2011 Holiday Sale!

It seems like just 12 months ago we were telling you about last year's annual Holiday Sale.

If you can think past next week's festivities and feasting and football, take a moment to jot down the dates for this year's sale in your calendar (iPhone 4s users just ask Siri to remind you).

Saturday & Sunday
December 3 & 4 and 10 & 11
9am - 5pm
We have lots of pottery on the shelves, as we do every year. We'll also have some new pieces from the Corita by Bauer line.



We're also excited to have some great food trucks back for the sale. Starting of on the first Saturday, December 3rd, we'll have Lidia's Dominican Kitchen.



They serve up great Dominican fare, as you may have already surmised. I'd recommend the Pernil or the Patacon Pisao.

For complete information on the sale, visit the Holiday Sale page.

Pictures from around the showroom

Rosslyn Pots in Federal Blue and Bauer Orange

Seconds in Parrot Green, Bauer Yellow & Aqua

Russel Wright American Modern dinnerware in Coral, Sea Foam, Chartreuse, White & Granite

Corita by Bauer, coming soon

Bauer Gift Certificates Available During the KCRW Pledge Drive

We already know that you’re a fan of Bauer Pottery, but if you also enjoy public radio, why not combine your passions and support KCRW? Their bi-annual pledge drive started last night and to support their fund raising, we’ve given ten $100 gift certificates as pledge premiums.

You can listen over the air all over Southern California, anywhere with an internet connection at or on your Android, Blackberry or iPhone.

Gift certificates can be redeemed over the phone (888) 213-0800 or at our showroom in Los Angeles, were you can purchase discounted seconds. Either way, you will also receive an additional discount when you show us your KCRW Fringe Benefits card.

In addition to the Bauer gift certificate and the Fringe Benefits card, you’ll be entered into all sorts of sweepstakes and daily drawings for prizes including trips to Barcelona, laptops, iPads and more. Listen to the pledge drive or check their web site for more details.

The Bauer gift certificates are only available at the time they are announced on the air, so you need to be listening when they make the announcement and then you can call in and claim one for yourself. The pledge line is (800) 600-KCRW or (800) 600-5279.

KCRW 89.9FM

Pottery Repair & Restoration by Yesterware

Oil Jar during repair (left) and after (right)

We get the call once or twice a month.

A semi-distraught voice tells us how a vintage piece of Bauer, which has been in the family for a generation or two, got chipped, cracked or broken.

"Do you do repairs?"

"Can you match this glaze?"

"Do you sell a kit?"

Our answer to all of this type of question regrettably has been "no." We've also never had a good place to refer anyone for this type of work, until now.

We found Mike & Netta Yaeck while shopping for some vintage pieces on eBay. They were selling a Bauer Honey Jar bottom with a reproduction lid that they had made. After purchasing the honey jar from them we wanted to find out more about how they came to making vintage Bauer reproductions.

Mike & Netta have been working under the company name Yesterware out of their studio in Bakersfield for the past 10 years. While they were both collectors, they were not in the pottery business before Yesterware. He was a general contractor and she was a silversmith.

This Rebekah Vase was missing a handle before Yesterware created a new one.

Wanting to repair some of their own pieces, they researched repair techniques and started fixing up pottery as a hobby. The hobby became a full-time job and now they do a lot of custom work for auction houses as well as taking in private jobs.

Their service starts at $75.00 to repair chips and goes up from there. In addition to chip repair, they can fix cracks, reassemble broken pieces and even reproduce entire parts, as we found out with our honey pot.

If you have a piece that you'd like repaired, please call Mike & Netta at (661) 32-BAUER [22837] or by email at nyaeck@bak.rr.com.

Of course, if you need to replace a piece with some Bauer 2000, you can always give us a call!




* * *
Bottom photo: D&M Tile, Los Angeles, circa 1930, repaired by Yesterware
All photos courtesy of Mike & Netta Yaeck of Yesterware.

Russel Wright Honored as a "Pioneer of American Industrial Design" by the U.S. Postal Service

How does one measure the irony that you are probably reading this piece about a United States Postal Service stamp because you were directed here from an email?

While your minds are boggling, please take note that just last week the USPS issued a collection of stamps honoring "Pioneers of American Industrial Design." Among the twelve honorees is the designer of American Modern® dinnerware, Russel Wright.

Though the image on the stamp is of Wright's flatware and not his pottery, we're still very excited about the recognition of his contributions to American industrial design. The Postal Service describes his work as follows:

Specializing in household products, Russel Wright revolutionized the way we live at home. He designed at a time when growing numbers of Americans were shedding the prim conventions of the early 20th century in favor of simple and informal practicality. During his career, Wright created affordable modern furniture and tableware characterized by minimal but elegant forms. Each stainless-steel piece of Highlight/Pinch flatware (pictured on the stamp) featured an organically shaped handle and no applied ornament. Wright designed the flatware in 1950 to complement his many lines of tableware.

Wright in his New York studio (c. 1944)

The other designers honored on the stamp sheet are Peter Müller-Munk, Frederick Hurten Rhead, Raymond Loewy, Donald Deskey, Walter Dorwin Teague, Henry Dreyfuss, Norman Bel Geddes, Dave Chapman, Greta von Nessen, Eliot Noyes, Gilbert Rohde and Robert Heller.



The collection of stamps is available via the USPS online Postal Store and at your local Post Office.

* * *

Photos courtesy of the United States Postal Service (top & bottom) and Russel Wright Studios (middle)

The Grill Plate

The shape is familiar to you.

You recognize it, yes, but something's different.

It's... it's not dull and white.

Oh! It's not made of paper or styrofoam. It's pottery. Beautiful glazed earthenware. What else? Five colors? Five gorgeous Bauer colors* you say?



Yes, the classic Bauer Grill Plate is available once again. Modeled in three sections and measuring eleven inches across, the Grill Plate is available in Bauer Orange, Bauer Yellow, Turquoise, Aqua and Federal Blue, as pictured above.

Did you think, like I did, that the sectioned plate was the introduced circa-whenever you first saw one as a kid?

The real answer is we don't know exactly when it was invented. It probably is not an original Bauer design, but J.A. Bauer Pottery did manufacture these plates as early as the 1930s.

Click here to begin shopping for the Grill Plate now.


(Click on the four arrows on the bottom right for the full-screen view.)

*Okay, we're making it in white too, for nostalgia sake, but you already have an idea of what that looks like.

Bauer & American Modern on the Food Network

Shrimp skewers and yogurt sauce.


Everyone outside of Los Angeles thinks that everyone inside Los Angeles has something or another to do with Hollywood. This is not true. I mean, we make pottery. What have we got to do with the movies? Last time I checked pottery was not integral to the film making process.

Then, of course, someone comes along and decides to ruin my point. Actually, my point was ruined years ago. Bauer Pottery has been showing up in movies as far back as the days of the Marx Brothers and Shirley Temple. In more recent decades, one might have seen Bauer pottery in movies such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Short Cuts and Because I Said So (we're told that Diane Keaton is a Bauer collector).

Current television viewers have pointed out that on the appropriately-titled Modern Family, the Dunphy kitchen is fully outfitted with American Modern^® pottery.


Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) is framed by American Modern^® Lug Bowls and Coffee Cups.


A new place to see a lot of Bauer and Russel Wright pottery is on the Food Network, specifically Bobby Flay's show Grill It!

Check your local listings or the Food Network site to find air dates and times for the show or you can catch some clips below. Click on the still images to enlarge.



Flay with an American Modern Lug Bowl in hand and plating on a Chop Platter.



The final dish, Pork Tenderloin Greek Salad on an American Modern Chop Platter.



Watch the clip here.



Claire Robinson preparing a stuffed tenderloin. Bauer Ringware Vase and Tumbler in Lime Green bottom left.



Stuffed tenderloin plated on a Bauer Yellow 14" Round Platter.



Watch the clip here.



Shrimp skewers and yogurt sauce. Photo at the top of the post. Watch the clip here.

Click here for more stills from Grill It!

Copyright for photos & video from Grill It! by the Food Network and photo from Modern Family by ABC.