History of Morton Pottery
Morton Pottery traces back to 1877, when six German-born brothers — Andrew, Barthol, Christian, John, Samuel, and Matthew Rapp — settled in Morton, Illinois, and founded the Rapp Brothers Brick and Tile Company, which also did business as Morton Pottery Works. The operation initially made practical, everyday wares: earthenware, Rockingham ware, and yellowware, rather than anything decorative. In 1915 Andrew Rapp's sons took over and renamed the business the Morton Earthenware Company, but that venture folded in 1917.
Pottery-making in the town didn't stay dormant for long. In 1920, a new generation of the Rapp family launched Cliftwood Art Potteries, which shifted the focus toward decorative art pottery — flower bowls, figurines, lamp bases, and vases, known especially for rich drip glazes in chocolate brown, cobalt blue, and jade. A fire in the early 1940s pushed the company toward closure, and it was succeeded by Midwest Potteries in the early-to-mid 1940s, and later by American Art Potteries (mid-1940s through 1961), which sold decorative pieces through floral and gift shops.
Running in parallel was the longest-lived of the group: the Morton Pottery Company, founded in 1922 and operating until 1976. It became the best-known of the Morton potteries, producing kitchenware, novelty items, steins, and — its most collected output today — whimsical 1950s TV lamps and figural planters and cookie jars shaped like animals (owls, hens, pigs, lovebirds) and vegetables. It also made political memorabilia for figures like FDR and JFK, and later produced a licensed "National Treasures" reproduction line for Sears under Vincent Price's name. By the mid-1970s, a combination of fires, management and financial troubles, IRS seizures, and competition from cheaper overseas ceramics caught up with the company, and it closed for good in 1976, ending just under a century of pottery-making in the small central-Illinois town.
Morton pottery pieces remain popular and affordable with collectors today, generally identified by marks unique to each company era — Cliftwood's artist-palette mark reading "The Pride of Any Home," and Morton Pottery Company's circular teapot mark or horseshoe-shaped "Morton Pottery Co." stamp.
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