Mid2Mod: Texans Inc.

Showing posts with label Texans Inc.. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Texans, Inc.

While the 1950s are often regarded as an era of prosperity, the conditions in and around Bangs, Texas were dismal indeed. Experiencing what is today considered "the drought of record", the years between 1950 and 1956 saw annual rainfall drop to less than half of the average. Before the drought had subsided, all but ten Texas counties were declared disaster areas.

Survival was dependent on action, and a far-reaching plan was conceived in May of 1951. The authors of this proposition were key figures in Bangs: T.M. "Tommy" Young, a druggist, Thomas Levisay, a local grocer, Oren Bauer, hardware merchant, Raymond Morgan, banker, and Forrest Kyle, publisher of the Brown County Gazette, and in July of 1951 a new corporation, Texans Inc., was granted a charter with $100,000 of capital stock.

In March of 1952, the plant was completed and an open house celebration was held with over 3000 people in attendance. The event brought the community together, not just for a celebration, but in the knowledge that they were going to make a difference.

The fully operational factory had 25,000 square feet of workspace, two 12 ton mixing tanks, a 30 ton slip tank and an enormous 70 foot tunnel kiln, capable of producing 2,000 lamps per day. An adjacent building was already under construction to house the Mar-Lita Lamp Company, which would be the assembly and sales branch of the new company, purchasing all of Texans production. A third building for lampshade manufacture was in the planning stages, and a fourth for the manufacture of novelty tables was also being considered.

After some internal strife and the dissolution of Mar-Lita, which necessitated some personnel changes, the Texas Ceramic Studio took over duties previously performed by Mar-Lita, including shade manufacture, and Howard Kron took over design duties.

Kron began his pottery design career in California, creating various products at Haldeman Potteries during the late '30s. During the 1940s he was designer and ceramics engineer for Midwest Pottery in Tyler, Texas. Upon the closing of Midwest Pottery, Kron did some design work for nearby Gilmer Pottery, in Gilmer, Texas*, sculpting new designs and making master molds from his garage, traveling to the pottery as needed. Tyler native Richard Gunter expressed interest in learning the craft, and began to assist in Kron's mold making. For over 25 years the pair were the creative minds behind the products of Texans Inc.

*Gilmer, Texas, is my hometown.

From texansincorporated.com and tvlamps.net

Richard Gunter, Pete Eads, and Howard Kron

tvlamps.net

Texas Ceramic Studio catalog
texansincorporated.com

Three Horses lamp
tvlamps.net

Dancers lamp
tvlamps.net

Pink lamp
tvlamps.net

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

You'll ruin your eyes...

The 1950s saw an ever-increasing presence of television in middle-class households. Though still in its infancy, the television was already showing itself to be the centerpiece of the modern home. "TV" was life-altering in the same manner as the personal computer was three decades later, and, as with most technological advances, there were concerns. Much was made of the possibility that watching television in a darkened room could result in eye damage.

It wasn't long before many televisions were topped with a new adornment, a backlit statuette known as the TV lamp. It was felt that the ambient light generated by these lamps reduced eyestrain, permitting guilt-free viewing. Soon TV lamps became a must-have addition to the family television, positioned front and center, rather like a hood ornament on a 50s-era automobile. While their reign as a favorite piece of home decor only lasted about ten years, they possess significance in mid-century design history.

TV lamps came in thousands of styles from hundreds of manufacturers, and while they were occasionally made out of other materials, most were shiny glazed ceramic in one of the popular colors of the day. Most of these household sculptures were of animals, including the horse, deer, dog, bird, domestic cat and the ever-popular panther, but some were of people (often an Asian or mermaid theme) and still others were purely an exercise in abstract design.

From TVlamps.net