manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Oklahoma Design companies established in 1933 U.S. Route 66 in Oklahoma 1933 establishments in Oklahoma

History

See also

References

External links