As the war ended, families
were building homes in new
suburban areas all over the
nation. Morton Pottery and its
off-shoot American Art Potteries
(
Norwood labels) made a major
decision to expand its wares into
the novelty items field. They
became one of the nation’s largest
suppliers of imaginative and fun
items for the baby boom years.
Their planters and vases
became dogs, cats, deer, horses,
kangaroos, elephants, lambs,
parrots, geese, pigs, lions,
squirrels, storks, owls and teddy
bears. Christmas, Easter and
Valentine’s Day were especially
popular. They produced political
memorabilia with their largest
client being Everett Dirksen.
Novelty lamps of poodles,
owls and Davy Crockett were
produced by the thousands. As
television became popular, TV
console lamps of horses, birds,
panthers and buffalo were must-
haves.
Sears, Woolworths, Kresge’s,
Montgomery Wards, Grants and
Spiegel were major customers
for the novelty items. Morton
traveling salesmen took orders
for both Morton Pottery and the
Norwood products from small
“5&10”
stores all over the nation.
The creativity and whimsy
of Morton potters brought the
nation color, optimism and sense
of boundless future.
There were many reasons
for the closing of the Morton
potteries in the 1970s. The main
one is probably the fact that
the novelty items coming out
of Japan copied many of the
Morton original designs and they
could be produced far cheaper
overseas.
We can still cheer on the
Morton High School athletes,
whose cherry red and gray
uniforms still carry the Morton
Potters logo, a proud reminder of
how Morton Potteries changed
the world.
AFTER WORLD WAR II
(1940 – 1976)
The Past
