Interpace
| Industry | Ceramic manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired |
| Predecessor | Gladding, McBean & Company |
| Successor | Waterford Wedgwood |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Defunct | 1984 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, US |
|
Key people
|
Antholl McBean Frederic J. Grant |
| Products | Tableware, tile |
| Parent | Interpace 1962-1979 Wedgwood 1979-1984 |
Franciscan Ceramics are ceramic tabletop and tile products produced by Gladding, McBean & Co. in Los Angeles, California, from 1934–1962, International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) 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.
Beginning in 1875, as a partnership between Charles Gladding, Peter McGill McBean, and George Chambers, Gladding, McBean & Co. would expand from one factory in Lincoln, California to multiple manufacturing plants throughout the Pacific West Coast producing clay products from sewer pipe to architectural terracotta.
In 1927, Gladding, McBean & Co. consolidated with Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company solidifying the primacy of Gladding, McBean & Co. as the largest terra cotta manufacturer west of the Mississippi. Gladding, McBean & Co. retained ceramic engineer Max Compton from the former Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company’s plant in Santa Monica California. Compton, a 1922 graduate of Alfred University, studied under Charles F. Binns. In 1929, Compton was sent to the Company’s Lincoln plant to work on glazes and shortly thereafter became the plant’s superintendent of the terracotta department. Compton would return to Los Angeles in 1937 to work in the glaze laboratory.
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