How to Identify California Pottery Flamingos

Learn about California pottery in general to get a feel what an authentic California pottery flamingo looks like. As the name suggests, this pottery was made in the Golden State and experienced the height of its popularity from the 1920s through the 1950s. According to the California Pottery Index, there were 28 major California potters and many more lesser-known ones.

Consult some general reference guides to collecting California pottery and look for your flamingo there, comparing not only the type of piece it is -- stand alone figurine, ashtray, vase -- but also the general artistic style and coloration. This will help you in learning to recognize authentic California pottery pieces versus fakes. A good source for this is the "Collectors Encyclopedia of California Pottery", second edition, by Jack Chipman. This same author has another book, "California Pottery Scrapbook: Identification and Value Guide" that contains information on even more potteries and many more pictures of identifying marks.

Turn your flamingo upside down. Using a magnifying glass, if necessary, look for a "maker's mark" on the bottom somewhere. This will usually be words, initials, or a date that you can use to identify the specific potter that made the piece. Look up any marks you find on a website like Potteries of California, which provides very detailed pictures of the marks used by 80 California potteries, classified by image and manufacturer name.

Scrutinize the side of your flamingo, particularly down by the base. The words "Made in California" or "Calif USA" were prominent on this pottery, particularly when there was no specific maker's mark on the bottom of the piece.

Familiarize yourself with the marks of the most popular California potters that made flamingos. A very famous one -- Maddux of California -- has created a guide to its flamingo pieces that offers a color photograph, detailed description, and identifying marks for each one. Maddux also provides complete catalogues of all the pieces it manufactured in 1958, 1960, and 1966 in which you can look up your flamingo. Maddux pieces were variably signed "William Maddux" or "Wm Maddux" or just "WM" on the bottom, sometimes accompanied by a year or number. Other potters typically used similar versions of their last name, initials or some variation of California ("CA," "Calif").