Many businesses give promotional items to their customers as a way of expressing thank you for your business. The Lyon County Museum has many promotional items from area businesses past and present. The promotional items vary greatly. Examples include: pencils, pens, notepads, calendars, coffee mugs, rulers, thermometers, picture frames, dishes, and calculators to name a few. The items often have the business name, logo, slogan, and or contact information on them. One example of promotional items in the museum’s collection that we have several of are Watt pottery pieces.

In 1922, the Watt family purchased the Globe pottery in Crooksville, Ohio. The company made pottery mixing bowls and table ware of the type made by Globe. In 1949, the company began hand decorating its wares. The patterns were simple in nature with as few brush strokes as possible to allow low production costs. The freehand decorations that are best known and are popular with collectors include: Apple, Starflower, Rooster, Tulip, Autumn Foliage and Pansy. Apple was the most popular pattern, and the pottery can be dated based on the leaves. Originally, the apple had three leaves, which dates the pieces to before 1958.

The company continued to make pottery mixing bowls and tableware until 1965 when the factory was destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. The last new pattern was the Kathy Kale Royal Dutch pattern introduced just before the fire in 1965. The pottery company had close to a hundred patterns and over 400 molds during their time of producing pottery.

The photograph featured this week shows an image of a Watt pottery apple pattern plate in the Lyon County Museum’s collection. This plate has “Compliments of Garvin Co-Op Elevator Phone 746-5321” printed on it.

The Lyon County Museum is closed on Monday, Jan. 19, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.