Labour of love revives an American classic
September 27, 2008
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David Colker
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
At a flea market in San Diego, Calif. nearly 30 years ago, Janek Boniecki spotted a yellow dinner plate that changed his life.
"There was nothing else like it I had ever seen," said the London-born Boniecki, then a surfer and owner of a body board business. "The plate was heavy, solid," he said. "And such a bright, happy colour."
On the flip side, indented into the plate, was the name "Bauer." Dinnerware made by J.A. Bauer Pottery Co. of Los Angeles during the Depression and World War II years was a darling of collectors because of its colours and retro designs. Prices skyrocketed, museums had Bauer exhibitions and books were written about the company's plates and other items that generations of moms and dads had used to serve meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
Unfortunately, you couldn't own a Bauer plate and safely eat off it – at least according to modern science. Bauer ware, like much glazed pottery of its period, contained lead at far higher levels than what is now considered healthy. And the original Bauer company was out of business long before lead standards were tightened.
Boniecki now manufactures a line of nearly unleaded Bauer, slavishly copied from the originals. His Bauer Pottery Co. of Los Angeles (bauer2000.com) turns out 85 different Bauer items sold in shops nationwide and online, has 23 employees and last year had sales of $2.7 million U.S. In October, he bought the 40,000-square-foot factory where his pottery is made.
The route from surfer to retro pottery baron was not a direct line. Along the way he packaged travel tours for Costco Wholesale Corp., published a directory of filmmaking services and started a candle-making business in his kitchen. By the early 1990s, Boniecki had a well-paying job as a production manager for TV commercials. Still, he was restless.
"I was in my 40s, and I started to see that in TV production, a lot of guys never survive past that," said Boniecki, now 53. "I began to look for something for the next stage of my life."
He had developed a love for Bauer and had collected several pieces. "I decided one day to go looking for the trademark," he said.
The original company, founded in 1885 by J. Andy Bauer in Paducah, Ky., moved to Los Angeles in 1910. Among the early products the factory turned out were outdoor pots and vases that fit in well with bungalow-style houses.
Bauer died in 1923, probably before his company began making dinnerware. Its hallmark Ringware line, which got its name from concentric circles worked into dishes and other pieces, was introduced in the early 1930s, according to the book Bauer: Classic American Pottery by Mitch Tuchman (Chronicle Books). A page from the 1948 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogue shows a five-piece Ringware mixing bowl set for $1.69 and a now-classic two-quart water pitcher for $1.25. In the 1990s either of those, in good condition, could fetch $100 or more. But the original company didn't make an easy transition to a more modern, postwar look.
Finally, in the wake of a bitter labour dispute, J.A. Bauer closed in 1962. The trademark had been abandoned by the time Boniecki researched it. "I just re-registered it," he said, "and then it was an easy transition to thinking I would make new Bauer ware."
Boniecki was starting from scratch. He couldn't locate any of the original Bauer dyes or moulds used to turn out the pieces. Using his own classic Ringware pieces and others he bought as models, Boniecki hired artisans to make dyes that could be used to produce copies. In 1998, working with a variety of ceramics manufacturers, he turned out the first pieces of his new Bauer company, complete with a copy of the original imprint on the underside. They were sold in museum shops and other outlets.
Longtime aficionados of classic Bauer didn't entirely appreciate the revival of the brand. They complained that the new Bauer pieces were lighter and felt less substantial than the originals.
"Nothing was as heavy as the old stuff, that's for sure," said Greg McDermott, a collector in Palm Springs, Calif. McDermott praised the design and colour of the reproductions, however, and began carrying them in his home decorating shop.
Also, the new Bauer products probably contributed to a softening of prices for original pieces in the late 1990s.
Not that new Bauer is cheap. A Bauer 2000 dinner plate retails for about $27, although Boniecki has an annual December sale during which seconds are sold at discounts. After dealing with several local ceramics makers, Boniecki became a steady client of a factory housed in a former fruit-packing plant in the small city of Highland.
When the owner announced last year he was going to retire, Boniecki bought the operation in San Bernardino County for $1 million. "Now I have to make this work," he said.
This year, only about 30 per cent of the operation's revenue will come from the Bauer line. The rest is contract work, such as producing Tiki-themed tchotchkes or silk-screening graphics on coffee mugs.
"One day," he said, "I would like our output to be 100 per cent Bauer."
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