THE HISTORY of CAMARK POTTERY
A major ceramic operation in south Arkansas manufacturing art pottery within the context of the American art pottery movement during the late 1920s, Camark Pottery began with the vision of one man, Jack Carnes. Camark capitalized on the availability of clays and other important resources in the Ouachita County area, beginning with art pottery based on luster and iridescent finishes by John B. Lessell. In short, Camark succeeded not only in the manufacture of art pottery but was able to build upon that and become a major player within the American ceramic industry. Camark Pottery capitalized on already proven, popular design elements to forge a viable ceramic industry in south Arkansas and market its wares across the United States.
From the beginning, Camark had no direct competition in the region except perhaps that of the Niloak Pottery Company in Benton (Saline County). Camark overcame many challenges to achieve early success, even though Benton had a much longer, deeper tradition in ceramic operations. Compared to Saline County where local ceramic businesses
had been operating since the 1870s, and despite the fact that Ouachita County had extensive deposits of clay similar to those in Saline County, the early history of clay manufacturers in Ouachita County is minimal and not well documented.
There were a few early pottery making attempts as incorporation records as the Ouachita County Courthouse reveal. In 1891, the Arkansas Coal, Gas, Fire Clay and Manufacturing Company filed Articles of Agreement to “acquire and own real estate, min(e), and deal...in coal and fire clay.” A few years later the Hibbard Mining and Manufacturing
Company incorporated for the purpose of “owning and operating mines, doing a general mining business, (and) manufacturing paints, rubber, oil, gas, brick, fire clay…” In 1910, a direct effort to “ship and mine clay, and its manufactured products” was undertaken by the Camden Coal and Clay Company. Further information, however, is unavailable to determine the viability of these companies and whether or not they actually engaged in any ceramic operations.
Three important elements (besides available clay deposits) for the development of a viable ceramic industry were available in Camden by the mid-1920s: adequate transportation, ample fuel, and an available labor market. With three railroads, the St. Louis Southwestern, the Missouri Pacific and Chicago, and the Rock Island and Pacific, having regular trunk lines through Camden, the then-navigable Ouachita River, and developing tie-in to the Arkansas highway system, Camark possessed plentiful transportation facilities. Camden’s proximity to the oil and gas fields of south Arkansas and to Arkansas Power and Light Company’s hydro-electric dam on the Ouachita River provided the city with permanent, inexpensive, and unlimited supplies of power for both industrial and private use. In addition, there
was an ample supply of both skilled and unskilled labor. Bringing these factors together for the development of the extensive clay deposits was the Camden Chamber of Commerce under the capable leadership of Luther Ellison, its secretary. During the mid-1920s, Ellison successfully lured many important businesses to Arkansas including International Paper, Houston Refinery, and plants for manufacturing screen doors and furniture. These factors, the availability of clay near the Chidester and Lester area, and Samuel Jacob “Jack” Carnes’ knowledge of Ohio’s ceramic industry ensured a solid foundation for a successful pottery operation in Arkansas.
The basis for Camark Pottery’s founding was the direct result of the efforts of the Camden Chamber of Commerce and many individuals. In 1925 the Camden Chamber of Commerce launched a campaign to increase industrial development in its area. Starting with a budget of nearly $50,000, the Chamber undertook the task of attracting outside investors looking for favorable industrial sites. Jack Carnes had been in Camden since 1922 and would later take advantage of the natural resources and economic opportunities to establish the Camden Art Tile and Pottery Company. The pottery started as a collaborative effort by a group of associates in 1926. These associates included Carnes, Ellison, artist John B. Lessell, and ceramist Stephen J. Sebaugh.
Jack Carnes, a native of Ohio, knew of art pottery manufacture around Zanesville, Ohio. Carnes sought to realize his vision of turning Camden into a second Zanesville by exploiting the availability of cheap gas, an ample supply of clay and labor, and the economic boom of south Arkansas. Ellison, known in Camden as the “human dynamo,” was responsible for securing a land donation to bring Camark pottery to south Arkansas. John Lessell, former art director for the Weller Pottery of Zanesville, was a pioneer designer, artist, and decorator of luster and iridescent finishes. John, his wife Jennie, and her daughter Billie, initiated Camark’s production of art pottery by continuing a legacy that John began shortly after the turn of the century. Stephen Sebaugh, a long-time friend and peer, had worked with Lessell for 20 years. Sebaugh and his sons had the collective knowledge and skill needed to operate a pottery concern. With other talented ceramic professionals, these associates initiated plans to build a modern plant to commence the commercial manufacturing of art pottery.
This gathering of a talented group of artists, designers, ceramists, and other clay-workers was responsible for instituting particular art pottery concepts including luster and iridescent treatments, Modernistic and Futuristic designs, and a vast variety of colored glaze combinations. The original workers included Charles and Edmond Sebaugh, Alfred P. Tetzschner, Frank Long, and Boris Trifonoff. Camark’s accomplishments in art pottery manufacture began with the Lessell ware in late 1926 and ended in the early 1930s with artistic emphases in color combinations and mold designs. Camark’s early production not only placed it in the annals of the American art pottery movement but also helped the company build a solid economic foundation that carried it through many years as a major pottery manufacturer.
Art pottery is defined as ceramics made with aesthetic intent on the part of the maker on a limited scale. Camark’s art pottery history can be divided into three phases. The first phase involves the Lessell ware and LeCamark lines of luster and iridescent pottery. The second phase includes the production of Modernistic and Futuristic designs, the Crackle line, and some traditional glaze treatments. The third and last phase, with no decorated ware, includes the use of traditional glazed pottery of solid or combination colors. With factors like personnel changes, supply and demand, and economics involved, each phase’s end resulted in a fundamental shift in ceramic production with Camark slowly moving away from art pottery manufacture.
Back in 1926, Jack Carnes and John Lessell began an association to make art pottery of luster and iridescent designs from Arkansas clay. Carnes had shipped some Arkansas clays to Lessell in Ohio for testing. Satisfied with the results of his tests, Lessell produced Camark’s first wares of luster and iridescent designs. They were signed “Lessell” and shipped back to Arkansas in early 1927 and were first displayed in Camden at the Camden Paint and Glass Company, where Carnes was both president and a stockholder. The Camden Paint and Glass Company was in business for the “wholesale and retail of paint, oils, wallpaper, glass, pottery, and kindred lines.”
Upon Lessell’s untimely death in December, 1926, Carnes hired Lessell’s wife, Jennie, as art director. When production at Camark began by May, 1927 with 15 employees, the luster and iridescent line was called LeCamark and resulted from the collective body of knowledge of Jennie Lessell and Stephen and Charles Sebaugh. Some of the first pieces of LeCamark were on display and for sale at the Auld Lang Syne Gift Shop in Camden.
These Lessell and LeCamark wares were based on proven designs used in John Lessell’s past works. Camark’s luster wares included the Lessell and Oxblood (Silver Luster) designs. The iridescent line, called Old English, came in three colors: gray-blue, rose, and ivory. Camark also produced Coraline. With a textured body, Coraline has wavy or irregular lines sometimes filled with gold. These designs were primarily based on Lessell’s work at Ohio potteries. A totally new luster was Camark’s Venetian and Jeanne designs which had backgrounds of mirror black and textured, flat black, respectively, upon which luster Jonquil, Poppy, and Conventional designs were placed. All these items were produced in limited quantities, but they received immediate acceptance from the buying public.
By July, there were 25 employees and the Camden Evening News reported: “Camark Pottery is the newest wonder product of the Wonder State and... its product has advertised this city over the entire country. Camark has met with almost instantaneous popularity in just the few weeks it has been on the market, salesmen of the company are meeting with great success and a great number of the larger stores and gift houses, especially in the home state, have adorned their cases and shelves with this attractive ware....”
The Camden Evening News also stated that the “Camden pottery [was] to be introduced into the north and east by six specialty salesmen.... “12 The earliest known salesman for Camark Pottery was Sam Cox. Cox had worked for Carnes at his Camden Paint and Glass Company until June of 1927. By the end of the year, his territory included Texas and Missouri. By summer’s end, Carnes secured W. H. Rardon of San Francisco as its sales representative for California. Within days after Rardon’s selection as sales representative, Camark had received several substantial orders providing evidence that the pottery was finding ready sales in that state. By the beginning of 1928, “Paul A. Bohn, of Pasadena, Calif., manufacturer’s representative for highest grade art wares in the West, ha(d) announced the representation for 1928, of an art line featuring Camark Pottery.... He term(ed) Camark as ‘art pottery’ of character and beauty... executed by expert designers, skilled potters, and experienced decorators.” Also in 1928, the R. E. Ashton and Company of Chicago was advertising the “colorful Camark pottery in its numerous new finishes and shapes (which) holds a charm all its own.”
By the end of the 1927, Jack Carnes told the Camden Evening News that “the factory is run over with holiday business and plans are under way to enlarge the plant soon after January 1st, to handle a half million dollars or more business in 1928.” The newspaper further reported that: “Camark pottery is the result of the vision, faith, and energy of Jack Carnes.... Camden is ideally situated for the development of this industry. Zanesville, Ohio, is a large city due almost entirely to the clay products industries located there. With the great growing south and west for a market Camden can be developed into a second Zanesville.” In early 1928, employment at the pottery reached 30 workers, and it was manufacturing over 100 special designs of pottery. However, whether the plant was expanded in 1928 has not yet been determined.
With the departure of Jennie and Billie Lessell in late 1927, Camark began its first transition in art pottery manufacture as Alfred Tetzschner became head of the art department. At this time, Camark publicized the first commercially produced futuristic and modernistic pottery. Involving over twelve different designs developed by Tetzschner, Camark’s Modernistic/Futuristic line grew out of a design element derived from a new style from France’s 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale (some similar design elements to Art Deco). The Modernistic/Futuristic line appears to be Camark’s first true artistic endeavor as opposed to the Lessell luster designs. By June, 1928, the trade publication Ceramic Industry announced: “Camden Pottery Develops Modernistic Artware.” Charles Sebaugh, Camark’s plant manager, wrote “that the modernistic art pottery carries bright and contrasting colors....” Becoming popular after World War I, it “was then that the Camden (Ark.) Art Tile & Pottery Co. blazed the way in America... ‘It is true’ says Mr. Sebaugh, ‘that every age expresses itself in a distinctive style, and our modern age expresses itself in one way—in Modernistic art.’”
Camark’s Crackle, found in colors of yellow, orange, ivory, green, blue, and gold, was another popular line by Tetzschner. These pieces mimic an ancient design element, duplicating a glaze technique known as crazing (the intended or unintentional cracking of a glaze over a ceramic vessel). Tetzschner, with his Modernistic/Futuristic and Crackles lines, did not work alone. Tetzschner’s mode of operations at Camark Pottery paralleled those of other great early American art pottery manufacturers.
In 1928, Tom Shiras, the “walking editor of the Ozark” visited the plant and reported on and interviewed workers at Camark. In an expanded article written later for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Shiras observed that the “artist (Tetzschner) works out all the designs that are to go on the exterior, finishing each one completely. Girls with artistic ability then copy the originals.” This same mode of decorating was used extensively at Newcomb College and Grueby Pottery. Shiras also provided a description of the plant as it existed in 1928: “The equipment of the Camark plant consist(s) of two 14-foot (in diameter) pottery kilns, fired with natural gas. These have a capacity of 4,000 average pieces to the kilns and annual average production capacity of 1,500,000 pieces; there have been times when the entire capacity was needed. Other departments of the plant are a molding room, pattern room, where new designs are turned on a potter’s wheel and lathe, and special orders filled, and a decorating room, where all the art work is done by hand.”
Descriptions of the behind-the-scene activities by former employees from the 1920s and 1930s are rare. One has surfaced telling of the experiences of Eugene Prince. Working as a glaze “dipper,” Prince was at the pottery from about 1929 to about 1936. In a 1987 newspaper interview with the Camden News, Prince provided insights into the Camark Pottery operation. A part of the dip room crew, he started working for a weekly wage of $6.05. By the time he left he was making $25.00 a week. He noted several glazes he remembered including ivory, sea green, olive green, and cobalt blue. More interestingly, he gave the only known description for a glaze of “light green with variegated colors” named Sasnakra, Arkansas spelled backwards.
During his interview, Prince made other comments about the operations: “Prince said the kiln used to fire the pottery after it was dipped was heated... up to 2600 degrees. The kilns had little ‘cones’ that were used as heat indicators.... The pottery was fired (for) at least 26 hours.... (T)here (were no) fans in the factory, and it was hot in the summer, but everyone stayed warm in the winter.” Prince would have probably retired from Camark, but he developed lead poisoning, a common ailment found within the ceramic industry. “In spite of the health hazard of the pottery, Prince said he enjoyed the work. ‘It wasn’t work, it was play. We could do all what we wanted to as long as we kept the pottery going.’”
There were other artistic endeavors of the late 1920s including traditional glaze manipulation like the tri-chromatic Yellow & Blue and bi-chromatic Green & Blue. In addition, other artistic glazed wares included Blue & White Stipple, Gray & Blue Mottled, and Celestial Blue Black Overflow. Only a small part of Camark’s production during the first two years, art pottery with glaze manipulations increased slowly due to either the lack of trained decorators or ever present economic pressures which forced a more limited artistic direction.
As the decade came to a close, the focus on art pottery by hand methods (hand thrown pottery and/or hand decorated pieces) changed, and this ended Camark’s second art pottery phase. Camark needed to decrease overhead and raise production as the Depression began to affect sales in the early 1930s. In response, Camark increased its production with mass-produced molded pieces with simple color combination patterns. The most popular ones were Rose Green Overflow and Orange Green Overflow, influenced, if not developed by Boris Trifonoff. While most of the ceramic shapes typically possessed no artistic influence, the notable exceptions were the Art Deco forms of the early 1930s. These simple color combinations and Deco forms comprise Camark third art pottery phase. With no decorated wares throughout most of the 1930s, traditional glazed pottery of primarily solid colors was the company’s focus. With factors like economics, public taste, and internal affairs involved, a fundamental shift occurred in ceramic production with Camark slowly moving away from art pottery manufacture toward the mass production of castware. The internal affairs involved the personnel changes caused by the unexpected deaths of Stephen and Charles Sebaugh in 1933. As indicated earlier, the Sebaugh family was important to Camark’s operations. Their collective knowledge and skills in clay operations enabled the successful implementation of Camark efforts to compete within the ceramic industry. With this great loss of Camark’s key personnel, the changes toward greater mass production may have been instigated sooner than expected. Paralleling a desire to produce more pottery, Carnes also needed new outlets for Camark pottery, and he began seeking new places to sell his pottery across the country.
Up to the end of the 1920s, Camark operated primarily as a wholesaler within the ceramic trade. However, with the start of the new decade, new sales and display rooms were established in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pasadena, San Francisco, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Memphis. In addition, sales headquarters were established in both Iowa and Nebraska. Because Camark operated primarily as a wholesaler, the earliest of Camark’s art pottery is nearly impossible to locate within the state, as a very large percentage of production was shipped outside the state. By the early 1930s, however, Camark Pottery opened its first retail outlet in Arkansas. Charles L. Emerson operated the Camark Factory Display Store on Highway 5, west of Little Rock. The small store, with its unique facade of the outline of the state of Arkansas, continued Camark’s efforts to boost the “Land of Opportunity” state. (Arkansas’ current motto is “The Natural State.”) The former state motto was definitely appropriate for Camark as it continued to build an economic foundation for itself by expanding into retail markets. Another factor in the Camark’s economic success was the hiring of more sales representatives across the United States.
George H. Hall, a regional representative, was hired by Camark Pottery in the early 1930s. A national trade publication announced that Hall, “well-known traveling representative in the Midwest, has been appointed to represent in his territory the Arkansas Products Co., Little Rock, Ark., distributors of Hywood (Niloak Pottery) and Camark Pottery.” The Arkansas Products Company was operated by George Rumrill, who later had his own pottery, RumRill, manufactured in the beginning by Red Wing Pottery of Minnesota. In February, 1932, a national trade publication announced that “Soovia Janis, well known by giftware buyers... will represent Camark Pottery in the New York territory.” Her office was located on Fifth Avenue and she would represent Camark Pottery at the next New York National Artwares Show. This appears to be Carnes’ attempt, for the first time, to hand over nationwide distribution of Camark pottery to an independent agent. Janis, whose agency would expand to Janis-Tarter in March, 1932, also had a West Coast office run by H. W. Johnson Company of Los Angeles, California. In addition to its salesroom on New York’s prestigious Fifth Avenue, Janis-Tarter promoted Camark Pottery by showcasing it at tradeshows and giftware conventions across the country. Into the late 1930s, known previews of Camark Pottery, coinciding with trade gatherings, were held in hotels such as the Palmer House in Chicago and the Pennsylvania Hotel in Boston. By 1934 the agency became Janis-Tarter, Greenman, and Najeeb, Inc. and would remain a distributor of Camark until sometime in the 1940s. With national sales representation, the exposure to other ceramic operations was certain. With this increased exposure came the opportunity for other potteries to learn what Camark was having success with and in turn capitalize on it, if possible.
By the early to mid-1930s, several pottery manufacturers, including Coors, Niloak, Pfaltzgraff, Redwing, RumRill, and others, were making or about to set into production several shapes either identical to or somewhat similar to ones being cast at Camark. For example, a comparison of the RumRill Pottery catalog of June 1933 with several Camark catalogs revealed that over 25 identical or similar items were being produced by both companies. With nearly 20 similar shapes, the same copying can be seen between Camark and Muncie. Much speculation has been offered about this copycat mode of operation. It must first be said that Camark copied many shapes from the beginning of its existence. Numerous shapes offered by Camark in 1927, when it instituted art pottery manufacturing, were Fraunfelter and Weller shapes. In answering the question of who copied whom, the issue of the commercial availability of molds on a wholesale basis must be dealt with first. However, no cataloged information by such a ceramic mold manufacturer has surfaced. Yet, if one were to examine a “copied” item such as the ball jug, what conclusions would there be?
Camark’s ball jug was in production at least by the summer of 1931. Camark claimed the next year that it was the originator of the ball-shape water jug. In a national trade magazine advertisement, Camark made this warning: “The tremendous demand for the Original Camark Jug has caused many cheap and inferior imitations to appear on the market. Insist on the original Camark product.” Yet by the very early 1930s, Coors, RumRill, Redwing, and even Niloak had catalogued the ball jug. There is perhaps one aspect that is original to Camark’s ball jug: it made the jug as a music box with the jug having a false bottom.
Did some other ceramic manufacturer make the ball jug before Camark Pottery? It is possible since Carnes, with Camark’s “special order department,” was known to copy items on request. As local tradition has it, Jack Carnes, during a visit to Paris, received his idea for the Climbing Cat from a similar item seen on that trip. The cat, available in several sizes, could be securely perched on trees or walls. It is probable that Carnes purchased the item and upon his return home, had his mold and case maker copy and put it into production. Therefore, with his design department, it may be possible that Carnes saw similar items, such as the ball jug (a somewhat similar item had been manufactured by major pottery manufacturers in Ohio since the turn of the century) which he felt would sell in his markets.
As for copying, it should be noted that there are slight variations from whosever “original” it was, leading to the last possibility which may be the most likely until new research materials surface. Each company’s copying was probably a result of competitive pressure within the market. If Camark was the true originator of the ball jug, it is highly likely that the other companies were aware of its demand by the public and simply had their mold and case makers make the items for their respective companies. Avoiding direct duplication of the ball jug, the variations (e.g., the slight differences in the placement of the handle and spout and the design of the cap) point to the fact that each company directed its design department to make a similar item for its inventory.
The copying of items would continue. There are many items in Camark’s inventory that are similar to, if not exact copies of, other manufacturers’ items, and not just in the ceramic industry, but in glass manufacture as well. The bottom line for Camark was to keep abreast of the trends in the market and either meet them head-on or anticipate new trends as is the case with flower pots. By the mid-1930s, Camark had introduced a line of flower pots (with attached saucers). In a 1939 trade magazine advertisement, Camark announced boldly: “Customers buy spring plants - flower pots are needed for plants — Camark is the best answer.” Camark may have realized the potential for flower pot sales. The company further stated: “It’s all pure logic and common sense. That ‘Spring Tra-La’ motif is more than a song. Soon growing plants will be sold in very large quantities and flower pots will become a necessity if buyers will stock and display them.” Finally, Camark warned wholesale operators to be “sure to see them in time to cater to the flower minded.”
By the mid-1930s, color combination schemes were replaced with monochromatic glazes. By the end of the 1930s, Camark’s designs tended more and more to be simple, mass-produced flower vases, an array of miscellaneous gift shop wares and novelty items, using solid color glazes in either matte or semi-matte finishes. The move from artistic pottery to molded wares was common among many of the potteries in America. Camark was no exception as it concentrated on molded wares beginning in the early to mid-1930s. The lack of hand decorated pottery combined with the increased use of molded wares led Camark to invest in a new kiln for expanding its operations. This decision, during the depths of the Depression, must have been daunting on one hand, and on the other hand, a great source of pride for Carnes.
In 1936, Camark built a continuous tunnel kiln. Reporting for the Arkansas Gazette in January, 1937, Tom Shiras wrote the following about the new kiln: “Until recently the burning at the Camark plant was done in two 14-foot pottery kilns, fired with natural gas. They had a capacity of 4,000 pieces each, but it took eight days to finish the pieces in these kilns. The plant has now a continuous tunnel kiln which produces a finished ware in 20 hours. The tunnel kiln is an innovation in the manufacture of pottery. An endless chain of cars, bearing the pottery, move continuously through a muffled, gas-fired tunnel, acquiring the maximum heat at the halfway point, between the ends and outlet of the tunnel.”
The local newspaper, the Camden Evening News, reported on this installation of the new circular continuous kiln by the Allied Engineering Company of Cleveland, Ohio: “With a diameter of 25 feet and a height of 7 feet and six inches the new improvement had to have a special building of its own.... The modern kiln is fueled by gas and the automatic control is the newest feature which will greatly aid the operator. One man is required to operate the kiln and 2,400 pieces of pottery may be (fired) in a single day. The new machinery, including the new building, cost approximately $15,000. F. T. Henderson, engineer, said that work would be completed about September 15 and operation would begin immediately thereafter.”
The introduction of the tunnel kiln was a major investment, not only in terms of capital outlay at the time, but in Carnes’ estimation of where his company stood economically and to what higher level he wanted to take his pottery operation. The tunnel kiln had only recently become an accepted, standardized piece of equipment for economical production by modern clay products factories. There were certain claimed advantages of the tunnel kiln over the standard periodic (bee hive-shaped) kiln. These advantages included increased percentage of surviving bisque of first quality; lower maintenance and fuel costs; and fewer labor expenses (the placing, firing, and drawing of pottery involved in periodic kilns).
While the tunnel kiln may have saved both time and money, its most important advantage was setting a standard or pace for a pottery operation. Camark Pottery’s installation of the kiln was a huge undertaking. Because this type of kiln could not be placed into an existing operation at Camark, Carnes had to build an entire new building to house the kiln and coordinate and lay out the other operations around the new kiln. More importantly, all other departments, now set to a timetable, had to operate at such a level as to keep pace with the kiln’s firing schedule. Camark Pottery’s survival may have depended on the installation of that kiln. By the mid-1930s, major pottery operations were using this type of kiln, and Camark had to be competitive (increased production with lower cost per units) in order to keep operating on a level playing field.
The commitment to drastically increase production undoubtedly led to a re-evaluation of its use of raw materials. With a greater mass production mode of operations about to begin, the types of clays changed to meet Camark’s needs. By the late 1930s, the reliance on Arkansas clays had decreased (if not completely stopped) as Camark began to utilize clays from outside the state. As mass production, with the circular kiln an important element, became Camark’s focus (with hand turned pottery by Frank Long centered on flower pots), the need for pre-mixed clays had to be a logical choice. Therefore, Camark began purchasing powder clays, pre-packaged with its proper ratios of additives, to compliment the pace of the newly installed tunnel kiln. With the objective to make more and more pottery, sales must have been constant throughout the 1930s, both inside and outside the United States.
Insights into Camark Pottery and its operations were given by Carnes in late 1931 to questions asked by George C. Branner, Arkansas’s state geologist: “The pottery manufactured by Camark is sold in the best stores and shipped into every state in the union and five foreign countries. As to quality, there is none finer than Camark manufactured in this country, competition being based entirely upon diversity of design and color schemes.” Camark’s claims that it sold its products to foreign countries have been proven. In 1936, it was reported that an owner of a gift shop in Havana, Cuba, stated: “This pottery was one of her best sellers to tourists from the United States.” Unlike the unproved claims that Niloak Pottery had foreign sales, especially to Europe, Camark Pottery sales to Cuba and Mexico can be substantiated. Moreover, the son of decorator Ernest Lechner, an avid and devoted stamp collector, still has the many envelopes sent to Camark Pottery by foreign gift shop operators, wholesalers, and distributors and saved by his father. Known foreign purchasers of Camark pottery included Guillermo Diaz, Wholesale Importer & Exporter, from Havana, Cuba, and Alberto Spinola, Representante De Fabricantes of Mexico. Not yet a state of the Union, wares were shipped to the Leilani Gift Shop and Public Stores Company of Honolulu, T. H. (Territory of Hawaii).
Camark continued into the 1940s, relying heavily on molded wares as a means to produce more pottery for an ever increasing buying public while decreasing its per unit costs. In late 1939, however, Camark began production of a totally new pottery line with the hiring of Ernest A. Lechner, Sr. Lechner, who was considered an expert in hand decorations, was very fond of flowers, particularly irises. While not art pottery in the sense of its wares from the 1920s, Lechner’s hand painted lines constitute an attempt by Camark to produce what is now termed industrial artware. Industrial artware is pottery of molded designs in high relief, individually painted but still mass produced. Camark’s artware designed by Lechner includes the patterns of Bas Relief Iris, Festoon of Roses, Sprays of Flowers, Morning Glory, and Full Blown Tulip. After an absence of over ten years, Camark turned its attention back to hand decorated wares. While attempting to convey some artistic intent, Camark’s artware is not art pottery since it lacked individualism in its making and was produced in large quantities.
While the circumstances are not known, Carnes and Lechner made contact sometime in mid-1939. Through an interview conducted over the telephone, Lechner, who had worked at many potteries around the country, was hired at $50 a week. Lechner had worked for companies from New York to Ohio as either a designer or decorator before he was arrived in Arkansas. When the Lechner family arrived in Camden in September, 1939, the plant consisted mostly of tin sheds on the bare ground. Driving down what may have been Camark Road at the time, Lechner was much dismayed by the working conditions at the plant. His son remembers to this day his father’s exclamation, “Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into!”
Ernest Anton Lechner, Sr. was born on July 2, 1882, in Weipert, Czechoslovakia. After learning the pottery trade, including hand decorating, Lechner was hired by a group of “pottery people” who were in his country to secure new employees for a pottery and glass company in New York. Lechner stayed in New York working for a couple of businesses including the Vienna Novelty Manufacturing Company. By the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Lechner worked for pottery and glass companies in Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The companies included Libbey Glass, Limoges China, Pittsfield Pottery, Mt. Clemens Pottery, and Sterling China, as well as his own business, the Artcraft Glass and China Company in Toledo.
In a biography of his father, Ernest A. Lechner, Jr., wrote “again [my father was hired) as a decorator, designer, and advisor in the manufacturing) of pottery. Advisor might be taking some liberty but Camark’s problems were his because how well Camark Pottery (did) was how well he could or would do. He was a master potter and had knowledge of all aspects of the business.... It was a good union and it enabled him to repay his debts he had accumulated and to settle down and enjoy his family and friends.”
Carnes’ hiring of Lechner as Camark’s art director brought immediate results. By December 1939, Camark Pottery was advertising its first hand painted pottery line. Advertised nationally, these “graceful vases... adorned with richly colored, hand-painted underglaze decorations... [of roses had] a continental flair.” The hand painted roses preceded the more recognized and popular Bas Relief Iris pattern, long considered to be Lechner’s first and only work for Camark Pottery. In fact, research indicates that by 1941, several other, different lines were in production before the hand painted Bas Relief Irises. First was a decorated ware with plain flowers and leaves arrangement identified as Sprays of Flowers. Second, in what Camark Pottery described as “charming,” another hand painted, underglaze decorated line called Scenic Countryside featured views of trees, mountains, and lakes. Still another hand painted line, the Castle series, depicted scenic views of castles. Although the Scenic Countryside, Spray of Flowers, and Castle series were advertised more forcefully than any other previous line, it seems that these lines failed to sell, as very, very few have surfaced.
The Festoon of Roses and Sprays of Flowers pieces also had no bas relief. The garland roses and flower sprays were painted directly onto the same shapes available for the other hand painted wares. The background accents for the garland roses were blue, yellow, and rose pink. It is not known what accent colors were used for Sprays of Flowers. Another line by Lechner included Conventional Designs in the three above mentioned accent colors.
The Bas Relief Irises (raised patterns) were hand painted flowers on a cream background with either blue, yellow, or rose pink accents at the top and bottom. From what is available on the markets today, it appears that the Bas Relief Irises were the most popular of the hand painted series by Lechner. The painted flowers for the rose pink and blue were the same for their respective accents while the flowers for the yellow accents were purple. Analyses of local collections reveal that rose pink was the most popular selling color while yellow was the least. Finally, the last known Lechner line was called Morning Glory. However, when comparing catalogs to actual surviving examples, it appears that there are two different Morning Glory lines. The Morning Glory I line can only be seen in the accompanying catalogs. What can be found on the market today, called Morning Glory II, appears in the photograph plates. To date, none of Morning Glory I has surfaced on the market. The Morning Glory II line was available in the same colors as Bas Relief Iris, but is not as commonly found today as is the Bas Relief Iris line. Another decorated line, though not yet confirmed to be a product of Lechner’s, was the Majolica line. It was advertised as an inspiration of “old Majolica.” Using bas relief as well, it was a “combination of white Morning Glories in bas-relief on a background of Green and Chartreuse.” Yet Camark’s artware, limited to Lechner’s work, constituted only a part of its overall production in the 1940s.
Camark made its biggest move, retail wise, in the early 1940s according to information gathered from surviving catalogs. After the introduction of Lechner’s Hand Painted Lines, Camark billed itself as the “Pottery Line of Profit” and issued a double catalog featuring four distinctive pottery lines. Camark felt it had “reached a zenith by the initiative of creating the new and by upholding the quality....” An early 1940s catalog stated to retailers: “This catalog, with retail prices shown..., is being mailed to the public all over the country. These consumers, your customers, will learn more about Camark, will want it more than ever before.... To you this means increased sales.”
For new ideas, Carnes contracted with Joe Lee Alley, the designer and mold and case maker for Niloak Pottery. It is not known yet whether Alley worked with Trifonoff to design shapes or was a temporary stand-in until Carnes could hired a permanent replacement. While Trifonoff was involved in the development of glaze designs, his primary responsibility was as a mold maker. He created over 800 molds for Camark before his departure in the early 1940s. Alley was responsible for many of Niloak’s most popular items during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Alley’s involvement at Camark and Niloak was short as he left Arkansas in 1943. He briefly worked for the Frankoma Pottery in Oklahoma before heading to the Texas Pottery Company in Houston, Texas. It was also during this time that Charles Hyten, co-founder of the Niloak Pottery, worked for Camark as a salesman. Hyten, having lost financial interest in Niloak, also opened Hyten’s Pottery and Gift Shop in Benton and sold a wide range of giftwares including Camark and Fenton Glass.
Camark, not new to reproducing styles and shapes, began in the later years to reproduce classic early American porcelain and glass patterns. Whether pitcher or candlesticks, many objects from the 1700s and the 1800s were copied into ceramic and sold by Camark. Inspiration for much Camark castware came not only from ancient, classical designs, but also from the influences of the French, English, German, Dutch, and Italian. In The Story of Camark Pottery, the models for Camark’s castware included “exact reproductions of designs produced by the ancients as well as original reflections of the modern trend.” By the mid-1940s, over one hundred Camark designs were available in either bright or semi-matt finishes. One distinctively different Camark line was Scratch Ware. According to company literature, Scratch Ware had an outer surface of “shell white” which was hand tooled. The motif for this item came from the theme of “tropic seas and a shell strewn beach.”
Another indication that Camark sought and received a larger, more comprehensive target market was the addition of wholesaler Enterprise Sales and Distributors of Toronto, Canada, by the end of the 1930s. It held the exclusive Canadian rights to sell Camark Pottery. Coming on the heels of World War II, Camark was ever increasing its market share, manufacturing capabilities, and profits. Unlike the Niloak Pottery, whose war efforts have been documented, it is not known what, if any, special duty Camark Pottery performed for the war effort. As for Camark, its pre-war efforts undoubtedly were factors in its survival well after World War Il.
After Lechner began his work on Camark’s Hand Painted line, his contract with Camark changed from a salary to piece work. Instead of a weekly salary, Carnes contracted out to Lechner, under his company, E. A. Lechner Decorating Company, the decorating responsibilities. While Lechner remained on Camark’s property and used its equipment and supplies, Lechner’s pay was based on the total number of finished pieces. Lechner also worked with many of Camark’s employees. He and potter Frank Long became close associates as Long helped implement his ideas for Camark Pottery. One such line that appears to have never reached the production stage was the Pine Cone line.
In 1946, the National Geographic Society sent one of its reporters to travel the state and report on Arkansas’s post World War II economic development. The reporter, Frederick Simpich, spent several weeks in the state gathering information for updating the nation about how Arkansas “woke up in time to join that industrial parade now marching all down the Mississippi valley.” Accompanied by Glenn Green of the Arkansas Resources and Development Commission, Simpich reported on the activities in Camden: “We saw one truckload, worth $3,000, leaving Camden for Kansas City, while another was loading for a big department store in Dallas.... This Camark Pottery at Camden makes about 4,500 pieces a day, which sell for anywhere from 25 cents to $7.50 each. Things made here range from graceful teapots and copies of Greek and Babylonian urns to comic figures of razorback hogs, a ‘cat-and-bowl,’ and two flirting swans.”
The reported daily production, based on 260 working days a year, puts Camark’s annual production capacity at about 1,170,000. This figure is well above the 1938 through 1947 rated annual capacity of 750,000 as reported in the Ceramic Trade Directory, probably a more reliable source. This discrepancy was undoubtedly due to the boasting of the interviewee and the failure to take into account the normal slowdown in manufacturing that occurs during the winter season.
As far as production is concerned, we do have, interestingly enough, an insight into what Lechner produced between 1939 and 1948. Operating under his E. A. Lechner Decorating Company, Lechner prepared an income and inventory statement after he left Camark. The statement reveals that he decorated “328,725 pcs.” of pottery during the near decade he was associated with Camark. Over 175,000 of the pieces were for the Hand Painted lines, and the rest covered items such as lilies, swans, pigs, dogs, parrot pitchers, and miscellaneous figurines, plates, and decorated what-nots. One would quickly assume that any decorated item just listed was produced by Lechner. Unfortunately this is not true since historical information and photographic documentation reveal that many other persons had decorating responsibilities covering the same items. Unless signed by Lechner, there may be no way to know who decorated what or when it was produced. The most interesting aspect of the statement is the listing of “Hand made flowers, Lustre, (and) Gold line” items totaling 3,045 pieces. Descriptively speaking, these are probably the very same types of items Lechner made under the Iros name (i.e., Blooming Flowers, Iridescent, and Gold Trim)! Therefore, if an item is unmarked or not signed, it will be impossible to know whether Lechner even made it or when it was made (for Camark or at Iros?).
Camark Pottery survived the war with its production of ceramic giftwares, though some limitations must have existed due to material shortages. In spite of government imposed shortages on strategic materials (aluminum, brass, copper, gold, and silver) used in the manufacture of decorative gifts, ceramic production was apparently possible for Camark since after the war it was reported many times that Camark’s production peaked during these years.
During the 1940s, Camark employees numbered around 35, and the company had permanent distributors in New York City, Dallas, Birmingham, Seattle, Minneapolis, Abilene, Denver, and Kansas City. By the end of the 1940s, however, American business began to suffer the consequences of the United States government’s intervention in those defeated countries such as Japan and Italy. As part of the effort to rebuild these countries’ destroyed industries for peace time operations, America agreed to allow great volumes of imports into this country for resale. Pottery companies like Camark were just some of the many American industries forced to bear fierce competition. For many ceramic businesses, this was the beginning of the end of their operations.
For Camark Pottery, internal problems began as personnel changes forced adjustments in its operations. In August 1948, Lechner had a heart attack and was paralyzed in both his right hand and left leg. As a result of his illness, he discontinued his association with Camark and spent much of his time reading and listening to the radio while recuperating. As soon as he possibly could, he began to paint, with dogwood trees and flowers being his favorite subjects. According to his daughter, Elsie Lechner Harris, her father took up painting on canvas in his efforts to regain use of his hand. After June 1949, Lechner started the Iros Pottery Decorating Company with a man named John Silliman who owned a furniture store in Camden. Yet it is probable that Lechner was already producing these wares as early as 1948.
Located at 1100 West Washington, Iros Pottery made three distinct lines, all designed by Lechner, using a small kiln. They included handmade Blooming Flowers of candlesticks, bowls, and accent pieces; Iridescent pottery with the glaze process being patented; and Gold Trim. With the exception of the Blooming Flowers line, Iros Pottery marketed products using finished Camark pottery pieces. The Iros pieces with gold trim (low fired at 1300°) are quite possibly the inspiration for the gold decorated Camark pieces made later by the Nor-So Company. Therefore Camark pottery having gold trim without a Nor-So mark is either a product Lechner made while working for Camark or during the time Iros Pottery was operating. The materials needed by Lechner for his Iros Pottery were purchased from Camark Pottery. Iros Pottery folded sometime in 1951 or 1952. According to Lechner’s biography, “he was (an) American by choice and he never regretted it. He was active in the Presbyterian Church and helped form a Lutheran church in Camden. He was a member of the Camden Glee Club and gave regular talks to the Boy Scouts on how pottery was made.” Ernest Anton Lechner, Sr. died on September 30, 1953, and was buried in Toledo, Ohio.
To replace Lechner after he suffered his heart attack, Carnes hired Leonard Kohl as Camark’s new art director. Kohl’s responsibilities at Camark were to continue the Hand Fainted lines (consisting mostly of the Bas Relief Irises). Leonard Kohl was born on November 16, 1902, in Rehau, Germany. After completing the eighth grade, Kohl went to trades school in Rehau and learned ceramics. It was while working at a ceramic factory that agents for the Pickard China Company of Chicago, Illinois, requested artists for its employment. Like Lechner, all expenses were paid to bring Kohl to the United States in return for a contract to work for Pickard for a certain length of time.
Kohl began working for Pickard China in 1923 as a liner (term for one who applied the single gold lines on the china) and was so successful that he soon had the responsibility of teaching others to be liners. Kohl, moving up the ranks, learned the art of decorating under the tutelage of Edward S. Challinor, Pickard’s most celebrated artist. Kohl quit Pickard to design lamps for a new company in Paducah, Kentucky. Unfortunately, the business venture fell through, leaving Kohl out of a job. Kohl was then hired to work at Camark and arrived in Camden during the fall of 1948. His wife and children joined him in March, 1949. As part of his duties, he produced many specialty items for Mrs. Carnes as favors for her guests at dinner parties and as souvenirs for her friends in the Democratic National Committee. In early 1953, Kohl, responding to a blind ad in a ceramic publication, unknowingly reapplied for a job with Pickard China. He was immediately re-hired as the head of its decorating department and left Camark sometime during the early part of 1953.
Camark’s production during the 1950s and beyond continued to center on mass-produced molded ware. As the decade of the 1950s progressed, the Hand Painted wares were slowly discontinued. Hundreds of different simple, nondescript vases and bowls were produced during this period. Other Camark items included many utilitarian wares such as salt and pepper shakers, drinking vessels of all types, and countless numbers of ashtrays. For its castware, all were available in personalized form. Many novelties were made as well, the most popular being the animal figures and miniatures. While not actually a Camark product, Dean Mogle’s Nor-So Company (like Iros) began purchasing many finished items from Camark as early as the mid-1950s, painting them with 24 karat gold, and selling them to retailers.
By the late 1950s, Camark Pottery retailers were located all across the country, from high profile department stores to gift shops in tourist spots. While generally the locations of the out-of-state stores are about all that is known, there were several shops in Arkansas. For the Little Rock area, as mentioned earlier, the Camark Factory Display Store was managed by Charles L. Emerson. Moreover, three different gift shops in the Hot Springs area advertised Camark Pottery, including the Arkansas Pottery Shoppe, the Wilson Mineral Springs Store, and the Lake Hamilton Gift Store. The Lake Hamilton Gift Store was owned by Mrs. Bonnie Van Wagoner. Specializing in Arkansas made gifts, Mrs. Van Wagoner not only dealt in Camark Pottery but also in Arkansas hand blown glass and other ceramics made in the state (probably Dryden Pottery of that city). She also sold Frankoma Pottery. According to full-page advertisements in Giftwares and Home Fashion magazine, Camark was still very much in business in the early 1960s.
Camark advertised some of its most popular items, including the Climbing Cat and the extremely popular S & P salt and pepper shakers and the Early American series of pitchers and bowls. By the mid-1950s, the Climbing Cat was one of Camark’s top sellers. It is still common today to find this cat on trees around many homes in Arkansas and around the South. Full-page ads touted many of Camark’s old time favorites and some of “Camark’s big new line(s)....” One new line introduced was called “Camark’s In Clover: Hand painted clover in natural colors on ivory white glaze.” Apparently an extremely rare item today, Camark’s in Clover came in three identified shapes, the Hearthside Cat, Bunny Rabbit planter, and the Graceful Swan planter. The artist who was responsible for these decorated items is not known. In the late 1950s, one event in Camden would forever change the course of Camark pottery. On September 25, 1958, Jack Carnes died. Carnes had always been the guiding force behind Camark’s success and survival.
Unfortunately, little is known (except contradicting information) about the intervening years between Carnes’ death and the next chapter of Camark’s history beginning in 1965. Just a couple of years after Jack Carnes’ death, his widow sold Camark Pottery, lock, stock, and barrel, to W. A. “Red” Daniel, Wallace Hurley, LeRoy Paul, and Bill Cook. Dennis Daniel, son of “Red” and Mary Daniel, states that $35,000 was paid for Camark Pottery, and upon its purchase, the pottery was closed. Daniel remembers that the pottery had been “losing money for a long time” and much of the pottery was “badly made” and its production “not in fashion.”
Ernie Deane, a popular Arkansas writer and then feature writer of the Arkansas Gazette, wrote about Camark Pottery with his information based on an interview with Al Rose (actually Hale Roe, Camark’s long time bookkeeper). Deane wrote that the pottery had been closed in 1963. But by the time of his article (1965), the plant had been reopened with George Smith as superintendent. The business had 25 employees, clays were from Kentucky and Tennessee, and production was at one-third capacity (750-800 pieces daily). The Climbing Cat was the number one seller at the time. However, Morris Venable, the last superintendent for Camark Pottery, stated that the plant was closed throughout the early 1960s. With production ceased, the two rotary kilns having not been fired in a number of years, the new owners simply operated an on-site retail store to sell off the remaining large inventory of pottery. Regardless of whether or not the pottery was manufacturing wares, Camark was nonetheless getting ready for a renewed life.
On January 5, 1965, after Camark Pottery had been in business for nearly 40 years, articles of incorporation papers were signed establishing Camark Pottery Incorporated. The next day, the papers were filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office by Mary G. Daniel, LeRoy Paul, and Charles E. Plunkett. The nature of business for Camark Pottery Incorporated was to “make, manufacture, produce, process, compound, create, buy, sell, and deal in pottery and pottery products of all kinds, types, and descriptions.” The corporation’s “total amount of authorized capital stock” was $100,000, divided into 1,000 shares with a par value of $100 each. Daniel, Paul, and Plunkett each invested $100, therefore owning one share apiece with a total of $300 being inscribed to the corporation. The corporation’s location was at the plant on Camark Road. Plunkett, with an office at 139 Jackson Street, was named agent for the corporation. Soon thereafter, Venable was hired to help “start the pottery back up.” He was hired by George Smith and was responsible at first for loading and unloading the kilns during the graveyard shift.
When Venable started, there were about 20 employees including both men and women. Venable remembers that women played an important role as trimmers and finishers of greenware (unfired pottery just out of the molds) and bisque (pottery fired once and ready for finishing and glazing). They also had responsibility for decorating and sales. Venable also provided detailed insights into the internal operations at the pottery. There were several kilns at the plant including the large tunnel kiln (installed back in the 1930s), a small tunnel kiln, a box kiln, and a portable electric kiln. The large tunnel kiln (that took four days to heat up) had 20 wide rail cars. It was used to fire the glazed pottery at a temperature of 1940°. The small tunnel kiln (time of installation unknown) had 16 narrow cars and was used to fire the greenware into bisque at a temperature of 1840°. The box kiln was used strictly for experiments and firing pottery that had either gold or decals applied to them. Venable remembers that the pottery ran very well during 1965, but the pottery was briefly shut down again within a year or two.
When the pottery reopened in the late 1960s, Mrs. Daniel promoted Morris Venable to replace George Smith. She also turned over the responsibility for the pottery’s operation to her son and gave him 25% interest in the corporation. Dennis Daniel recalls that the showroom display always sold well. He wanted to “modernize” the plant since he believed the point of profit meant “produc(ing) and sell(ing) 1,000 pieces a day.” While Venable’s promotion was to the position of kiln burner, his responsibilities quickly grew to include overseeing the complete operations at Camark Pottery. Shortly after Venable’s promotion, Camark received a special order for pottery lamp bases but was unable to deliver the products because of serious production flaws. It appears that Camark never again achieved a successful level of operation and soon changes in ownership occurred. Toward the end of the 1960s, Hurley and Paul sold their shares to Mrs. Daniel as Cook sought to buy her out and start a new pottery line. However, Mrs. Daniel ultimately bought out Cook by 1970. Many factors, including internal affairs and decreases in sales, may have caused losses in profits. Since there were no salesmen, sales came from visitors to the pottery or orders from owners of established gift shops.
According to Venable, the pottery experienced a slowdown, and by 1971 the big kiln was permanently shut down after one last firing. In either 1975 or 1976, the company laid everyone off except Venable. He stayed on as a one-man operation and was responsible for everything from mixing the “mud” (using a Kentucky ball clay which was purchased in 50 lb. sacks), decorating the pottery, firing the kiln, and selling the pottery. The clay came in powder form, already prepared with the proper additives, and was turned into mud in two large mixing vats. Venable remembers times when things were quite hectic; he would be back in the plant mixing the mud and someone would drive up to purchase some pottery.
During his tenure, Venable recalled that the Climbing Cats, cat fishbowls, and the Graceful Swans were always the most popular selling Camark items. Working alone at the plant, he decorated the swans, put eyes on the cats, and put the collar, eyes, and spot patterns on the dogs. He also did the “Old Butts and Ashes” ashtrays. Just recently Venable walked into a store and saw such an ashtray with his handwriting. He ended up buying the item, but he bemoaned the fact that he had to pay quite a lot for an item that cost so little just over 20 years ago.
Venable also designed pottery using local clays. In the late 1970s, Mrs. Daniel instructed him to experiment with clays from Bluff City. He made slab pottery items in the likeness of fish. These were incised with details of scales and fins. While this idea never reached production, it was a project he enjoyed and would have liked to expand. He also dabbled in glaze decorations. Using color combinations with bright glazes, he made his own versions of one color dripped over another. From the late 1970s into the early 1980s, the business barely survived, according to Venable. Sales were modest with neither slumps nor peak periods. Wholesalers, many regular customers for many years, continued to purchase the more popular items and sometimes even requested pieces not currently in stock. One of the last wholesale buyers was the Walker Gift Shop in Sheridan. Tours of the pottery continued to bring sales for Camark, and Venable remembered tour buses regularly stopped at Camden and visited the pottery plant.
Tours of the pottery had been a regular event at Camark for many years. Many fond memories of visits to Camark by local residents are recalled today. It was not uncommon for Camden residents to take visiting relatives and friends for a sight-seeing tour of the pottery on a Sunday afternoon. Martha King, a Camden native, remembered several such occasions. “As a child in the late 1930s and early 1940s, we could go in the production building and see the pottery as it came out of the molds, or we could watch Mr. Frank Long as he turned pottery on the wheel, shaping and molding (the piece) with his hands,” she said.
She stated further, “Camark was the only place we had of any interest to take visitors in our small town. Having grown up with the pottery, we thought much of it was tacky and were not interested in it. The display room was really two rooms in a cellar of the warehouse building. It had old wooden floors and the two rooms were called firsts and seconds. In the ‘firsts’ room, the perfect pottery was on display, grouped on wooden shelves and most of the pottery was (priced) anywhere from 25 to probably not more than $7.50 per piece, depending on what piece it was. In the ‘seconds’ room all the pottery was spread out on the floor in different groups and sold for 10c up, depending on how bad a flaw it had. There were stacks of newspaper in the display room and purchases were wrapped in the newspapers and put in paper grocery bags.”
Finally, Mrs. King recalled the last time she remembered visiting the pottery. Sometime during the 1950s when she took her two sons to the pottery plant, “the display rooms remained the same.... (T)he pottery was still being wrapped in newspaper, but prices had risen — where in (the 1930s) one could purchase an item for 10 cents, the same piece in the (1950s) had risen to 50 cents. These visits were so fascinating to (me) and made such a lasting impression, that now in my senior years the memories are so vivid.”
But not even Camark’s reputation could keep the plant going forever. Morris Venable, with instructions from Mrs. Daniel, closed the doors in December, 1982 to manufacturing operations. He does not remember why Camark quit making pottery. He remembered sales were about the same in 1982 as they were throughout the 1970s. He stayed on for about two years selling pottery from the store.
While not the end of the story of Camark, Venable’s departure around 1984 marks the final chapter. The Daniel family sold the pottery to Charles Ashcraft, a local minister who had two sons, Mark and Gary, who were interested in pottery. Venable was asked to come back to work, but he declined the offer. Instead, he helped out by answering questions and assisting on matters he could help with at the time of transition. In early 1986, a notice of change was made for the corporation with V. Benton Rollins replacing Plunkett as agent, and an address change from 139 Jackson to 143 Jackson, with both entries made by Mark Ashcraft, secretary-treasurer. According to long time Camden resident Dr. Fred Dietrich, Charles Ashcraft hired a local man to break most of the remaining Camark Pottery molds into at least three to five pieces each. The Ashcrafts apparently sought to produce a totally new line of pottery and not use the existing molds. To date, however, the pottery has not reopened, but its history and wares remain a part of many lives in the Camden area.
Camark Pottery outlasted many older ceramic companies through its ability to know its markets and adapt to the many external factors it faced. For nearly 40 years, Camark remained a viable operation within the American ceramic industry, outlasting many older ceramic companies. From the Lessells to the Sebaughs to Tetzschner and Trifonoff, these artists were responsible for art pottery manufacturing at Camark. While each one’s talents were different, their unique efforts placed Camark within the mainstream of the American art pottery movement.
Personnel changes, the influences of supply and demand, and national economic conditions resulted in a fundamental shift in Camark ceramic production away from art pottery manufacture. The industrial artware by Lechner and Kohl continued a tradition of artistic wares which had been a long-time theme within the American ceramic industry. Last, their efforts helped the company to continue operating for many more years as a major pottery manufacturer whose products were widely distributed throughout the United States. The closing of Camark was a great loss to Camden’s business community and another blow to America’s capacity to compete within the international ceramic industry. The company’s closing ended Camark’s unique contribution to Arkansas and national cultural, artistic, and business history.
From the beginning, Camark had no direct competition in the region except perhaps that of the Niloak Pottery Company in Benton (Saline County). Camark overcame many challenges to achieve early success, even though Benton had a much longer, deeper tradition in ceramic operations. Compared to Saline County where local ceramic businesses
had been operating since the 1870s, and despite the fact that Ouachita County had extensive deposits of clay similar to those in Saline County, the early history of clay manufacturers in Ouachita County is minimal and not well documented.
There were a few early pottery making attempts as incorporation records as the Ouachita County Courthouse reveal. In 1891, the Arkansas Coal, Gas, Fire Clay and Manufacturing Company filed Articles of Agreement to “acquire and own real estate, min(e), and deal...in coal and fire clay.” A few years later the Hibbard Mining and Manufacturing
Company incorporated for the purpose of “owning and operating mines, doing a general mining business, (and) manufacturing paints, rubber, oil, gas, brick, fire clay…” In 1910, a direct effort to “ship and mine clay, and its manufactured products” was undertaken by the Camden Coal and Clay Company. Further information, however, is unavailable to determine the viability of these companies and whether or not they actually engaged in any ceramic operations.
Three important elements (besides available clay deposits) for the development of a viable ceramic industry were available in Camden by the mid-1920s: adequate transportation, ample fuel, and an available labor market. With three railroads, the St. Louis Southwestern, the Missouri Pacific and Chicago, and the Rock Island and Pacific, having regular trunk lines through Camden, the then-navigable Ouachita River, and developing tie-in to the Arkansas highway system, Camark possessed plentiful transportation facilities. Camden’s proximity to the oil and gas fields of south Arkansas and to Arkansas Power and Light Company’s hydro-electric dam on the Ouachita River provided the city with permanent, inexpensive, and unlimited supplies of power for both industrial and private use. In addition, there
was an ample supply of both skilled and unskilled labor. Bringing these factors together for the development of the extensive clay deposits was the Camden Chamber of Commerce under the capable leadership of Luther Ellison, its secretary. During the mid-1920s, Ellison successfully lured many important businesses to Arkansas including International Paper, Houston Refinery, and plants for manufacturing screen doors and furniture. These factors, the availability of clay near the Chidester and Lester area, and Samuel Jacob “Jack” Carnes’ knowledge of Ohio’s ceramic industry ensured a solid foundation for a successful pottery operation in Arkansas.
The basis for Camark Pottery’s founding was the direct result of the efforts of the Camden Chamber of Commerce and many individuals. In 1925 the Camden Chamber of Commerce launched a campaign to increase industrial development in its area. Starting with a budget of nearly $50,000, the Chamber undertook the task of attracting outside investors looking for favorable industrial sites. Jack Carnes had been in Camden since 1922 and would later take advantage of the natural resources and economic opportunities to establish the Camden Art Tile and Pottery Company. The pottery started as a collaborative effort by a group of associates in 1926. These associates included Carnes, Ellison, artist John B. Lessell, and ceramist Stephen J. Sebaugh.
Jack Carnes, a native of Ohio, knew of art pottery manufacture around Zanesville, Ohio. Carnes sought to realize his vision of turning Camden into a second Zanesville by exploiting the availability of cheap gas, an ample supply of clay and labor, and the economic boom of south Arkansas. Ellison, known in Camden as the “human dynamo,” was responsible for securing a land donation to bring Camark pottery to south Arkansas. John Lessell, former art director for the Weller Pottery of Zanesville, was a pioneer designer, artist, and decorator of luster and iridescent finishes. John, his wife Jennie, and her daughter Billie, initiated Camark’s production of art pottery by continuing a legacy that John began shortly after the turn of the century. Stephen Sebaugh, a long-time friend and peer, had worked with Lessell for 20 years. Sebaugh and his sons had the collective knowledge and skill needed to operate a pottery concern. With other talented ceramic professionals, these associates initiated plans to build a modern plant to commence the commercial manufacturing of art pottery.
This gathering of a talented group of artists, designers, ceramists, and other clay-workers was responsible for instituting particular art pottery concepts including luster and iridescent treatments, Modernistic and Futuristic designs, and a vast variety of colored glaze combinations. The original workers included Charles and Edmond Sebaugh, Alfred P. Tetzschner, Frank Long, and Boris Trifonoff. Camark’s accomplishments in art pottery manufacture began with the Lessell ware in late 1926 and ended in the early 1930s with artistic emphases in color combinations and mold designs. Camark’s early production not only placed it in the annals of the American art pottery movement but also helped the company build a solid economic foundation that carried it through many years as a major pottery manufacturer.
Art pottery is defined as ceramics made with aesthetic intent on the part of the maker on a limited scale. Camark’s art pottery history can be divided into three phases. The first phase involves the Lessell ware and LeCamark lines of luster and iridescent pottery. The second phase includes the production of Modernistic and Futuristic designs, the Crackle line, and some traditional glaze treatments. The third and last phase, with no decorated ware, includes the use of traditional glazed pottery of solid or combination colors. With factors like personnel changes, supply and demand, and economics involved, each phase’s end resulted in a fundamental shift in ceramic production with Camark slowly moving away from art pottery manufacture.
Back in 1926, Jack Carnes and John Lessell began an association to make art pottery of luster and iridescent designs from Arkansas clay. Carnes had shipped some Arkansas clays to Lessell in Ohio for testing. Satisfied with the results of his tests, Lessell produced Camark’s first wares of luster and iridescent designs. They were signed “Lessell” and shipped back to Arkansas in early 1927 and were first displayed in Camden at the Camden Paint and Glass Company, where Carnes was both president and a stockholder. The Camden Paint and Glass Company was in business for the “wholesale and retail of paint, oils, wallpaper, glass, pottery, and kindred lines.”
Upon Lessell’s untimely death in December, 1926, Carnes hired Lessell’s wife, Jennie, as art director. When production at Camark began by May, 1927 with 15 employees, the luster and iridescent line was called LeCamark and resulted from the collective body of knowledge of Jennie Lessell and Stephen and Charles Sebaugh. Some of the first pieces of LeCamark were on display and for sale at the Auld Lang Syne Gift Shop in Camden.
These Lessell and LeCamark wares were based on proven designs used in John Lessell’s past works. Camark’s luster wares included the Lessell and Oxblood (Silver Luster) designs. The iridescent line, called Old English, came in three colors: gray-blue, rose, and ivory. Camark also produced Coraline. With a textured body, Coraline has wavy or irregular lines sometimes filled with gold. These designs were primarily based on Lessell’s work at Ohio potteries. A totally new luster was Camark’s Venetian and Jeanne designs which had backgrounds of mirror black and textured, flat black, respectively, upon which luster Jonquil, Poppy, and Conventional designs were placed. All these items were produced in limited quantities, but they received immediate acceptance from the buying public.
By July, there were 25 employees and the Camden Evening News reported: “Camark Pottery is the newest wonder product of the Wonder State and... its product has advertised this city over the entire country. Camark has met with almost instantaneous popularity in just the few weeks it has been on the market, salesmen of the company are meeting with great success and a great number of the larger stores and gift houses, especially in the home state, have adorned their cases and shelves with this attractive ware....”
The Camden Evening News also stated that the “Camden pottery [was] to be introduced into the north and east by six specialty salesmen.... “12 The earliest known salesman for Camark Pottery was Sam Cox. Cox had worked for Carnes at his Camden Paint and Glass Company until June of 1927. By the end of the year, his territory included Texas and Missouri. By summer’s end, Carnes secured W. H. Rardon of San Francisco as its sales representative for California. Within days after Rardon’s selection as sales representative, Camark had received several substantial orders providing evidence that the pottery was finding ready sales in that state. By the beginning of 1928, “Paul A. Bohn, of Pasadena, Calif., manufacturer’s representative for highest grade art wares in the West, ha(d) announced the representation for 1928, of an art line featuring Camark Pottery.... He term(ed) Camark as ‘art pottery’ of character and beauty... executed by expert designers, skilled potters, and experienced decorators.” Also in 1928, the R. E. Ashton and Company of Chicago was advertising the “colorful Camark pottery in its numerous new finishes and shapes (which) holds a charm all its own.”
By the end of the 1927, Jack Carnes told the Camden Evening News that “the factory is run over with holiday business and plans are under way to enlarge the plant soon after January 1st, to handle a half million dollars or more business in 1928.” The newspaper further reported that: “Camark pottery is the result of the vision, faith, and energy of Jack Carnes.... Camden is ideally situated for the development of this industry. Zanesville, Ohio, is a large city due almost entirely to the clay products industries located there. With the great growing south and west for a market Camden can be developed into a second Zanesville.” In early 1928, employment at the pottery reached 30 workers, and it was manufacturing over 100 special designs of pottery. However, whether the plant was expanded in 1928 has not yet been determined.
With the departure of Jennie and Billie Lessell in late 1927, Camark began its first transition in art pottery manufacture as Alfred Tetzschner became head of the art department. At this time, Camark publicized the first commercially produced futuristic and modernistic pottery. Involving over twelve different designs developed by Tetzschner, Camark’s Modernistic/Futuristic line grew out of a design element derived from a new style from France’s 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale (some similar design elements to Art Deco). The Modernistic/Futuristic line appears to be Camark’s first true artistic endeavor as opposed to the Lessell luster designs. By June, 1928, the trade publication Ceramic Industry announced: “Camden Pottery Develops Modernistic Artware.” Charles Sebaugh, Camark’s plant manager, wrote “that the modernistic art pottery carries bright and contrasting colors....” Becoming popular after World War I, it “was then that the Camden (Ark.) Art Tile & Pottery Co. blazed the way in America... ‘It is true’ says Mr. Sebaugh, ‘that every age expresses itself in a distinctive style, and our modern age expresses itself in one way—in Modernistic art.’”
Camark’s Crackle, found in colors of yellow, orange, ivory, green, blue, and gold, was another popular line by Tetzschner. These pieces mimic an ancient design element, duplicating a glaze technique known as crazing (the intended or unintentional cracking of a glaze over a ceramic vessel). Tetzschner, with his Modernistic/Futuristic and Crackles lines, did not work alone. Tetzschner’s mode of operations at Camark Pottery paralleled those of other great early American art pottery manufacturers.
In 1928, Tom Shiras, the “walking editor of the Ozark” visited the plant and reported on and interviewed workers at Camark. In an expanded article written later for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Shiras observed that the “artist (Tetzschner) works out all the designs that are to go on the exterior, finishing each one completely. Girls with artistic ability then copy the originals.” This same mode of decorating was used extensively at Newcomb College and Grueby Pottery. Shiras also provided a description of the plant as it existed in 1928: “The equipment of the Camark plant consist(s) of two 14-foot (in diameter) pottery kilns, fired with natural gas. These have a capacity of 4,000 average pieces to the kilns and annual average production capacity of 1,500,000 pieces; there have been times when the entire capacity was needed. Other departments of the plant are a molding room, pattern room, where new designs are turned on a potter’s wheel and lathe, and special orders filled, and a decorating room, where all the art work is done by hand.”
Descriptions of the behind-the-scene activities by former employees from the 1920s and 1930s are rare. One has surfaced telling of the experiences of Eugene Prince. Working as a glaze “dipper,” Prince was at the pottery from about 1929 to about 1936. In a 1987 newspaper interview with the Camden News, Prince provided insights into the Camark Pottery operation. A part of the dip room crew, he started working for a weekly wage of $6.05. By the time he left he was making $25.00 a week. He noted several glazes he remembered including ivory, sea green, olive green, and cobalt blue. More interestingly, he gave the only known description for a glaze of “light green with variegated colors” named Sasnakra, Arkansas spelled backwards.
During his interview, Prince made other comments about the operations: “Prince said the kiln used to fire the pottery after it was dipped was heated... up to 2600 degrees. The kilns had little ‘cones’ that were used as heat indicators.... The pottery was fired (for) at least 26 hours.... (T)here (were no) fans in the factory, and it was hot in the summer, but everyone stayed warm in the winter.” Prince would have probably retired from Camark, but he developed lead poisoning, a common ailment found within the ceramic industry. “In spite of the health hazard of the pottery, Prince said he enjoyed the work. ‘It wasn’t work, it was play. We could do all what we wanted to as long as we kept the pottery going.’”
There were other artistic endeavors of the late 1920s including traditional glaze manipulation like the tri-chromatic Yellow & Blue and bi-chromatic Green & Blue. In addition, other artistic glazed wares included Blue & White Stipple, Gray & Blue Mottled, and Celestial Blue Black Overflow. Only a small part of Camark’s production during the first two years, art pottery with glaze manipulations increased slowly due to either the lack of trained decorators or ever present economic pressures which forced a more limited artistic direction.
As the decade came to a close, the focus on art pottery by hand methods (hand thrown pottery and/or hand decorated pieces) changed, and this ended Camark’s second art pottery phase. Camark needed to decrease overhead and raise production as the Depression began to affect sales in the early 1930s. In response, Camark increased its production with mass-produced molded pieces with simple color combination patterns. The most popular ones were Rose Green Overflow and Orange Green Overflow, influenced, if not developed by Boris Trifonoff. While most of the ceramic shapes typically possessed no artistic influence, the notable exceptions were the Art Deco forms of the early 1930s. These simple color combinations and Deco forms comprise Camark third art pottery phase. With no decorated wares throughout most of the 1930s, traditional glazed pottery of primarily solid colors was the company’s focus. With factors like economics, public taste, and internal affairs involved, a fundamental shift occurred in ceramic production with Camark slowly moving away from art pottery manufacture toward the mass production of castware. The internal affairs involved the personnel changes caused by the unexpected deaths of Stephen and Charles Sebaugh in 1933. As indicated earlier, the Sebaugh family was important to Camark’s operations. Their collective knowledge and skills in clay operations enabled the successful implementation of Camark efforts to compete within the ceramic industry. With this great loss of Camark’s key personnel, the changes toward greater mass production may have been instigated sooner than expected. Paralleling a desire to produce more pottery, Carnes also needed new outlets for Camark pottery, and he began seeking new places to sell his pottery across the country.
Up to the end of the 1920s, Camark operated primarily as a wholesaler within the ceramic trade. However, with the start of the new decade, new sales and display rooms were established in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pasadena, San Francisco, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Memphis. In addition, sales headquarters were established in both Iowa and Nebraska. Because Camark operated primarily as a wholesaler, the earliest of Camark’s art pottery is nearly impossible to locate within the state, as a very large percentage of production was shipped outside the state. By the early 1930s, however, Camark Pottery opened its first retail outlet in Arkansas. Charles L. Emerson operated the Camark Factory Display Store on Highway 5, west of Little Rock. The small store, with its unique facade of the outline of the state of Arkansas, continued Camark’s efforts to boost the “Land of Opportunity” state. (Arkansas’ current motto is “The Natural State.”) The former state motto was definitely appropriate for Camark as it continued to build an economic foundation for itself by expanding into retail markets. Another factor in the Camark’s economic success was the hiring of more sales representatives across the United States.
George H. Hall, a regional representative, was hired by Camark Pottery in the early 1930s. A national trade publication announced that Hall, “well-known traveling representative in the Midwest, has been appointed to represent in his territory the Arkansas Products Co., Little Rock, Ark., distributors of Hywood (Niloak Pottery) and Camark Pottery.” The Arkansas Products Company was operated by George Rumrill, who later had his own pottery, RumRill, manufactured in the beginning by Red Wing Pottery of Minnesota. In February, 1932, a national trade publication announced that “Soovia Janis, well known by giftware buyers... will represent Camark Pottery in the New York territory.” Her office was located on Fifth Avenue and she would represent Camark Pottery at the next New York National Artwares Show. This appears to be Carnes’ attempt, for the first time, to hand over nationwide distribution of Camark pottery to an independent agent. Janis, whose agency would expand to Janis-Tarter in March, 1932, also had a West Coast office run by H. W. Johnson Company of Los Angeles, California. In addition to its salesroom on New York’s prestigious Fifth Avenue, Janis-Tarter promoted Camark Pottery by showcasing it at tradeshows and giftware conventions across the country. Into the late 1930s, known previews of Camark Pottery, coinciding with trade gatherings, were held in hotels such as the Palmer House in Chicago and the Pennsylvania Hotel in Boston. By 1934 the agency became Janis-Tarter, Greenman, and Najeeb, Inc. and would remain a distributor of Camark until sometime in the 1940s. With national sales representation, the exposure to other ceramic operations was certain. With this increased exposure came the opportunity for other potteries to learn what Camark was having success with and in turn capitalize on it, if possible.
By the early to mid-1930s, several pottery manufacturers, including Coors, Niloak, Pfaltzgraff, Redwing, RumRill, and others, were making or about to set into production several shapes either identical to or somewhat similar to ones being cast at Camark. For example, a comparison of the RumRill Pottery catalog of June 1933 with several Camark catalogs revealed that over 25 identical or similar items were being produced by both companies. With nearly 20 similar shapes, the same copying can be seen between Camark and Muncie. Much speculation has been offered about this copycat mode of operation. It must first be said that Camark copied many shapes from the beginning of its existence. Numerous shapes offered by Camark in 1927, when it instituted art pottery manufacturing, were Fraunfelter and Weller shapes. In answering the question of who copied whom, the issue of the commercial availability of molds on a wholesale basis must be dealt with first. However, no cataloged information by such a ceramic mold manufacturer has surfaced. Yet, if one were to examine a “copied” item such as the ball jug, what conclusions would there be?
Camark’s ball jug was in production at least by the summer of 1931. Camark claimed the next year that it was the originator of the ball-shape water jug. In a national trade magazine advertisement, Camark made this warning: “The tremendous demand for the Original Camark Jug has caused many cheap and inferior imitations to appear on the market. Insist on the original Camark product.” Yet by the very early 1930s, Coors, RumRill, Redwing, and even Niloak had catalogued the ball jug. There is perhaps one aspect that is original to Camark’s ball jug: it made the jug as a music box with the jug having a false bottom.
Did some other ceramic manufacturer make the ball jug before Camark Pottery? It is possible since Carnes, with Camark’s “special order department,” was known to copy items on request. As local tradition has it, Jack Carnes, during a visit to Paris, received his idea for the Climbing Cat from a similar item seen on that trip. The cat, available in several sizes, could be securely perched on trees or walls. It is probable that Carnes purchased the item and upon his return home, had his mold and case maker copy and put it into production. Therefore, with his design department, it may be possible that Carnes saw similar items, such as the ball jug (a somewhat similar item had been manufactured by major pottery manufacturers in Ohio since the turn of the century) which he felt would sell in his markets.
As for copying, it should be noted that there are slight variations from whosever “original” it was, leading to the last possibility which may be the most likely until new research materials surface. Each company’s copying was probably a result of competitive pressure within the market. If Camark was the true originator of the ball jug, it is highly likely that the other companies were aware of its demand by the public and simply had their mold and case makers make the items for their respective companies. Avoiding direct duplication of the ball jug, the variations (e.g., the slight differences in the placement of the handle and spout and the design of the cap) point to the fact that each company directed its design department to make a similar item for its inventory.
The copying of items would continue. There are many items in Camark’s inventory that are similar to, if not exact copies of, other manufacturers’ items, and not just in the ceramic industry, but in glass manufacture as well. The bottom line for Camark was to keep abreast of the trends in the market and either meet them head-on or anticipate new trends as is the case with flower pots. By the mid-1930s, Camark had introduced a line of flower pots (with attached saucers). In a 1939 trade magazine advertisement, Camark announced boldly: “Customers buy spring plants - flower pots are needed for plants — Camark is the best answer.” Camark may have realized the potential for flower pot sales. The company further stated: “It’s all pure logic and common sense. That ‘Spring Tra-La’ motif is more than a song. Soon growing plants will be sold in very large quantities and flower pots will become a necessity if buyers will stock and display them.” Finally, Camark warned wholesale operators to be “sure to see them in time to cater to the flower minded.”
By the mid-1930s, color combination schemes were replaced with monochromatic glazes. By the end of the 1930s, Camark’s designs tended more and more to be simple, mass-produced flower vases, an array of miscellaneous gift shop wares and novelty items, using solid color glazes in either matte or semi-matte finishes. The move from artistic pottery to molded wares was common among many of the potteries in America. Camark was no exception as it concentrated on molded wares beginning in the early to mid-1930s. The lack of hand decorated pottery combined with the increased use of molded wares led Camark to invest in a new kiln for expanding its operations. This decision, during the depths of the Depression, must have been daunting on one hand, and on the other hand, a great source of pride for Carnes.
In 1936, Camark built a continuous tunnel kiln. Reporting for the Arkansas Gazette in January, 1937, Tom Shiras wrote the following about the new kiln: “Until recently the burning at the Camark plant was done in two 14-foot pottery kilns, fired with natural gas. They had a capacity of 4,000 pieces each, but it took eight days to finish the pieces in these kilns. The plant has now a continuous tunnel kiln which produces a finished ware in 20 hours. The tunnel kiln is an innovation in the manufacture of pottery. An endless chain of cars, bearing the pottery, move continuously through a muffled, gas-fired tunnel, acquiring the maximum heat at the halfway point, between the ends and outlet of the tunnel.”
The local newspaper, the Camden Evening News, reported on this installation of the new circular continuous kiln by the Allied Engineering Company of Cleveland, Ohio: “With a diameter of 25 feet and a height of 7 feet and six inches the new improvement had to have a special building of its own.... The modern kiln is fueled by gas and the automatic control is the newest feature which will greatly aid the operator. One man is required to operate the kiln and 2,400 pieces of pottery may be (fired) in a single day. The new machinery, including the new building, cost approximately $15,000. F. T. Henderson, engineer, said that work would be completed about September 15 and operation would begin immediately thereafter.”
The introduction of the tunnel kiln was a major investment, not only in terms of capital outlay at the time, but in Carnes’ estimation of where his company stood economically and to what higher level he wanted to take his pottery operation. The tunnel kiln had only recently become an accepted, standardized piece of equipment for economical production by modern clay products factories. There were certain claimed advantages of the tunnel kiln over the standard periodic (bee hive-shaped) kiln. These advantages included increased percentage of surviving bisque of first quality; lower maintenance and fuel costs; and fewer labor expenses (the placing, firing, and drawing of pottery involved in periodic kilns).
While the tunnel kiln may have saved both time and money, its most important advantage was setting a standard or pace for a pottery operation. Camark Pottery’s installation of the kiln was a huge undertaking. Because this type of kiln could not be placed into an existing operation at Camark, Carnes had to build an entire new building to house the kiln and coordinate and lay out the other operations around the new kiln. More importantly, all other departments, now set to a timetable, had to operate at such a level as to keep pace with the kiln’s firing schedule. Camark Pottery’s survival may have depended on the installation of that kiln. By the mid-1930s, major pottery operations were using this type of kiln, and Camark had to be competitive (increased production with lower cost per units) in order to keep operating on a level playing field.
The commitment to drastically increase production undoubtedly led to a re-evaluation of its use of raw materials. With a greater mass production mode of operations about to begin, the types of clays changed to meet Camark’s needs. By the late 1930s, the reliance on Arkansas clays had decreased (if not completely stopped) as Camark began to utilize clays from outside the state. As mass production, with the circular kiln an important element, became Camark’s focus (with hand turned pottery by Frank Long centered on flower pots), the need for pre-mixed clays had to be a logical choice. Therefore, Camark began purchasing powder clays, pre-packaged with its proper ratios of additives, to compliment the pace of the newly installed tunnel kiln. With the objective to make more and more pottery, sales must have been constant throughout the 1930s, both inside and outside the United States.
Insights into Camark Pottery and its operations were given by Carnes in late 1931 to questions asked by George C. Branner, Arkansas’s state geologist: “The pottery manufactured by Camark is sold in the best stores and shipped into every state in the union and five foreign countries. As to quality, there is none finer than Camark manufactured in this country, competition being based entirely upon diversity of design and color schemes.” Camark’s claims that it sold its products to foreign countries have been proven. In 1936, it was reported that an owner of a gift shop in Havana, Cuba, stated: “This pottery was one of her best sellers to tourists from the United States.” Unlike the unproved claims that Niloak Pottery had foreign sales, especially to Europe, Camark Pottery sales to Cuba and Mexico can be substantiated. Moreover, the son of decorator Ernest Lechner, an avid and devoted stamp collector, still has the many envelopes sent to Camark Pottery by foreign gift shop operators, wholesalers, and distributors and saved by his father. Known foreign purchasers of Camark pottery included Guillermo Diaz, Wholesale Importer & Exporter, from Havana, Cuba, and Alberto Spinola, Representante De Fabricantes of Mexico. Not yet a state of the Union, wares were shipped to the Leilani Gift Shop and Public Stores Company of Honolulu, T. H. (Territory of Hawaii).
Camark continued into the 1940s, relying heavily on molded wares as a means to produce more pottery for an ever increasing buying public while decreasing its per unit costs. In late 1939, however, Camark began production of a totally new pottery line with the hiring of Ernest A. Lechner, Sr. Lechner, who was considered an expert in hand decorations, was very fond of flowers, particularly irises. While not art pottery in the sense of its wares from the 1920s, Lechner’s hand painted lines constitute an attempt by Camark to produce what is now termed industrial artware. Industrial artware is pottery of molded designs in high relief, individually painted but still mass produced. Camark’s artware designed by Lechner includes the patterns of Bas Relief Iris, Festoon of Roses, Sprays of Flowers, Morning Glory, and Full Blown Tulip. After an absence of over ten years, Camark turned its attention back to hand decorated wares. While attempting to convey some artistic intent, Camark’s artware is not art pottery since it lacked individualism in its making and was produced in large quantities.
While the circumstances are not known, Carnes and Lechner made contact sometime in mid-1939. Through an interview conducted over the telephone, Lechner, who had worked at many potteries around the country, was hired at $50 a week. Lechner had worked for companies from New York to Ohio as either a designer or decorator before he was arrived in Arkansas. When the Lechner family arrived in Camden in September, 1939, the plant consisted mostly of tin sheds on the bare ground. Driving down what may have been Camark Road at the time, Lechner was much dismayed by the working conditions at the plant. His son remembers to this day his father’s exclamation, “Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into!”
Ernest Anton Lechner, Sr. was born on July 2, 1882, in Weipert, Czechoslovakia. After learning the pottery trade, including hand decorating, Lechner was hired by a group of “pottery people” who were in his country to secure new employees for a pottery and glass company in New York. Lechner stayed in New York working for a couple of businesses including the Vienna Novelty Manufacturing Company. By the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Lechner worked for pottery and glass companies in Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The companies included Libbey Glass, Limoges China, Pittsfield Pottery, Mt. Clemens Pottery, and Sterling China, as well as his own business, the Artcraft Glass and China Company in Toledo.
In a biography of his father, Ernest A. Lechner, Jr., wrote “again [my father was hired) as a decorator, designer, and advisor in the manufacturing) of pottery. Advisor might be taking some liberty but Camark’s problems were his because how well Camark Pottery (did) was how well he could or would do. He was a master potter and had knowledge of all aspects of the business.... It was a good union and it enabled him to repay his debts he had accumulated and to settle down and enjoy his family and friends.”
Carnes’ hiring of Lechner as Camark’s art director brought immediate results. By December 1939, Camark Pottery was advertising its first hand painted pottery line. Advertised nationally, these “graceful vases... adorned with richly colored, hand-painted underglaze decorations... [of roses had] a continental flair.” The hand painted roses preceded the more recognized and popular Bas Relief Iris pattern, long considered to be Lechner’s first and only work for Camark Pottery. In fact, research indicates that by 1941, several other, different lines were in production before the hand painted Bas Relief Irises. First was a decorated ware with plain flowers and leaves arrangement identified as Sprays of Flowers. Second, in what Camark Pottery described as “charming,” another hand painted, underglaze decorated line called Scenic Countryside featured views of trees, mountains, and lakes. Still another hand painted line, the Castle series, depicted scenic views of castles. Although the Scenic Countryside, Spray of Flowers, and Castle series were advertised more forcefully than any other previous line, it seems that these lines failed to sell, as very, very few have surfaced.
The Festoon of Roses and Sprays of Flowers pieces also had no bas relief. The garland roses and flower sprays were painted directly onto the same shapes available for the other hand painted wares. The background accents for the garland roses were blue, yellow, and rose pink. It is not known what accent colors were used for Sprays of Flowers. Another line by Lechner included Conventional Designs in the three above mentioned accent colors.
The Bas Relief Irises (raised patterns) were hand painted flowers on a cream background with either blue, yellow, or rose pink accents at the top and bottom. From what is available on the markets today, it appears that the Bas Relief Irises were the most popular of the hand painted series by Lechner. The painted flowers for the rose pink and blue were the same for their respective accents while the flowers for the yellow accents were purple. Analyses of local collections reveal that rose pink was the most popular selling color while yellow was the least. Finally, the last known Lechner line was called Morning Glory. However, when comparing catalogs to actual surviving examples, it appears that there are two different Morning Glory lines. The Morning Glory I line can only be seen in the accompanying catalogs. What can be found on the market today, called Morning Glory II, appears in the photograph plates. To date, none of Morning Glory I has surfaced on the market. The Morning Glory II line was available in the same colors as Bas Relief Iris, but is not as commonly found today as is the Bas Relief Iris line. Another decorated line, though not yet confirmed to be a product of Lechner’s, was the Majolica line. It was advertised as an inspiration of “old Majolica.” Using bas relief as well, it was a “combination of white Morning Glories in bas-relief on a background of Green and Chartreuse.” Yet Camark’s artware, limited to Lechner’s work, constituted only a part of its overall production in the 1940s.
Camark made its biggest move, retail wise, in the early 1940s according to information gathered from surviving catalogs. After the introduction of Lechner’s Hand Painted Lines, Camark billed itself as the “Pottery Line of Profit” and issued a double catalog featuring four distinctive pottery lines. Camark felt it had “reached a zenith by the initiative of creating the new and by upholding the quality....” An early 1940s catalog stated to retailers: “This catalog, with retail prices shown..., is being mailed to the public all over the country. These consumers, your customers, will learn more about Camark, will want it more than ever before.... To you this means increased sales.”
For new ideas, Carnes contracted with Joe Lee Alley, the designer and mold and case maker for Niloak Pottery. It is not known yet whether Alley worked with Trifonoff to design shapes or was a temporary stand-in until Carnes could hired a permanent replacement. While Trifonoff was involved in the development of glaze designs, his primary responsibility was as a mold maker. He created over 800 molds for Camark before his departure in the early 1940s. Alley was responsible for many of Niloak’s most popular items during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Alley’s involvement at Camark and Niloak was short as he left Arkansas in 1943. He briefly worked for the Frankoma Pottery in Oklahoma before heading to the Texas Pottery Company in Houston, Texas. It was also during this time that Charles Hyten, co-founder of the Niloak Pottery, worked for Camark as a salesman. Hyten, having lost financial interest in Niloak, also opened Hyten’s Pottery and Gift Shop in Benton and sold a wide range of giftwares including Camark and Fenton Glass.
Camark, not new to reproducing styles and shapes, began in the later years to reproduce classic early American porcelain and glass patterns. Whether pitcher or candlesticks, many objects from the 1700s and the 1800s were copied into ceramic and sold by Camark. Inspiration for much Camark castware came not only from ancient, classical designs, but also from the influences of the French, English, German, Dutch, and Italian. In The Story of Camark Pottery, the models for Camark’s castware included “exact reproductions of designs produced by the ancients as well as original reflections of the modern trend.” By the mid-1940s, over one hundred Camark designs were available in either bright or semi-matt finishes. One distinctively different Camark line was Scratch Ware. According to company literature, Scratch Ware had an outer surface of “shell white” which was hand tooled. The motif for this item came from the theme of “tropic seas and a shell strewn beach.”
Another indication that Camark sought and received a larger, more comprehensive target market was the addition of wholesaler Enterprise Sales and Distributors of Toronto, Canada, by the end of the 1930s. It held the exclusive Canadian rights to sell Camark Pottery. Coming on the heels of World War II, Camark was ever increasing its market share, manufacturing capabilities, and profits. Unlike the Niloak Pottery, whose war efforts have been documented, it is not known what, if any, special duty Camark Pottery performed for the war effort. As for Camark, its pre-war efforts undoubtedly were factors in its survival well after World War Il.
After Lechner began his work on Camark’s Hand Painted line, his contract with Camark changed from a salary to piece work. Instead of a weekly salary, Carnes contracted out to Lechner, under his company, E. A. Lechner Decorating Company, the decorating responsibilities. While Lechner remained on Camark’s property and used its equipment and supplies, Lechner’s pay was based on the total number of finished pieces. Lechner also worked with many of Camark’s employees. He and potter Frank Long became close associates as Long helped implement his ideas for Camark Pottery. One such line that appears to have never reached the production stage was the Pine Cone line.
In 1946, the National Geographic Society sent one of its reporters to travel the state and report on Arkansas’s post World War II economic development. The reporter, Frederick Simpich, spent several weeks in the state gathering information for updating the nation about how Arkansas “woke up in time to join that industrial parade now marching all down the Mississippi valley.” Accompanied by Glenn Green of the Arkansas Resources and Development Commission, Simpich reported on the activities in Camden: “We saw one truckload, worth $3,000, leaving Camden for Kansas City, while another was loading for a big department store in Dallas.... This Camark Pottery at Camden makes about 4,500 pieces a day, which sell for anywhere from 25 cents to $7.50 each. Things made here range from graceful teapots and copies of Greek and Babylonian urns to comic figures of razorback hogs, a ‘cat-and-bowl,’ and two flirting swans.”
The reported daily production, based on 260 working days a year, puts Camark’s annual production capacity at about 1,170,000. This figure is well above the 1938 through 1947 rated annual capacity of 750,000 as reported in the Ceramic Trade Directory, probably a more reliable source. This discrepancy was undoubtedly due to the boasting of the interviewee and the failure to take into account the normal slowdown in manufacturing that occurs during the winter season.
As far as production is concerned, we do have, interestingly enough, an insight into what Lechner produced between 1939 and 1948. Operating under his E. A. Lechner Decorating Company, Lechner prepared an income and inventory statement after he left Camark. The statement reveals that he decorated “328,725 pcs.” of pottery during the near decade he was associated with Camark. Over 175,000 of the pieces were for the Hand Painted lines, and the rest covered items such as lilies, swans, pigs, dogs, parrot pitchers, and miscellaneous figurines, plates, and decorated what-nots. One would quickly assume that any decorated item just listed was produced by Lechner. Unfortunately this is not true since historical information and photographic documentation reveal that many other persons had decorating responsibilities covering the same items. Unless signed by Lechner, there may be no way to know who decorated what or when it was produced. The most interesting aspect of the statement is the listing of “Hand made flowers, Lustre, (and) Gold line” items totaling 3,045 pieces. Descriptively speaking, these are probably the very same types of items Lechner made under the Iros name (i.e., Blooming Flowers, Iridescent, and Gold Trim)! Therefore, if an item is unmarked or not signed, it will be impossible to know whether Lechner even made it or when it was made (for Camark or at Iros?).
Camark Pottery survived the war with its production of ceramic giftwares, though some limitations must have existed due to material shortages. In spite of government imposed shortages on strategic materials (aluminum, brass, copper, gold, and silver) used in the manufacture of decorative gifts, ceramic production was apparently possible for Camark since after the war it was reported many times that Camark’s production peaked during these years.
During the 1940s, Camark employees numbered around 35, and the company had permanent distributors in New York City, Dallas, Birmingham, Seattle, Minneapolis, Abilene, Denver, and Kansas City. By the end of the 1940s, however, American business began to suffer the consequences of the United States government’s intervention in those defeated countries such as Japan and Italy. As part of the effort to rebuild these countries’ destroyed industries for peace time operations, America agreed to allow great volumes of imports into this country for resale. Pottery companies like Camark were just some of the many American industries forced to bear fierce competition. For many ceramic businesses, this was the beginning of the end of their operations.
For Camark Pottery, internal problems began as personnel changes forced adjustments in its operations. In August 1948, Lechner had a heart attack and was paralyzed in both his right hand and left leg. As a result of his illness, he discontinued his association with Camark and spent much of his time reading and listening to the radio while recuperating. As soon as he possibly could, he began to paint, with dogwood trees and flowers being his favorite subjects. According to his daughter, Elsie Lechner Harris, her father took up painting on canvas in his efforts to regain use of his hand. After June 1949, Lechner started the Iros Pottery Decorating Company with a man named John Silliman who owned a furniture store in Camden. Yet it is probable that Lechner was already producing these wares as early as 1948.
Located at 1100 West Washington, Iros Pottery made three distinct lines, all designed by Lechner, using a small kiln. They included handmade Blooming Flowers of candlesticks, bowls, and accent pieces; Iridescent pottery with the glaze process being patented; and Gold Trim. With the exception of the Blooming Flowers line, Iros Pottery marketed products using finished Camark pottery pieces. The Iros pieces with gold trim (low fired at 1300°) are quite possibly the inspiration for the gold decorated Camark pieces made later by the Nor-So Company. Therefore Camark pottery having gold trim without a Nor-So mark is either a product Lechner made while working for Camark or during the time Iros Pottery was operating. The materials needed by Lechner for his Iros Pottery were purchased from Camark Pottery. Iros Pottery folded sometime in 1951 or 1952. According to Lechner’s biography, “he was (an) American by choice and he never regretted it. He was active in the Presbyterian Church and helped form a Lutheran church in Camden. He was a member of the Camden Glee Club and gave regular talks to the Boy Scouts on how pottery was made.” Ernest Anton Lechner, Sr. died on September 30, 1953, and was buried in Toledo, Ohio.
To replace Lechner after he suffered his heart attack, Carnes hired Leonard Kohl as Camark’s new art director. Kohl’s responsibilities at Camark were to continue the Hand Fainted lines (consisting mostly of the Bas Relief Irises). Leonard Kohl was born on November 16, 1902, in Rehau, Germany. After completing the eighth grade, Kohl went to trades school in Rehau and learned ceramics. It was while working at a ceramic factory that agents for the Pickard China Company of Chicago, Illinois, requested artists for its employment. Like Lechner, all expenses were paid to bring Kohl to the United States in return for a contract to work for Pickard for a certain length of time.
Kohl began working for Pickard China in 1923 as a liner (term for one who applied the single gold lines on the china) and was so successful that he soon had the responsibility of teaching others to be liners. Kohl, moving up the ranks, learned the art of decorating under the tutelage of Edward S. Challinor, Pickard’s most celebrated artist. Kohl quit Pickard to design lamps for a new company in Paducah, Kentucky. Unfortunately, the business venture fell through, leaving Kohl out of a job. Kohl was then hired to work at Camark and arrived in Camden during the fall of 1948. His wife and children joined him in March, 1949. As part of his duties, he produced many specialty items for Mrs. Carnes as favors for her guests at dinner parties and as souvenirs for her friends in the Democratic National Committee. In early 1953, Kohl, responding to a blind ad in a ceramic publication, unknowingly reapplied for a job with Pickard China. He was immediately re-hired as the head of its decorating department and left Camark sometime during the early part of 1953.
Camark’s production during the 1950s and beyond continued to center on mass-produced molded ware. As the decade of the 1950s progressed, the Hand Painted wares were slowly discontinued. Hundreds of different simple, nondescript vases and bowls were produced during this period. Other Camark items included many utilitarian wares such as salt and pepper shakers, drinking vessels of all types, and countless numbers of ashtrays. For its castware, all were available in personalized form. Many novelties were made as well, the most popular being the animal figures and miniatures. While not actually a Camark product, Dean Mogle’s Nor-So Company (like Iros) began purchasing many finished items from Camark as early as the mid-1950s, painting them with 24 karat gold, and selling them to retailers.
By the late 1950s, Camark Pottery retailers were located all across the country, from high profile department stores to gift shops in tourist spots. While generally the locations of the out-of-state stores are about all that is known, there were several shops in Arkansas. For the Little Rock area, as mentioned earlier, the Camark Factory Display Store was managed by Charles L. Emerson. Moreover, three different gift shops in the Hot Springs area advertised Camark Pottery, including the Arkansas Pottery Shoppe, the Wilson Mineral Springs Store, and the Lake Hamilton Gift Store. The Lake Hamilton Gift Store was owned by Mrs. Bonnie Van Wagoner. Specializing in Arkansas made gifts, Mrs. Van Wagoner not only dealt in Camark Pottery but also in Arkansas hand blown glass and other ceramics made in the state (probably Dryden Pottery of that city). She also sold Frankoma Pottery. According to full-page advertisements in Giftwares and Home Fashion magazine, Camark was still very much in business in the early 1960s.
Camark advertised some of its most popular items, including the Climbing Cat and the extremely popular S & P salt and pepper shakers and the Early American series of pitchers and bowls. By the mid-1950s, the Climbing Cat was one of Camark’s top sellers. It is still common today to find this cat on trees around many homes in Arkansas and around the South. Full-page ads touted many of Camark’s old time favorites and some of “Camark’s big new line(s)....” One new line introduced was called “Camark’s In Clover: Hand painted clover in natural colors on ivory white glaze.” Apparently an extremely rare item today, Camark’s in Clover came in three identified shapes, the Hearthside Cat, Bunny Rabbit planter, and the Graceful Swan planter. The artist who was responsible for these decorated items is not known. In the late 1950s, one event in Camden would forever change the course of Camark pottery. On September 25, 1958, Jack Carnes died. Carnes had always been the guiding force behind Camark’s success and survival.
Unfortunately, little is known (except contradicting information) about the intervening years between Carnes’ death and the next chapter of Camark’s history beginning in 1965. Just a couple of years after Jack Carnes’ death, his widow sold Camark Pottery, lock, stock, and barrel, to W. A. “Red” Daniel, Wallace Hurley, LeRoy Paul, and Bill Cook. Dennis Daniel, son of “Red” and Mary Daniel, states that $35,000 was paid for Camark Pottery, and upon its purchase, the pottery was closed. Daniel remembers that the pottery had been “losing money for a long time” and much of the pottery was “badly made” and its production “not in fashion.”
Ernie Deane, a popular Arkansas writer and then feature writer of the Arkansas Gazette, wrote about Camark Pottery with his information based on an interview with Al Rose (actually Hale Roe, Camark’s long time bookkeeper). Deane wrote that the pottery had been closed in 1963. But by the time of his article (1965), the plant had been reopened with George Smith as superintendent. The business had 25 employees, clays were from Kentucky and Tennessee, and production was at one-third capacity (750-800 pieces daily). The Climbing Cat was the number one seller at the time. However, Morris Venable, the last superintendent for Camark Pottery, stated that the plant was closed throughout the early 1960s. With production ceased, the two rotary kilns having not been fired in a number of years, the new owners simply operated an on-site retail store to sell off the remaining large inventory of pottery. Regardless of whether or not the pottery was manufacturing wares, Camark was nonetheless getting ready for a renewed life.
On January 5, 1965, after Camark Pottery had been in business for nearly 40 years, articles of incorporation papers were signed establishing Camark Pottery Incorporated. The next day, the papers were filed with the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office by Mary G. Daniel, LeRoy Paul, and Charles E. Plunkett. The nature of business for Camark Pottery Incorporated was to “make, manufacture, produce, process, compound, create, buy, sell, and deal in pottery and pottery products of all kinds, types, and descriptions.” The corporation’s “total amount of authorized capital stock” was $100,000, divided into 1,000 shares with a par value of $100 each. Daniel, Paul, and Plunkett each invested $100, therefore owning one share apiece with a total of $300 being inscribed to the corporation. The corporation’s location was at the plant on Camark Road. Plunkett, with an office at 139 Jackson Street, was named agent for the corporation. Soon thereafter, Venable was hired to help “start the pottery back up.” He was hired by George Smith and was responsible at first for loading and unloading the kilns during the graveyard shift.
When Venable started, there were about 20 employees including both men and women. Venable remembers that women played an important role as trimmers and finishers of greenware (unfired pottery just out of the molds) and bisque (pottery fired once and ready for finishing and glazing). They also had responsibility for decorating and sales. Venable also provided detailed insights into the internal operations at the pottery. There were several kilns at the plant including the large tunnel kiln (installed back in the 1930s), a small tunnel kiln, a box kiln, and a portable electric kiln. The large tunnel kiln (that took four days to heat up) had 20 wide rail cars. It was used to fire the glazed pottery at a temperature of 1940°. The small tunnel kiln (time of installation unknown) had 16 narrow cars and was used to fire the greenware into bisque at a temperature of 1840°. The box kiln was used strictly for experiments and firing pottery that had either gold or decals applied to them. Venable remembers that the pottery ran very well during 1965, but the pottery was briefly shut down again within a year or two.
When the pottery reopened in the late 1960s, Mrs. Daniel promoted Morris Venable to replace George Smith. She also turned over the responsibility for the pottery’s operation to her son and gave him 25% interest in the corporation. Dennis Daniel recalls that the showroom display always sold well. He wanted to “modernize” the plant since he believed the point of profit meant “produc(ing) and sell(ing) 1,000 pieces a day.” While Venable’s promotion was to the position of kiln burner, his responsibilities quickly grew to include overseeing the complete operations at Camark Pottery. Shortly after Venable’s promotion, Camark received a special order for pottery lamp bases but was unable to deliver the products because of serious production flaws. It appears that Camark never again achieved a successful level of operation and soon changes in ownership occurred. Toward the end of the 1960s, Hurley and Paul sold their shares to Mrs. Daniel as Cook sought to buy her out and start a new pottery line. However, Mrs. Daniel ultimately bought out Cook by 1970. Many factors, including internal affairs and decreases in sales, may have caused losses in profits. Since there were no salesmen, sales came from visitors to the pottery or orders from owners of established gift shops.
According to Venable, the pottery experienced a slowdown, and by 1971 the big kiln was permanently shut down after one last firing. In either 1975 or 1976, the company laid everyone off except Venable. He stayed on as a one-man operation and was responsible for everything from mixing the “mud” (using a Kentucky ball clay which was purchased in 50 lb. sacks), decorating the pottery, firing the kiln, and selling the pottery. The clay came in powder form, already prepared with the proper additives, and was turned into mud in two large mixing vats. Venable remembers times when things were quite hectic; he would be back in the plant mixing the mud and someone would drive up to purchase some pottery.
During his tenure, Venable recalled that the Climbing Cats, cat fishbowls, and the Graceful Swans were always the most popular selling Camark items. Working alone at the plant, he decorated the swans, put eyes on the cats, and put the collar, eyes, and spot patterns on the dogs. He also did the “Old Butts and Ashes” ashtrays. Just recently Venable walked into a store and saw such an ashtray with his handwriting. He ended up buying the item, but he bemoaned the fact that he had to pay quite a lot for an item that cost so little just over 20 years ago.
Venable also designed pottery using local clays. In the late 1970s, Mrs. Daniel instructed him to experiment with clays from Bluff City. He made slab pottery items in the likeness of fish. These were incised with details of scales and fins. While this idea never reached production, it was a project he enjoyed and would have liked to expand. He also dabbled in glaze decorations. Using color combinations with bright glazes, he made his own versions of one color dripped over another. From the late 1970s into the early 1980s, the business barely survived, according to Venable. Sales were modest with neither slumps nor peak periods. Wholesalers, many regular customers for many years, continued to purchase the more popular items and sometimes even requested pieces not currently in stock. One of the last wholesale buyers was the Walker Gift Shop in Sheridan. Tours of the pottery continued to bring sales for Camark, and Venable remembered tour buses regularly stopped at Camden and visited the pottery plant.
Tours of the pottery had been a regular event at Camark for many years. Many fond memories of visits to Camark by local residents are recalled today. It was not uncommon for Camden residents to take visiting relatives and friends for a sight-seeing tour of the pottery on a Sunday afternoon. Martha King, a Camden native, remembered several such occasions. “As a child in the late 1930s and early 1940s, we could go in the production building and see the pottery as it came out of the molds, or we could watch Mr. Frank Long as he turned pottery on the wheel, shaping and molding (the piece) with his hands,” she said.
She stated further, “Camark was the only place we had of any interest to take visitors in our small town. Having grown up with the pottery, we thought much of it was tacky and were not interested in it. The display room was really two rooms in a cellar of the warehouse building. It had old wooden floors and the two rooms were called firsts and seconds. In the ‘firsts’ room, the perfect pottery was on display, grouped on wooden shelves and most of the pottery was (priced) anywhere from 25 to probably not more than $7.50 per piece, depending on what piece it was. In the ‘seconds’ room all the pottery was spread out on the floor in different groups and sold for 10c up, depending on how bad a flaw it had. There were stacks of newspaper in the display room and purchases were wrapped in the newspapers and put in paper grocery bags.”
Finally, Mrs. King recalled the last time she remembered visiting the pottery. Sometime during the 1950s when she took her two sons to the pottery plant, “the display rooms remained the same.... (T)he pottery was still being wrapped in newspaper, but prices had risen — where in (the 1930s) one could purchase an item for 10 cents, the same piece in the (1950s) had risen to 50 cents. These visits were so fascinating to (me) and made such a lasting impression, that now in my senior years the memories are so vivid.”
But not even Camark’s reputation could keep the plant going forever. Morris Venable, with instructions from Mrs. Daniel, closed the doors in December, 1982 to manufacturing operations. He does not remember why Camark quit making pottery. He remembered sales were about the same in 1982 as they were throughout the 1970s. He stayed on for about two years selling pottery from the store.
While not the end of the story of Camark, Venable’s departure around 1984 marks the final chapter. The Daniel family sold the pottery to Charles Ashcraft, a local minister who had two sons, Mark and Gary, who were interested in pottery. Venable was asked to come back to work, but he declined the offer. Instead, he helped out by answering questions and assisting on matters he could help with at the time of transition. In early 1986, a notice of change was made for the corporation with V. Benton Rollins replacing Plunkett as agent, and an address change from 139 Jackson to 143 Jackson, with both entries made by Mark Ashcraft, secretary-treasurer. According to long time Camden resident Dr. Fred Dietrich, Charles Ashcraft hired a local man to break most of the remaining Camark Pottery molds into at least three to five pieces each. The Ashcrafts apparently sought to produce a totally new line of pottery and not use the existing molds. To date, however, the pottery has not reopened, but its history and wares remain a part of many lives in the Camden area.
Camark Pottery outlasted many older ceramic companies through its ability to know its markets and adapt to the many external factors it faced. For nearly 40 years, Camark remained a viable operation within the American ceramic industry, outlasting many older ceramic companies. From the Lessells to the Sebaughs to Tetzschner and Trifonoff, these artists were responsible for art pottery manufacturing at Camark. While each one’s talents were different, their unique efforts placed Camark within the mainstream of the American art pottery movement.
Personnel changes, the influences of supply and demand, and national economic conditions resulted in a fundamental shift in Camark ceramic production away from art pottery manufacture. The industrial artware by Lechner and Kohl continued a tradition of artistic wares which had been a long-time theme within the American ceramic industry. Last, their efforts helped the company to continue operating for many more years as a major pottery manufacturer whose products were widely distributed throughout the United States. The closing of Camark was a great loss to Camden’s business community and another blow to America’s capacity to compete within the international ceramic industry. The company’s closing ended Camark’s unique contribution to Arkansas and national cultural, artistic, and business history.
