Pennsbury Birds
| The Pennsbury Pottery was founded in 1950 by Henry Bellows and his wife
Lee. Henry Bellows was a ceramic engineer that had previously been the general
manager at Stangl Pottery. His wife Lee was an artist and sculpter that had
also worked for Stangl. The pottery was very sucessful and is well known
for its various lines of Amish inspired carved pottery lines. In 1959 Henry
Belows died leaving the pottery in a trust for his wife and kids. Lee Belows
ran the pottery until her death in 1968. The pottery went bankrupt in 1970
and was closed. One of the first items made by the Pennsbury pottery were
a line of hand painted pottery birds. These birds are very similar in style
to Stangl's birds, though they are much less common. Some of the birds can
be found in both left and right handed versions with both versions sharing
the same model number. The birds were made in either hand painted natural
colors or with just a plain white glaze. (Note: The plain white birds are
almost as common as the hand painted natural colored birds.)
Listed below are all the Pennsbury birds that I know to exist. Apparently most of these birds were issued in a series starting at 101 and continuing through at least 129. In the middle of the list are still two unknown birds (116 and 118). In addition Pennsbury made a number of special order birds and other bird related items such as the "slick chicks" that were either numbered as part of another series, the model numbers are still unknown, or they were never given a model number at all. |
| Pennsbury Birds (Listed In Numerical Order) | ||
| 101 Crested Chickadee, 102 Goldfinch, 103 Bluebird, 104 Western Tanager, 105 Scarlet Tanager, 106 Wren (Marsh), 107 Gnatcatcher, 108 Bluejay | ||
| 109 Wren, 110 Huthatch, 111 Chickadee, 112 Magnolia Warbler, 113 Redstart, 114 Wood Duck, 115 Hummingbird, 116 ??? Unknown | ||
| 117 Hummingbird Candlestick, 118 ??? Unknown, 119 Hummingbird, 120 Cardinal, 121 Bird of Paradise, 122 Audubon's Warbler, 123 Barn Swallow, 124 Nesting Robin | ||
Page 4 |
125 Double Hummingbird, 126 Hummingbird Vase, 127 Rooster, 128 Hen, 129 Pheasant, P201 Hen, P202 Rooster, Standing Duckling (Listing of others including hawk, quail (male and female), blue-gray tanager, sparrow, and vireo) | |
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Page 5 |
Misc. bird related Items: Dealers Signs, Bird on Nest, 301 Slick Chicks | |
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Page 6 |
Misc. bird related Items: P213 Eagle Wall Plaque, P214 Eagle Wall Plaque, P215 Eagle Bookends, 1160 Slick Bunny | |
| Pennsbury Bird
Markings
(For more information about Pennsbury Pottery in general see "Pennsbury Pottery" by Lucile Henzke, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1990) |