Crown Ceramics, a little-known Vancouver company from the 1950s

Finding information on some Canadian pottery manufacturers can be intriguing and frustrating. Snippets of information here and there will sometimes be all that can be found for details. Such is the case with this mid-century British Columbia pottery.

History:  Crown Ceramics is mentioned in the Clay and Shale Deposits of British Columbia, Bulletin No. 30, written in 1952 for the British Columbia Department of Mines, as being active during the 1950s, and that they manufactured ceramics on a small scale in Vancouver.  Most resources state that Crown Ceramics operated from 1945-1957. Little more is known about the history of this Canadian ceramics (pottery) manufacturer.

Additional info: Crown Ceramics was located at 523 West 7th Avenue at Cambie Street., Vancouver, BC.

Glaze colours: yellow-green high gloss, butter yellow matte, yellow high gloss, turquoise high gloss, turquoise speckled gloss, turquoise to darker mottled grey, dark turquoise to light turquoise gloss, aqua with blue trim, dark green high gloss, lime green high gloss, burgundy high gloss, black high gloss, black matte, light pink high gloss, light pink mottled high gloss, dark pink high gloss, grey high gloss, light grey to dark grey high gloss, and more.

Shapes:  Examples of the mid-century modern shapes produced by Crown Ceramics can be found on two well-known websites, The Canadian Design Resource and the Museum of Vancouver (Keyword search: Crown Ceramics). 

• Cone Vase (1955)
• Crown striped vase (1957)
• Candlesticks #325-D
• Pinched bowl (1957) – green, also in turquoise
• Crown vase (1957)
• Leaf vase / planter #401
• Leaf dish #122
• and more…

NOTE: A CC 12″ vase has some similarity to a BMP vase mould designed by Dennis Tupy in the 1950’s (the CDR)

Identifying marks:  

• Crown Ceramics, Vancouver, BC (circular design) lll (center of the base)
• 3-digit mold #
• marked with both impressions & labels