Vernon Kilns was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 ceramic company in Vernon, California

Vernon, California

Vernon is a city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, California. The population was 112 at the 2010 United States Census, the smallest of any incorporated city in the state....

. In 1931, Faye G. Bennison purchased the former Poxon China pottery. Poxon China was located at 2300 East 52nd Street. Vernon produced ceramic tableware, art ware, giftware, and figurines. Vernon Kilns was one of the "Big Five" California potteries

California pottery

California pottery is pottery produced in the northern and southern portions of the U.S. state of California. Production includes brick, sewer pipe, architectural terra cotta, tile, garden ware, tableware, kitchenware, art ware, figurines, giftware, and ceramics for industrial use...

. The other "Big Five" potteries were Metlox Manufacturing Company

Metlox Pottery

Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California. It was founded in 1927 by T. C. Prouty and his son Willis Prouty, originally as a producer of outdoor ceramic signs. After the...

, Pacific Clay Products, Gladding, McBean & Co

Gladding, McBean

Gladding, McBean, LLC is a ceramics company located in Lincoln, California. It is one of the oldest companies in California, a pioneer in ceramics technology, and a company which has "contributed immeasurably" to the state's industrialization...

., and J.A. Bauer Pottery

Bauer Pottery

Bauer Pottery, strictly speaking J.A. Bauer Pottery, was an American pottery founded in Paducah, Kentucky, however operating for most of its life in Los Angeles, California.-History:In 1885, J. A...

.

History

After the purchase of Poxon China 1931, Vernon Kilns under Faye Bennison's direction continued to sell and produce Poxon China's patterns, using decals for the surface patterns until 1933 when an earthquake destroyed all remaining Poxon China ware stock. Vernon Kilns first solid color dinnerware in vivid bright colors was Early California.

In the 1930s, an art ware department was created. Jane Bennison, daughter of Faye Bennison, May & Vieve Hamilton and Harry Bird became designers for Vernon's dinnerware and art ware. In 1936, Gale Turnbull was hired as the art director. Contract designers and artists were hired to create tableware and art ware. Rockwell Kent

Rockwell Kent

Rockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and writer.- Biography :Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York, the same year as fellow American artists George Bellows and Edward Hopper...

 designed three dinnerware sets based on his famous woodcuts: Salamina

Salamina

The word Salamina may refer to* Salamis Island an Island in Greece* Salamina a town and municipality in Piraeus Prefecture in Greece* Salamina a town and municipality in the Caldas Department in Colombia...

, Moby Dick, & Our America. Don Blanding

Don Blanding

Donald Benson Blanding was an American poet who sentimentalized warm climates and was sometimes described as "poet laureate of Hawaii". He was also known as a journalist, author of prose, and speaker....

, an Hawaiian

Hawaiian

Hawaiian may refer to:* People from Hawaii* Hawaiian language* Native Hawaiians* The Hawaiians, a football team in the World Football League from 1974 to 1975* Hawaiian Airlines, a commercial airline* Hawaiian music...

 poet and illustrator designed four basic tropical design patterns for tableware. Vernon Kilns signed a contract in 1940 with Walt Disney Productions to make figurine

Figurine

A figurine is a statuette that represents a human, deity or animal. Figurines may be realistic or iconic, depending on the skill and intention of the creator. The earliest were made of stone or clay...

s based on Walt Disney's

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 films: Fantasia

Fantasia (film)

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...

, Dumbo

Dumbo

Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...

, and The Reluctant Dragon

The Reluctant Dragon

The Reluctant Dragon is an 1898 children's story by Kenneth Grahame , which served as the key element to the 1941 feature film with the same name from Walt Disney Productions. The story has also been set to music as a children's operetta by John Rutter, with words by David Grant...

. Vernon also manufactured art ware based on the film Fantasia.

Janice Pettee sculpted and designed a series of celebrity figurines including Sally Rand

Sally Rand

Sally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.-Early life and career:...

 Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...

, Madeleine Carroll

Madeleine Carroll

Edith Madeleine Carroll was an English actress, popular in the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:Carroll was born at 32 Herbert Street in West Bromwich, England. She graduated from the University of Birmingham, England with a B.A. degree...

, Anne Shirley

Anne Shirley

Anne Shirley is a fictional character introduced in the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Montgomery wrote in her journal that the idea for Anne's story came from relatives who, planning to adopt an orphaned boy, received a girl instead...

, Wallace Beery

Wallace Beery

Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

, Robert Preston

Robert Preston

Robert Preston may refer to:*Robert Preston , American actor*Robert Preston *Robert E. Preston , Director of the U.S. Mint 1893-98*Robert K...

, Lynne Overman

Lynne Overman

Lynne Overman was a film actor in the 1930s and early-1940s who often played a sidekick.-Selected filmography:* Dixie * The Desert Song * The Forest Rangers...

, Victor McLaglen

Victor McLaglen

Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor.Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.-Early life:...

, Evelyn Venable

Evelyn Venable

Evelyn Venable was an American actress. In addition to starring in several films in the 1930s and 1940s, she is notable as the voice and model for the Blue Fairy in the Walt Disney's Pinocchio....

, Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper

Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

, Preston Foster

Preston Foster

Preston Foster was an American stage and film actor, and singer. Foster entered films in 1929 after appearing as a Broadway stage actor. He was appearing in Broadway plays as late as October 1931 when he acted in a play titled Two Seconds starring Edward J. Pawley...

, Walter Hampden

Walter Hampden

Walter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty was a U.S. actor and theatre manager. He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty ....

, Dorothy Lamour

Dorothy Lamour

Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...

, and Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

. Prior to World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Vernon Kilns ceased production of art ware, however continued to manufacture dinnerware and specialty ware.

Vernon Kilns produced transfer-print specialty ware which could be special ordered. Custom decal plates, as special order items, were produced for department stores, for promotional advertisement, for commemorative events, and for the tourist trade.

In 1952, Elliot House was hired as art director and continued to work with outside contract artists and designers such as Jean Goodwin Ames and Sharon Merrill. In 1958, Vernon Kilns closed their pottery due to mounting labor costs and competition from foreign imports. Metlox Manufacturing Company

Metlox Pottery

Metlox Pottery, strictly speaking Metlox Manufacturing Company, was a manufacturer of ceramic housewares, located at 1200 Morningside Drive, Manhattan Beach, California. It was founded in 1927 by T. C. Prouty and his son Willis Prouty, originally as a producer of outdoor ceramic signs. After the...

, Manhattan Beach, California

Manhattan Beach, California

Manhattan Beach is the wealthiest beachfront city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, USA. The city is on the Pacific coast, south of El Segundo, and north of Hermosa Beach. Manhattan Beach is the home of both beach and indoor volleyball, and surfing. During the winter, the...

, bought the molds and continued to manufacture some of Vernon's patterns in their Vernonware division.

Books

• Chipman, Jack. Collectors Encyclopedia of California Pottery, Second Edition. Collector Books (1998) ISBN 1574320378
• Chipman, Jack. California Pottery Scrapbook: Identification and Value Guide. Collector Books (2004) ISBN 1574324071
• Nelson, Maxine F. Collectible Vernon Kilns. Collector Books (2003) ISBN 1574323709