Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive,

Manhattan Beach, California Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast south of El Segundo, California, El Segundo, west of Hawthorne, California, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach, California, Red ...

. The pottery factory closed in 1989.

History

Metlox Pottery was founded in 1927 by Theodor C. Prouty and his son Willis Prouty, originally as a producer of outdoor ceramic signs. After the death of T.C. in 1931, Willis renamed the company Metlox Pottery ("Metlox" is a combination of "metal" and "oxide," a reference to the glaze pigments), and began producing

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 ...

. The Metlox Manufacturing Company was incorporated 5 October 1933. Evan K. Shaw, of American Pottery in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, purchased Metlox from Willis Prouty in 1946.History of Metlox Pottery
retrieved 2010-06-11 After Shaw's death in 1980, Kenneth Avery became the president of Metlox. The first line of

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 ...

produced, "Poppytrail," became well known for its brightly colored glazes derived from locally mined metallic oxides. Subsequent lines included "Nostalgia," "Red Rooster," "California Provincial," "Colonial Homestead," "Homestead Provincial," and "Colorstax." In the 1950s Metlox introduced a line of modernist dinnerware featuring free form designs and squared plates using "blanks" that were then decorated with designs and colors. These were then marketed under the pattern names of "California Contempra", "California Modern" and "California Freeform" names. Besides kitchenware, Metlox also produced a very popular line of large ceramic horses and carriages in the 1950s.

Carl Romanelli Carl Romanelli is an American sculptor noted for his many outdoor sculptures of famous people. Romanelli was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is a seventh-generation sculptor, and his family is so well known in Italy that a museum t ...

designed vases,

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 media, with cl ...

s and miniatures for Metlox. A line of collectible ceramic people planters called "Poppets," designed by studio potter Helen Slater, were produced starting in 1970. In March 1971, the FDA announced a recall of 400,000 pieces of Metlox pottery due to high lead content in the pottery glaze. One individual was suspected to have been poisoned. The company voluntarily recalled their California Poppytrail Tempo and Mission Verde Series; with a portion of their Petalburst Metlox Vernonware Series. The remainder of Metlox's pottery did not present lead leaching. Metlox's incorporation was terminated on 4 January 1988. The pottery factory closed in 1989 after 62 years of operation. Metlox's former site is now occupied by Shade Hotel and other businesses. After the pottery closed, lead and other byproducts of the pottery-making process remained on the plant property at Manhattan Beach Boulevard and Valley Drive. The city estimated remediation would take about 2 years with the cost to be collected from the property owners or having the site put on a State or Federal cleanup list."Poisoned Past: Metal Waste Contaminates Site of Closed Pottery Factory in Manhattan Beach", by Paul Feldman, Times Staff Writer, June 21, 1989

References

External links

Metlox-Poppytrail-Vernonware History
Kitchenware brands Companies based in California Ceramics manufacturers of the United States Manhattan Beach, California Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links