Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, US from 1934 to 1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) from 1962 to 1979, and Wedgwood from 1979 to 1983. Wedgwood closed the Los Angeles plant, and moved the production of dinnerware to England in 1983. Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood in 1986, becoming Waterford Wedgwood. KPS Capital Partners acquired all of the holdings of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009. The Franciscan brand became part of a group of companies known as WWRD, an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." WWRD continues to produce the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple.
Trade names were Franciscan Pottery, Franciscan Ware, and Franciscan for dinnerware products. Trade names for tile products were Gladding, McBean, Interpace, Hermosa, Terra Tile, and Contours Tile. Ceramic production included terracotta garden ware, earthenware tableware & art ware, porcelain tableware & art ware, stoneware tableware, stoneware and earthenware tile. Currently only the trade name Franciscan is used by WWRD for tabletop products.
Gladding, McBean & Co.
Beginning in 1875, as a partnership between Charles Gladding, Peter McGill McBean, and George Chambers, Gladding, McBean & Co. would expand from one factory in Lincoln, California to multiple manufacturing plants throughout the Pacific West Coast producing clay products from sewer pipe to architectural terracotta.
In 1927, Gladding, McBean & Co. consolidated with Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company solidifying the primacy of Gladding, McBean & Co. as the largest terra cotta manufacturer west of the Mississippi. Gladding, McBean & Co. retained ceramic engineer Max Compton from the former Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company's plant in Santa Monica California. Compton, a 1922 graduate of Alfred University, studied under Charles F. Binns. In 1929, Compton was sent to the company's Lincoln plant to work on glazes and shortly thereafter became the plant's superintendent of the terracotta department. Compton would return to Los Angeles in 1937 to work in the glaze laboratory.
In the economic collapse of 1929, Gladding, McBean & Co. saw its revenue decreasing due to the lack of new construction, which was the main source of the demand for its ceramic products: roofing tile, sewer pipe, architectural terracotta, and brick. To offset the loss of revenues from the sales of ceramic building materials, the company began the manufacture of earthenware dinnerware and art ware in 1933 in the former Tropico Potteries factory. Tropico Potteries was acquired by the company in 1923. The forty acre pottery, located at 2901 Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, bordered the city of Glendale. Gladding, McBean & Co. had two plant facilities in Los Angeles, so the former Tropico pottery was named the Glendale plant.
1934–1939 In 1934, Gladding, McBean & Co. hired Frederic J. Grant as a vice-president and the new Glendale dinnerware division's plant manager. Frederic, a chemical engineer, had retired as president of the Weller Pottery Company in Ohio, selling off his interest in the company. After becoming tired of touring around the country as a well known amateur golfer, he made up his mind to become active in business again. Mary K. Grant, prior to her marriage to Frederic, was the art director at R. H. Macy Co. in New York City. The company agreed to have Mary Grant style the pottery lines of tableware and art ware; however at this time she would not hold an official position.
The tableware and art ware lines, including Coronado, were produced in solid color glazes. Three other Southern California companies were already in production of solid colored dinnerware: J. A. Bauer Pottery Co., Pacific Clay Products Co., and Catalina Clay Products Division of Santa Catalina Island Co. Laboratory testing on the three competitive dinnerware lines revealed all three crazed in an autoclave test.
Gladding, McBean & Co.’s ware would be produced in a new patented earthenware clay body known as Malinite. Dr. Andrew Malinovsky developed the high talc one-fire body using an amorphous flux in 1928 for Gladding, McBean & Co. Malinite was developed for use in the production of one-fire clay tile; however the company made the decision to use Malinite for their dinnerware production. By using the Malinite and adjusting the kiln temperature for a one fire process, the company solved the crazing problem in their own product. Glaze was applied to the unfired body, and the glaze and body matured together in the kiln, saving the company the time and expense of separate biscuit firing for the body. For the new line of pottery, Gladding, McBean & Co. decided to use Prouty tunnel kilns. The Prouty tunnel kiln patents were acquired in the purchase of the West Coast holdings of the American Encaustic Tiling Company in 1933. Prouty tunnel kilns allowed for the continuous flow of ware through the kiln to fire pottery. Thus the plant “combined mills, jiggering units, conveyors, dryers and kilns into a model of straight line output.”
After the successful introduction of Franciscan Ware to Gladding, McBean & Co.’s products, Mary K. Grant in 1936 became a paid employee as Lead Stylist and Manager of the Glendale plant’s design department. Mary Grant designed many of the shapes and patterns for Franciscan Ware. The company also purchased shape and pattern designs from contract designers, which would either be used or adapted by Mary Grant for use in the various Franciscan Ware lines of dinnerware and art ware. The popular Coronada tableware with its distinctive swirl pattern and "sculptural feel" was introduced in1937. To sell and market the dinnerware, the company first used the trade name of Franciscan Pottery. Later deciding the word “pottery” denoted an inferior product, the company changed the trade name to Franciscan Ware.
In 1937, Max Compton transferred from Gladding, McBean & Co.’s Lincoln Plant to the Glendale Plant to work on Franciscan Ware glazes, and by 1939 he took over the development the company’s glazes for all of their ceramic products. In an article for Popular Ceramics, Norris Leap wrote, “He produced glazes for art ware that possibly never could have been equaled by either moderns or ancients … One of them is an oxblood red used on large decorative bowls and vases. He experimented with that glaze in odd moments over a period of a dozen or fifteen years. The color comes out in the kiln. By control of heat he controlled the behavior of the coloring. Another unique glaze he produced was a Persian blue, a turquoise blue with pebble effect. Those were just two glazes of thousands he produced.”
Gladding, McBean & Co. acquired Catalina Clay Products on Catalina Island in 1937. Production of Catalina pottery was moved to the Glendale plant with the shapes being integrated into the company's art ware and dinnerware lines. Gladding, McBean & Co. continued to use the trademark Catalina Pottery for art wares.
1940–1951
In 1940, the Gladding, McBean & Co. introduced their first hand-painted embossed earthenware dinnerware line Franciscan Apple, and shortly thereafter in 1941, Desert Rose. Apple was adapted from the embossed pattern Zona, produced by the Weller Pottery Company of Ohio. Desert Rose was based on a pattern design by contract designer Annette Honeywell. Desert Rose would become one of Gladding, McBean & Co.’s bestselling dinnerware lines.
In 1942, after three years of experimentation, Gladding, McBean & Co. entered the fine china market with 14 patterns. The china was considered to have a medium to high cost. The glaze for the fine china line was developed by Max Compton with the shapes and patterns designed by Mary K. Grant, the design staff, and by contract designers.
In 1942, World War II curtailed the introduction of new dinnerware lines and shapes. The Company continued to produce ware already in production, however discontinued all art ware lines. After World War II, the Southern California ceramic industry was booming. From garages to industrial plant facilities, pottery was being made to satisfy demand from the decline of imports from Europe and Japan. Competitors and the biggest potteries in Southern California were Gladding, McBean & Company, J. A. Bauer Pottery Co., Vernon Kilns, and Metlox Potteries.
In 1948, the Company introduced Encanto, a new line of Franciscan fine china designed by Mary Grant. Encanto was introduced in a clear glaze, with or without platinum or gold banding. Encanto, in a clear glaze without banding, was chosen for The Museum of Modern Art 1951 Good Design Exhibition in New York. Also in 1948 the Company introduced Franciscan Ivy, a hand-painted embossed dinnerware pattern. Franciscan Ivy was designed and carved by Mary Jane Winans, a contract designer.
1952–1954
In 1952, a great change was occurring in the direction of the Gladding, McBean & Co., Atholl McBean, president from 1923 to 1938 and chairman of the board since 1938, decided to retire as Chairman though remaining on the board of directors. During his fifty four years of service, Atholl guided the company to a position of being one of the most important ceramic companies in the United States. Also in the fall of 1952, Frederic and Mary Grant resigned from Gladding, McBean & Co.
With a new president and chairman of the board, the company reorganized. A. Lee Bennett became vice president of the newly formed research and development division at the Glendale plant carrying out the company policy of product diversification to maintain its trade position. Under Bennett, Max Compton would continue as chief glaze ceramic engineer and a new design department was created with Mary Jane Winans as the chief designer and stylist. Joining Winans in the newly formed design department were George T. James and Otto Lund. The tile department was managed and headed by Sheridan “Sherry” Stanton, son of architect J.E. Stanton architect of Honnold Library for the Associated Colleges at Claremont. Gladding, McBean & Co. continued to produce their trademarked Franciscan Hermosa tile products at the Glendale plant.
Mary Jane Winans graduated with a degree in Design and Decorative Arts from the Vancouver School of Art, Vancouver B.C. She taught at Vancouver School of Art for two years. Winans became a dinnerware decorator for three years in the decorating department of Gladding, McBean & Co.’s Glendale plant. After her employment as a decorator, Winans worked as a freelance industrial designer in the ceramic industry in the Los Angeles area for twelve years. As a freelance designer for Gladding, McBean & Co., she designed the embossed hand-painted dinnerware patterns Franciscan Ivy and California Poppy. Also she modeled and carved the shapes for the embossed dinnerware patterns Franciscan Apple, Desert Rose, Franciscan Ivy, and California Poppy. George T. James, an Alfred University graduate hired by Gladding, McBean & Co. in 1950 as a ceramic engineer was promoted to the design department. James, an admitted devotee of the Bauhaus movement, sought to bring this aesthetic to his design work. Otto Lund emigrated from Denmark in 1947. He was a pattern designer by trade and prior to his employment at Gladding, McBean & Co. he was the former director of Castleton China's design and decorating department. Lund's mastery was in the painting of flora and fauna, and he used this mastery in designing patterns for the Franciscan fine china lines. Besides designing surface patterns, Lund designed and participated in the development of dinnerware shapes.