Collecting Antique Shawnee Pottery

In 1937,Addis Hull Jr. formerly of Hull Pottery gathered with Robert C Shilling and a few others and created Shawnee Pottery in Zanesville, OH. The name they chose came from a local Indian tribe and they created a trademark using the arrowhead with an Indian picture inside it.

Up until 1942, they produced inexpensive earthenware kitchen and decorative art products. Many items were decorated by hand. They used a glazing method which required each piece to only be fired one time rather than the usual two firings. These dishes,figurines, flower pots and vases were distributed by the major mass market chain stores. Many of their items were used as premium and promotional items.

Rudy Ganz was hired in 1938 and he designed unique cookie jars like the one pictured with this article, that became very popular.

Production slowed down considerably during the war period and the factory was used for war contracts.

Then in 1950, Albert  P. Braid became president, and  Hull left Shawnee Pottery. The market became saturated with novelty pottery and the company suffered great financial loss. However when John Bonistall took over in 1954, he got the company back on it's feet. Bonistall did away with hand decorating to cut expenses and started using a spray gun technique to decorate the pottery. He also started a new division to make kitchen items. Under Bonistall management, the company was very successful and when it closed in 1961, Bonistall acquired the molds and created Terrace Ceramics in Marietta , OH.

Trademark changes were made and each piece now showed a new trademark, which was a number plus the letters USA. Paper labels were used on some pieces also.

As in all lines of glassware and pottery, some pieces have been found reproduced. The reproduction pieces have a tomahawk on the paper label rather than the arrowhead.

Shawnee Pottery pieces can still be found today in many antique shops and flea markets. They do ,however, carry premium prices.

There is a National Ceramic Museum and Heritage Center in Roseville , OH. Their holdings contain many of the Shawnee Pottery items.

The item pictured with this article is the Winnie Pig Cookie Jar, with a green collar and shamrocks, by Shawnee Pottery.