Pat and Covey Stewart - Laguna Beach

There are still plenty of mysteries about California pottery that haven't been satisfactorily solved. The story of Pat and Covey Stewart is one of them. The Stewarts operated out of Laguna Beach, where they created a unique brand of hand-made slab-formed ceramics with hand-painted illustrative decors. As far as I can tell, little is known about them. Were they husband and wife? Two sisters? Something else? I don't know. They participated in an exhibit of locally produced Laguna Beach ceramics in 1951 and that is the only definite date I have seen. Most opinions place them in Laguna Beach from the late 1940s but they all seem to end at 1952. I can find no record of them after that and can't help but wonder what became of them. There is an book illustrator and coloring book author named Pat Stewart but I have been unable to make a connection.

Possibly best known decor is the "Bim Bashi" series which illustrates characters from a Sax Rohmer mystery series "Bim Bashi Baruk of Egypt". Also attracting collector interest is a series titled "Bathers" decorated with groups of naked men relaxing in the surf. Another decor, "Persian", is much more expressionistic with bright colors and Jackson Pollack-like squeeze bag threading. "Rain Willow" adds leaves to a sparser threading. A few other decor lines can be found ("Masquerade", shown above) and also there are one-of-a-kind still life and horse illustration plates.

The vases shown measure 7 1/8" tall by 5" wide by 3 1/4" thick. They both have different paintings on front and back leading to a number of different display combinations. The tile trivet shown in the last picture is also in the "Masquerade" decor and signed Pat Stewart.