Hadley Pottery is an American-based

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 ...

and

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refracto ...

company started by Mary Alice Hadley and her husband George E. Hadley in 1945. It is located on Story Avenue in the Butchertown neighborhood of

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

History

Hadley Pottery had its inception in 1939, when Mary Alice Hadley made a custom set of dishware for a cruiser she and her husband George Hadley had on the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. She created her own design with a nautical flag motif and painted it on unfired blanks that she fired at the Louisville Pottery Co. When friends saw the design of her dishes, they were interested in purchasing dishes of their own, so Hadley created a few more at the Louisville Pottery Co. With more interest and demand, the Hadleys finally purchased what became the Hadley Pottery building at 1570 Story Ave. in Louisville in October 1944 as a birthday present for Mrs. Hadley. Mrs. Hadley painted all of the murals on the walls of the building and the Hadley Pottery opened for business in 1945. Hadley created a wide range of designs for the company, often inspired by Louisville motifs such as the

fleur-de-lis The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

. After Mary Alice Hadley died in 1965, nine painters continued to hand-paint pieces which are still signed "M.A. Hadley". In 1979 Kenneth Moore bought Hadley Pottery, and then in 2018 Jerry Day purchased the business and opened up a stash of over 6000 pieces which date to the period when Mary Alice Hadley was still alive. In 2022, the business announced it would close, but later announced that the business would indeed stay open.

Awards

Hadley Pottery was exhibited by the American Craftsmen's Educational Council in 1947, and at the Ceramic National Exhibit at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts. In 1952, Mary Alice Hadley received an award from the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

's Good Design program and her winning design, "Brown Dot" (or "Hot Brown Fleck"), was exhibited in New York and Chicago.

Collections

* Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana *

Speed Art Museum The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed by locals, is the oldest and largest art museum in Kentucky. It was established in 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky on Third Street ...

, Louisville, Kentucky File:Mary alice hadley per hadley pottery, piatti, 1952-55, 01 faccia.jpg, Mary Alice Hadley Ceramics at the

File:Mary alice hadley per hadley pottery, piatti, 1952-55, 02.jpg, Mary Alice Hadley Ceramics at the

References

External links

Official company website

An example of the "Brown Fleck" design in the Speed Museum collection

The Mary Alice Hadley Prize for Visual Art

Mary Alice Hadley Obituary, Louisville, Courier-Journal

History

Awards

Collections

References

External links

See also