National Potteries Corporation Napco “Long Journey Back” Figurine for Sale

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National Potteries Corporation Napco “Long Journey Back” Figurine For Sale

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National Potteries Corporation Napco “Long Journey Back” Figurine:
$8.99

Up for offer is theNapco made “Long Journey Back” figurine.
The National Potteries Corporation, or Napco, was founded in Bedford, Ohio, in 1938. Although Ohio was a center for art pottery in the middle of the 20th century, being the home of Rookwood, Roseville, and Weller, Napco only produced its own products, most vases for flowers, for a handful of years. After World War II, Napco grew rapidly by importing collectible ceramic novelty items from Japan’s ceramics manufacturing centers of Nagoya and Seto. These included head vases modeled after similar ones designed Betty Harrington for Ceramic Arts Studio and Betty Lou Nichols Ceramics.
Due to this tough new competition from Napco, as well as from such importers as Ucagco and Enesco, Ceramic Arts Studio folded in 1955, while Nichols closed her shop in 1962. Napco itself was forced to endure competition in 1960, when Irwin Garber, one of Napco’s three founders, left the firm to establish International Art Ware Corporation (Inarco), which also imported glass and ceramics from Japan, including head vases that bore a striking resemblance to Garber’s wife, Roselle.
Napco and Napcoware pieces struck a chord with Americans, who were developing a serious sweet tooth for cutsey kitsch imported from Japan by a Chicago company called Lefton. So, in addition to head vases and wall pockets, Napco imported all sorts of Made in Japan Christmas figurines, from rosy-cheeked Santas to adorable angels and elves. Napco also distributed nursery-rhyme figurines and planters, a line called Miss Cutie Pie, birthday pieces (each featuring a different month), anthropomorphic salt-and-pepper shakers for the kitchen, and a host of small vases for around the home, some resembling cartoonish kitty cats, others depicting somewhat more regal-looking horses.