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Westerwald Pottery 40 Pottery Lane, Scenery Hill, PA 15360 Phone: 724-945-6000 FAX: 724-945-5139
Monday-Friday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM Saturday 10 AM to 4:30 PM - Sunday Noon to 4:30 PM
-NEW FOR CHRISTMAS - SEE OUR NEW POINSETTIA JAR - CLICK HERE.
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Visit our Showroom and Factory
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About Us...In 1975 Phil Schaltenbrand, Westerwald Pottery's founder, was asked to design a few "appropriate" pieces of pottery for the America's upcoming bicentennial. At the time Phil was a 33 year old university art professor and a little known maker of artistic, one-of-a-kind pottery products. At first Schaltenbrand was reluctant to make the requested prototypes but after some persuasion accepted the challenge. The professor drew on his knowledge of early Pennsylvania stoneware to fashion a few simple pieces that he inscribed with town names and embellished with traditional colonial-flavored decorations. Very different from Schaltenbrand's "artistic" work these personalized pots were an immediate hit with customers and throughout 1976 orders poured in. By 1977 Schaltenbrand realized he had fashioned the "better" "mousetrap" and was forced to juggle the demands of teaching with his new business responsibilities. Although Schaltenbrand hired apprentices and helpers over the next several years Westerwald Pottery was essentially a one man operation with the owner throwing, stamping, decorating, glazing and firing the majority of the ware. Schaltenbrand frequently delivered finished pieces to customers hundreds of miles away. The genius of Schaltenbrand's idea was so simple it is hard to believe it was not conceived decades earlier. Westerwald offered potential customers the opportunity to order products that could be inscribed with specific names, dates, images etc. As soon as an order was placed Westerwald's craftsmen started production from scratch. Not only were pieces individualized, no two were exactly alike. On the shelves of retail shops customer emotion made Westerwald's pottery hard to resist. Between 1982, when Schaltenbrand began hiring artisans and national sales reps and today dozens of employees have worked for Westerwald some from England, Germany, France, New Zealand, and Canada. Presently Westerwald maintains a staff of 20 which includes craftsmen and office personnel. Pottery is shipped to about 1500 retail affiliates and also to famous universities, well-known golf clubs, corporations, and important organizations (H.J. Heinz Co. and Towpath Marathon). By one estimate Westerwald has stamped the names of more than 50,000 towns and cities names onto its wares since 1975. These include well known sites like Bethlehem, Cincinnati, Alexandria, Saratoga, Philadelphia and 14 variations of Lincoln so far. The majority of our pieces however celebrate the great towns of America that are not universally known.
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Home About Us About the Founder Big Ware Turners Westerwald Products Page How To Order Request a Catalog Visit our Showroom and Factory Copyright © 2005
Westerwald Pottery
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