The Ephraim Faience Pottery company was started by Kevin Hicks and Scott Draves in 1996. Unlike many contemporary art pottery makers, Ephraim Faience has typically used a fairly easy to understand and a fully documented system of markings to determine the age of the pottery as well as the artist.
Today we will look at examples of marks used by Ephraim from its start in 1996 to the year 2000. The early period of Ephraim production is the hardest to date because starting in the year 2000 the company began a marking system using a clock-face system of tick marks around the Ephraim logo to easily allow collectors to identify the age of their vase.
In Ephraim’s first year of production, 1996 and in 1997 the stamp trademark was simply the logo with the words Ephraim Faience Pottery stamped inside the logo. Unlike later years of production, Ephraim did not stamp the artist’s signature on the base of the pottery. In addition, experimental vases were not yet consistently marked with an E as the company has typically done throughout its later years of existence.
In 1998, Ephraim modified the early trademark logo slightly by adding U.S.A to the bottom of the logo. Similar to 1996 and 1997 Ephraim vases are typically not found with the artist stamp mark and experimental designs are not consistently marked with an E.
Starting in 1999 Ephraim Faience added the initials SD and KH in the 9:00 position of the trademark logo in recognition of company founders Scott Draves and Kevin Hicks. The U.S.A addition at the 6:00 position of the logo was also present in 1999. Ephraim vases and other designs were still not consistently stamped with the artist or decorators signature. Although many pieces designed by Kevin Hicks in 1999 can be found with his stamped signature. The second photo below shows an example of Kevin’s stamp signature from 1999. Experimental and one of a kind examples of Ephraim were still not routinely marked with the incised E now used by the company.
Just Art Pottery maintains a large selection of experimental, show vases, one of a kind examples, and retired designs of Ephraim Faience Pottery. We offer examples of Ephraim in all prices ranges and scarcity for the beginner to the most advanced collector. All pottery is vintage, fully guaranteed and we offer same day shipment.
