Undated
BAUER POTTERY / 2000 / LOS ANGELES
Pottery added to the upper arc and 2000 in the center identify the revival inscription.
impressed / molded into clay
Pottery & porcelain
Bauer Pottery markings
Bauer Pottery markings include impressed / molded into clay “BAUER POTTERY / 2000 / USA” lettering. Bauer Pottery worked in United States.
- Active years
- From 1885
- Country
- United States
- Marks
- 5
Original firm 1885–1962. Trademark revival from 1998; contemporary products marked Bauer 2000. This is not continuous production across the gap.
What to look for
- Read all the lettering: BAUER alone, BAUER LOS ANGELES and BAUER USA are different vintage inscriptions. Bowl size numbers are not additional factory designs.
- 2000 identifies the revival line. Compare the complete modern inscription: Los Angeles and USA occur in different layouts.
- On mixing bowls, compare the inside rings, foot and stilt marks together with the signature. The Atlanta and Los Angeles factories made related forms with differences in construction.
Dated marks & timeline
5 marks
Undated
BAUER POTTERY / 2000 / USA
USA replaces Los Angeles beneath the central 2000; illustrated on a three-footed bowl.
impressed / molded into clay
Undated
BAUER / LOS ANGELES
Large arched BAUER above Los Angeles; no 2000 or Pottery wording.
impressed / molded into clay
Undated
BAUER
Name alone in an arc; city wording is absent from the illustrated base.
impressed / molded into clay
About Bauer Pottery
J. Andy Bauer entered the pottery trade in Louisville and bought the Paducah Pottery in Kentucky in 1885. His firm supplied practical stoneware and garden pottery, including jugs, crocks and flowerpots. He later moved the business to Los Angeles, opening a factory in Lincoln Heights around 1909–1910. Floral and nursery wares remained important alongside its developing household range.
Bauer retired in 1922, selling interests to the Bernheim family and to his daughter Eva and her husband Watson Bockman. Potters Louis Ipsen and Matt Carlton helped develop new forms, while ceramic engineer Victor Houser introduced colored glazes. Brightly colored dinnerware and concentric-ring designs became closely associated with the company during the 1930s. The Atlanta branch also produced tableware and floral pieces before wartime work changed its output.
Later lines followed changing mid-century tastes, but the original factory closed in March 1962 after a strike and prolonged business difficulties. In 1998 Janek Boniecki acquired the trademark rights and revived selected designs using newly made molds. The modern company identifies its reproductions as Bauer 2000. Its pieces belong to a later business era, even when their colors and shapes closely follow vintage examples.
Also known as: J. Andy Bauer · J.A. Bauer · Bauer Los Angeles · Bauer Atlanta · Bauer 2000 · J.A. Bauer Pottery Company; later Bauer Pottery Company of Los Angeles revival
Look-alikes & how to tell them apart
Pacific Pottery and Meyer mixing bowls
Related colored bowls can have similar rings or pedestals. Compare the maker wording, clay, foot and groove profile; bowl size alone does not establish Bauer.
Fred Bauer studio pottery →
Fred Bauer’s mark pairs his surname with two oval devices on studio stoneware. It is a different maker from J.A. Bauer’s commercial tableware and the Bauer 2000 revival.