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THE
McCOY POTTERY AND THE WATER
EXTENDED POLYESTER
IDEA
By Dewayne Imsand
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 In
1967, David Chase of Chase Enterprises acquired the
Nelson McCoy Pottery Co. As is always the case, the
new owner had his own ideas about what the company
should do and how it should be run. One of the new
things “imposed on the pottery” was the
use of water extended polyester to produce several
new product lines. However, the idea did not turn
out as envisioned - in fact it failed. Here is the
story.
Around
the time Chase bought the McCoy pottery and made
it a subsidiary of the Mount Clemens Pottery, he
also purchased a small vacuum plating company. This
company was moved to the McCoy pottery and it set
up shop there. (I wrote about the vacuum plating
idea in the October 2003 Journal.) But, in addition
to vacuum plating, the company also produced molded
pieces for McCoy using water extended polyester rather
than clay. For simplicity sake, consider water extended
polyester as just plastic.
The
first items produced by the McCoy pottery using the new
substance were the five snack tray bases shown at the bottom
of the following page. These snack trays, which were advertised
as the “WOODTONE LINE,” came out in 1971. Shown
below is the Woodtone Line price list. The line was discontinued
after only one year.
The
next plastic products were a group of wall decorations
and mirrors. These products were designed by “Aladar” who
is better known as Al Klubert. Several samples are
included herein, but the full catalog pages are shown
in the book by Craig Nissen entitled, “McCoy
Pottery Wall Pockets & Wall Decorations.” These
pages show all of the wall plaques and mirrors produced
and all the available colors.
Just
as in the case of the plastic trays, the wall decorations
and mirrors evidently were not a big hit with the
public. They too, were discontinued after only one
year. According to Nelson McCoy “this venture
cost a lot of money in labor, development, sales
and advertising, etc.” But it was “a
product line that was inferior, and warped badly
with age.” Maybe this, together with the fact
that “sales were less than fair” explains
why these plastic items are rarely seen for sale
in antique shops and malls. But, be on the look out
because one never knows what will turn up.
  
 
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