page_title: Franciscan Ceramics
section_title: 1955-1961
hierarchical_section_title: Franciscan Ceramics / Gladding, McBean & Co. / 1955-1961
caption_attribution_description: English: Franciscan Contours by George T. James
context_page_description: Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tableware and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, from 1934–1962, International Pipe and Ceramics from 1962–1979, and Wedgwood from 1979-1983. Wedgwood closed the Los Angeles plant, and moved the production of dinnerware to England in 1983. Waterford Glass Group plc purchased Wedgwood in 1986, becoming Waterford Wedgwood. KPS Capital Partners acquired all of the holdings of Waterford Wedgwood in 2009. The Franciscan brand became part of a group of companies known as WWRD, an acronym for "Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton." WWRD continues to produce the Franciscan patterns Desert Rose and Apple.
  Trade names were Franciscan Pottery, Franciscan Ware, and Franciscan for dinnerware products. Trade names for tile products were Gladding, McBean, Interpace, Hermosa, Terra Tile, and Contours Tile. Ceramic production included terracotta garden ware, earthenware tableware & art ware, porcelain tableware & art ware, stoneware tableware, stoneware and earthenware tile. Currently only the trade name Franciscan is used by WWRD for tabletop products.
context_section_description: In 1955, Gladding, McBean & Co. introduced a new art ware line.  The company had ceased manufacturing all their earthenware art ware lines under the trademarks of Franciscan and Catalina in 1942.  However, the Company continued until 1955 to manufacture fine china blanks for the Max Shoenfeld Company and earthenware lamp bases for outside companies to assemble and sell under their trade names.  This new Franciscan line was named Contours by George T. James.   The Contours art ware line was sold in one color or duotone glazes, with or without decoration.  The Contours art ware line was the only art ware or dinnerware line the company allowed the designer to use their name on the promotion and marketing. Three Franciscan Contours bud vases were chosen for the Pasadena Art Museum's second California Design Exhibition in 1956.   Franciscan Contours did not appeal to the buying public, and was discontinued shortly after its introduction.
  The late 1950s brought foreign imports flooding the American dinnerware market as well as the introduction of new competitive dinnerware manufacturing processes, melamine used in the brand Melmac and CorningWare by Corning Glass Works, placing pressure on Gladding, McBean & Co. to manufacture and market lower cost dinnerware lines to compete in the lower price tier dinnerware market.  The only lower priced dinnerware line, introduced in 1958, to be manufactured in the Glendale plant was the earthenware Family China line designed by George T. James.  Two lower priced dinnerware lines were produced in Japan and introduced in 1959.  The earthenware Whitestone Ware, designed by George T. James, was manufactured by Toyo Toki Kaisha, and the Cosmopolitan China, designed by Mary Jane Winans, was manufactured by Nippon Toki Kaisha.
  Even with adding dinnerware lines to compete in the lower priced tiers, Gladding, McBean & Co. saw revenue fall in the dinnerware division.  However, revenue was up in all other divisions.  Aside from the dinnerware division, which was marketed throughout the United States and exported to other countries, the company was limited in all their other product divisions to distribution to the west coast states.  To expand the market for all their products, the company made the decision to merge with an established East coast company to create a national and international corporation.
caption: Franciscan Contours by George T. James
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