discussion: why not Boys Town

it seems weird to me that there is little to no interest in Boys Town Pottery - here's the thing - many of the big time pottery houses that have become collectible have an interesting back story - like the women of Rockwood and Newcomb - the hospital turned asylum of Arequipa - the Saturday Evening Girls of Paul Revere - etc - so why not the orphanage - the city of little men - seems to me that it has as interesting of a back story as any of the others...

 

Did they make the pottery?

 

There's no entry in Lehner's for Boys Town. Maybe it was made by someone else?

I can't see what is printed above Boys Town on the label.

 

That says "souvenir of," right?

Nothing underneath?

 

This is from an eBay Boy's Town pottery listing with some info you could research further

Art pottery was made at Boys Town during the 1940s, when artists from Muncie Pottery helped establish coursework and production, with the pottery being sold at the Boys Town gift shop (see Muncie Pottery, by Rans & Eckelman, page 187)

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/125435591436

 

Not made by Boys Town. That's a decal on the top, so applied after manufacture. Maybe Boys Town purchased some to give/sell as gifts or mementoes.

 

here is another blurb - this one from the Red Wing Collectors Society

"Red Wing did not produce any pottery for Boystown, in Omaha. They had their own shop where the children learned the pottery trade. They have roots from Muncie Pottery, one of their main people left and started up the pottery at Boystown. A lot of the glazes are similar to Muncies."

the pottery was made by the boys in Boys Town - the souvenir stickers were added because the pottery was sold in the gift shop to tourist - a lot of pottery companies added stickers to the wares after production like Camark - Roseville - etc...

so it still makes me wonder why it is ignored by collectors,,,

 

It is pretty enough to be collected, and an interesting story.

 

There are collectors but few and far between. I think there are not more since the pottery is generally pretty small and not all that interesting. Also, based on what I am seeing, apparently not all the pottery was made by the boys. Some of it does just seem to have the souvenir label put on comercial wares. Sometime in my past, I may have seen boys town pottery with marks on the bottom stamped in.

 

I stand corrected. The boys did well!

 

found this post card on eBayUK - which cements that they did indeed make the pottery... from 1940 until at least 1956 as that is the date on the card...

 

or at least , a pic of some boys looking like they are making pottery !!!

that's about as staged a photo as I've ever seen !!

 

And from what we've seen, the boys didn't sign?

 

Very pretty. I am not a pottie, but I like the first blue one.