By Terrie Todd
If you were a bride in Canada during the 1960s or 70s, you could reasonably expect to receive one or more of three items for a wedding gift: a silver platter or candlesticks, fancy glassware, or a piece of Blue Mountain Pottery. Having married in 1948, my mother did not receive any Blue Mountain, but she began to collect the lovely pieces decades later when their popularity soared. How her passion began, I’m not sure. Probably with a gift, like most collectors’ items. What I do know is that Mom never knew the rich history behind this unique product.
Just a few BMP pieces in its most popular color
Jozo Weider, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia, began a ski resort in the Blue Mountains near Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. A natural entrepreneur, Jozo was always on the lookout for ways to keep his ski hill lucrative by supplementing income with skiing lessons, a gift shop, and farm products like eggs, chickens, and apples.
Jozo Weider
Meanwhile, a young Czech ceramics artist named Dennis (Zdenek) Tupy had spent a year in a German refugee camp after refusing to participate in World War II. In 1957, as part of the post-war resettlement, Dennis was offered free passage to Canada in exchange for one year of labor on a Canadian farm. During this time, he slept in a barn, which he shared with the family’s milk cow.
When Jozo Weider heard about his fellow
countryman, he visited the farm, posing as an Immigration Officer. “He’s got to
come with me,” he told the farmer. He hired Dennis as a dishwasher at his ski resort,
and they became fast friends. After being promoted to brush-clearing, Dennis
stepped in some heavy clay that had been turned up for a new ski hill. Scraping
it off his boot, Dennis commented that it resembled the clays he had worked
with in Czechoslovakia. Always alert for opportunities, Jozo provided Dennis
with what he needed to begin experimenting with the clay. 
Dennis Tupy at work
Because the Blue Mountain Pottery Ltd. began as an offshoot of the ski hill, some of the original staff doubled as ski instructors. While working at a potter’s wheel, they might be called away to teach an impromptu ski lesson. Soon, the company had grown enough to employ the winter ski hill staff year-round. Blue Mountain Pottery was known for its glazes. The initial glaze used was a deep blue-green, combined with a darker glaze. This combination gave each piece a unique appearance during the firing process.
Sourcing both the clay and the glazing materials locally made Blue Mountain Pottery unique and, eventually, world-renowned. At its peak, the company employed 800 people and sold pottery to 80 worldwide markets. Because of their beautiful and unique designs and affordability, nearly every household in Canada had at least one piece of Blue Mountain during this time. The Canadian pavilion at Epcot Center in Florida contained two items: maple syrup and Blue Mountain Pottery.
The original Blue Mountain Pottery logo stamped on the bottom of a bowl
The company experienced splits, takeovers,
makeovers, and restarts. In 1983, it had $25 million in sales, but by 1985 it
was bankrupt. One last attempt to resurrect the company was made, but tastes in
home decorating had changed. At the end of 2004, the company closed its doors
for good, citing 9-11, cheap Asian knock-offs, and SARS as contributing reasons.
The original molds were nearly all smashed to avoid duplication.
By the time Mom entered a care home earlier this year, she had downsized her collection to just enough pieces for each of her children to keep one. I received my favorite, a gorgeous but impractical tea set.
My tea set
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw1M1ruFky8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountain_Pottery
Not a single incident of pottery making occurs in The Reluctant Healer of Halifax, a novel of the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. It’s a story of love, loss, faith, and honor set against Canada’s most devastating moment of the First World War.
Follow Terrie here:
Quarterly Newsletter Sign-up
No comments:
Post a Comment