Even though most of the best-known are no longer operating, the sheer number of potteries born in California could well have made it the ceramic capitol of America. The earliest California company was Pacific Clay Products, founded as early as 1892, but even it didn’t begin making figurines until the early 1930s. While it’s the oldest, Pacific Clay is also one of the few potteries still open in that state today.

Pottery is distinguished from porcelain and other ceramics by appearance and manufacturer. Generally speaking, pottery is heavier and more opaque than porcelain and tends also to be visually distinct from porcelain. It has been said that porcelain “allows the light to pass through it,” but I haven’t found that distinction to be especially helpful (perhaps except for dinnerware) as most figurines and vases tend to be too dense and solid for light to pass through them.

The Big Names in Figural California Pottery

Among the California potteries that made at least some figurines were Metlox Manufacturing, Kay Finch, and Sasha Brastoff. But the best known of the figural potters were Freeman-McFarlin, Hagen-Renaker, and Josef Originals.

Freeman-McFarlin Pottery, named for its owners Maynard Anthony Freeman and Gerald McFarlin, operated from 1951 through 1980 (when it was sold to Hagen-Renaker, which operated it until 1985). Among Freeman McFarland’s most iconic and easily identifiable models are its cats, from the very large to the quite tiny. Characterized by large ears and eyes, a few of these were designed by Maynard Anthony Freeman, sometimes identified by the name “Anthony” in the impressed mark.

Larger Freeman McFarlin cat models were sometimes gilded entirely in gold, while others had a more natural glaze. The smaller models were sometimes made as bobble heads.

Hagen-Renaker was founded in 1944 and is one of the few California potteries still operating today. It is perhaps best known for its miniature animal models. Retail price points on its miniature animals are accessible to a child’s pocketbook at $3-$5 for many of those models, and even the more expensive of them can cost as little as $15-$20. Larger models can sell anywhere from $50 to a few hundred dollars. H-R had an entire stable of talented artists working for it. In addition to animal figurines, H-R also made some wonderful bird models.

Many of the most desirable Hagen-Renaker figurines can now be found only on the secondary market. For example, H-R made several models commissioned by the Walt Disney Co., including a tiny Thumper figurine, issued in fall 1956 and closed in spring 1960, that I bought at an antique shop for $2. Designed by Helen Perrin Farnlund, it can be priced as high as $65 to a seller who recognizes it.

Some Hagen-Renaker figurines have been counterfeited (for example, the miniature spotted fawn reclining model with big eyes made at HR in 1949-52 and 1965), and it can be difficult to authenticate them if they are separated from the cardboard H-R tags glued to their underside at retail sale. As the genuine versions of copied H-R models generally retail for less than $10 on the secondary market, it may be that these were copies made by hobbyists for their own use rather than by counterfeiters for profit.

Although it is perhaps best known for its small ceramic doll models, Josef Originals, in business from 1946 to 1985, also made some small miniature animals and birds. Among them is a series of cartoon brown mouse models in various positions and holding various objects. These cuties can be found on the secondary market for $10 or less apiece.

In May, we celebrate Mother’s Day, not just for human moms but for birds – and not just feathered birds on twigged and grassy nests but moulded birds on glassy nests! In my last column, I shared a photo of my Caramel Slag Westmoreland hen on its nest. I thought I’d continue exploring that nesting theme in my article for this month’s column.

Birds and animals on nests were produced by a variety of companies, going at least as far back as the 19th century. Some of these seem odd to those of us with actual farming backgrounds since most of us never saw real animals, such as a cow, lambs, rabbits, cats, dogs – and even a frog – sitting on nests, so I’ll stick to the birds for this article!

Many older glass companies, most of them no longer working, made hens or other birds on nests, notably Atterbury, Westmoreland, Fenton, Imperial, and Indiana. There are a few examples of the form from even older companies, such as Coudersport Glass in Pennsylvania (in business for only four years, 1900-1904), whose operations were cut short, often by factory fires. Birds on nests were also made by newer glass companies, such as Summit Art Glass (founded in 1972 and closed in 2006), Boyd’s Crystal Art Glass (founded in 1978 and closed in 2014), and Mosser Glass (still very much alive and operating in Cambridge, OH, and still using some of the old methods of producing decorative glass).

Fenton appears to have been the most prolific maker of hens on nest, usually coming out with them annually for the company’s spring catalogs. In fact, until recently, I’ve avoided many of the hens on nest because I really wanted to focus my collection on Fenton glass (in order to have living space for myself!) and didn’t trust myself to be able to distinguish older, unmarked Fenton versions rom those produced by other companies. Then I was alerted to the existence of an online source that allows one to distinguish even the older, unmarked Fenton from those of other makers (www.fentonaddict.com/FeaturesandCharacteristics.html). This site has a lot of information, and it can be tough to distill from it the essential differences between Fenton hens and those made by other companies, so I’ll review some of the most obvious differences here.

• The Fenton hen’s tail is smooth at the rear edge and splits into a sharp inverted “V” at the back (Other makers’ hens have scalloped edges to the tail feathers).
• A pair of eggs appears on each side of the front of the Fenton hen with one egg on both sides at the rear.
• The comb on the Fenton hen has a cluster of round balls in the back that continue into a recognizable comb at the front (although I do have a Westmoreland hen on nest with the same feature).
• The eyes on Fenton hens tend to be large with a pronounced outward bulge.

Moulded Glass

One of the challenges in collecting American art glass is identifying the maker, given the amount of mould swapping that took place between companies. This usually happened when a glass company went out of business and remaining companies acquired their moulds at auction. For example, a Kokomo (in business 1900-1905 and named for its Indiana town) Paneled Grape Creamer was made later by Westmoreland and a version was also sold by retailer LG Wright, for whom many companies produced glass.

For early 20th century glassmakers such as Fenton, Atterbury, Indiana, and others, glass moulds were made of cast iron, so buying and transporting them from one company to another was no easy feat. For example, the mould to make Fenton’s “Alley Cat” weighs 250 pounds – and that was one of the lighter ones! The 11” Alley Cat began its life with U.S. [Tiffin] Glass in the 1930s and was named “Sassie Susan.” Tiffin made it in two colors, black and white. Fenton acquired the mould from U.S. Glass in the mid-1960s and brought out its first Alley Cat in 1970, since made in numerous colors.

In researching this article, I found out that the smaller Happy Cat mould, today owned by the Fenton Art Glass Collectors of America [FAGCA], also began its life with Tiffin,* which made it in cold-painted black. I have also seen the mould for Fenton’s Donkey and Cart attributed both to U.S. [Tiffin] Glass and Duncan & Miller, but I’m skeptical of the Tiffin attribution because it seems to have a pony drawing the wagon vs the long, forward projecting ears of the donkey in the Duncan & Miller and Fenton versions.

Sometimes, mould swapping would involve more than two companies. For example, the Fenton Butterfly Box (model #6940) originated with Verlys, then passed to Hollophane before being acquired by Fenton, whose first production of it was around 2005.

Acquiring a mould didn’t necessarily mean success in using it. An example is the large Chanticleer rooster (model #5077) that began its life from a Fostoria mould in the 1950s before it was acquired by Fenton in 2004. Fenton experienced some of the same problems Fostoria did with this gorgeous but elaborate model: the tails simply didn’t want to come out of the mould without breaking. Glass formula didn’t seem to make a difference; Fostoria’s milk glass version had the same problems as Fenton’s Periwinkle Blue version, and Fenton never tried the model again.

Since the closing of its factory, the Fenton family has retained several of its moulds, occasionally renting them out to other glassmakers such as John and Ann Fenton (not related to the Fenton factory family) in Springfield, MO. While that company at first borrowed moulds from Fenton to make glass from Fenton cullet, John also makes his own glass models and Ann is a glass painter.