But are they really Bauer? A controversy!
Here’s the catch of the day — a school of wonderful oddities — 8 vintage Bauer Pottery Chicken of the Sea Tuna Bakers, New Old Stock (NOS) still in their original boxes. Reader Jocelyn — thank you, J! — tipped Pam off to this prime fishin’ spot on Ebay — where you can reel in enough tuna bakers to serve individual tuna casseroles at your next dinner party. But the pretty fish are gonna cost you…
Ebay seller wandermum was kind enough to let us feature these great photos from her ebay listing for our forever-archive of wonderful midcentury oddities:
{expired auction}
I initially started doing some research on Bauer Pottery for this story, when I was confronted by a controversy! It seems that there is some dispute about who actually manufactured these tuna bakers for Chicken of the Sea. Some swear it was Bauer Pottery, some think Homer Laughlin picked up production because the glaze colors seem to match their Fiesta ware line, and others like decolady — who has used these tuna bakers to make a lovely table setting on her blog, which features some great information about these pieces and the matching salt and pepper shakers — conclude they must be manufactured by Hollydale Pottery because many of the salt and pepper shakers that have been found still in the original boxes are postmarked Hollydale, CA — the location of Hollydale Pottery. Unfortunately, There isn’t much information to be found on Hollydale Pottery — a fire in 1952 forced the company to stop production and destroyed a large amount of their pottery stock.
I’ve contacted Homer Laughlin and heard from Dave Conely — the same friendly contact that helped me in my story about Fiesta ware — who has assured me that these pieces were never produced by the Homer Laughlin Company. I also have a query in to Bauer Pottery to try and clear up this confusion once and for all and will update the story when I hear back from them regarding this issue. Perhaps some of the pieces were made by Bauer Pottery and others — like the salt and pepper shakers — were made by Hollydale?
I’ve also found some vintage ads featuring these tuna bakers on jitterbuzz.com as well as a matching platter — seems like there was a whole series of this stuff! The silver rings on the bottom of the tuna bakers act as stands to help protect hot-from-the-oven tuna casseroles needing a trivet.
Whoever produced these tuna bakers, one thing is for sure — their range of colors, playful pose and usefulness makes them a great woddity to collect and display — might be well worth the 495 clams — even if you aren’t a fan of tuna salad, hot or cold. 😉
Above: Mega thanks to reader Ann for sending in this vintage tuna bakers ad from 1941! If only we could still use those order forms.
UPDATE: I heard back from Bauer and they have scoured their records — they did not make the tuna bakers! Robert Takata from Bauer Pottery Company writes:
Hi Kate,
We’ve heard that they both were and were not manufactured by Bauer. We’ve also heard that they were manufactured by Bauer as well as some other pottery or potteries.
To the best of our knowledge, they were not made by Bauer. None of the research we’ve done show any evidence that Bauer was the manufacturer of the tuna bakers. Bauer did make a much larger fish shaped cookie jar and that may have created some initial confusion that carried on throughout the years. The colors are also similar to Bauer colors of the time, but again, the brightly glazed California style pottery was very popular and there were other manufactures glazing similar colors.
If you want to dig deeper into this mystery, you might try contacting Jack Chipman or Mitch Tuchman, each of whom published very good books on Bauer pottery.
I know it’s not much, but I hope it helps.
Best wishes,
Rob
I had already contacted Jack Chipman, who recently replied:
Kate,
The Chicken of the Sea items were produced by Hollydale not Bauer. Bauer did not produce premium items.
Jack
So there you have it folks — Chicken of the Sea items were produced by Hollydale pottery in California. Mystery solved!
Evan Degenfelder says
As a long time collector of Bauer pottery, I have a pair of the tuna bakers with S&Ps. When we began collecting Bauer in the early 1980s the common belief was that Bauer made them for Chicken of the Sea. I wasn’t aware that Jack & Mitch had confirmed the manufacturer to be Hollydale. That’s good info to know. Whoever made them, they’re as cute as can be!
Marsha McRoberts says
Looking for a lid for my turquoise chicken of the sea tuna baker
Ann says
Can you explain why the stamps on the bottom of the tuna bakers varies? Some look really slick and some look like they were almost done by hand. Thanks
Annie B
Kate says
I’m not sure Ann…pretty much everything we know about tuna bakers is included in this post. Sorry!
David says
Hi!
With reference to zip codes, there is some misinformation here. Zip codes were not used in the 1940’s. The poster may be thinking of the codes embedded in the addresses along the lines of “New York 1, N.Y.”, etc. That number, a postal zone number, had a purpose similar to zip codes but was not a zip code as we now think of them. The original 5 digit zips came into use in 1963. I remember; I was around then! Most people were cooperative, but it took some time for everyone to get on board. The US Post Office had a campaign to encourage people to use the codes; one slogan was “Zip codes–the last word in mail address!” which may not be suitable for a family friendly blog.
In any case, zip codes or their lack are an indication of something being 1950’s or before (zip code = after 1963, no zip code = probably 1950’s or before), not prior to the 1940’s.
Of course, the ads for the COTS bakers are definitive evidence that they were offered in the very late 1930’s and the 1940’s.
Cheers, all.
Angela says
I have a set of these- they also had matching salt and peppers. I wouldn’t call that platter a match.
ELK says
I have always been told and read that they are Bauer. Replacements dot com sites Bauer as the manufacturer. The people who run Bauer now are super awesome but, they are not the people who ran it in the fifties. Bauer now is missing most of the the old molds and rely on collectors for the history of the old factories as most of the actual files and molds were gone when they bought the brand. If you are ever in LA be sure to attend one of their warehouse sales. I took my mom one time when I was visiting SoCal and now she and my sister are regulars at the sales. My teen daughter even enjoyed the sale!
I personally have six fish in yellow and two sets of the salt and pepper shakers also in yellow. They are the cutest! Wish I had the bank to buy this set! Then I could serve tuna casserole to an entire dinner party!
http://www.replacements.com/webquote/BAECHS.htm
Dale says
How wonderful to see this. I have had a set of 4 for close to 15 years and never had any information about them. I just always thought they were really cute.
Daphne says
P.S.
There is also a discussion of the “COTS” premiums here:
http://mediumgreen.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nonhlc&action=display&thread=2719
Sadly Decolady is deceased, but her dish wisdom lives on via her blog and the message board above. Her user name there is Harlequin Blue.
Daphne says
Hello. Here’s the link to the collector’s favorite piece of documentation that at least some of these were made by Hollydale pottery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krakencrafts/2694571028/
I have a blog post about the plates in colored glazed if you’d like to see more of the plates:
http://tabletoptime.blogspot.com/2011/03/gone-fishin.html
The Little Round Table also has a great selection of ephemera on these lovely pieces:
http://www.thelittleroundtable.com/2011/03/fish-are-jumping.html
Thanks so much for sharing the auction link. It’s a treat to see these NIB!
Best,
Daphne
pam kueber says
Thanks, Daphne!!!