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Wisconsin Pottery Association 
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Madison WI 53701-0705

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The Haeger Potteries company was begun by David H. Haeger in 1871.  The firm that began as a brickyard in Dundee, Illinois continues to this day as one of the few remaining large-scale manufacturers of industrial artware.

The firm began producing artware in 1914, and the contributions of former Fulper employee Martin Stangl to its success is probably incalculable.  While Haeger produced a less expensive product than Fulper (by using a lighter clay body and high gloss, low-fire glazes), there is an undeniable similarity between the early products of the two firms.

Haeger pottery has not kept pace value-wise with the products of its former competitors (like Red Wing and Hull).  This is somewhat undeserved.  Haeger vases and figurals often have modeling and glaze quality of great invention and skill.  While the Art Deco designs of Royal Hickman have always attracted some attention, the pre-Hickman era Haeger pottery is particularly undervalued, especially the ware designed for the the Arts & Crafts market.

The only book about Haeger to date is Collecting Royal Haeger by Lee Garmon and Doris Frizzell.  The book is useful primarily for its reproduction of catalog pages.  L-W Books will publish a volume on Haeger this fall by David Dilley.  Joe Paradis will author a Haeger for Schiffer in 1997 which hopefully will fill in many gaps about the company.

-Nicol Knappen, October, 1996

Haeger was the feature pottery at a special one day exhibit sponser by the association in conjunction with its annual show & sale.

Haeger Timeline:

	1871	Company founded by David H. Haeger
	1900	Edmund H. Haeger assumes leadership of company
	1911	Martin Stangl joins the Fulper Pottery as Superintendent of its Technical Division.
	1914	Stangl Employeed by Haeger to develop artware
	1914	Haeger produces first artware (Classic Greek Vase, Design #1)
	1920	Stangl returns to Fulper Pottery as General Manager
	1929	Martin Stangle buys out Fulper and produces Stangle Pottery.  A Bronze Green  glaze, similar if not identical to an early Haeger glaze, is among those featured.
	1930's	Royal Arden Hickman (1893-1969) begins RaArt Pottery in California.
	1930's	Hickman employed and sent to Europe by the J.H. Vennon Company (of NY) to design crystal produced in Sweden, Demark, Czechoslovkia and Italy
	1938	Hickman employed by Haeger, becomes chief designer for Royal Haeger line.
	1939	The Buckeye Pottery Building in Macomb, Illnois is purchased by the Haeger Company for the manufacture of floral artware.
	1939	Royal Haeger Lamp Company established
	1941	Hickman designs black panther figurine (in three sizes: 18", 24" & 26") for Carson Pirie Scott in Chicago.  Extremely popular, the panther design was copied by nearly 30 other potteries.
	1944	Royal Hickman leaves Haeger Potteries.
	1940's	Hickman establishes Royal Hickman Industires, a lamp manufacturer in Chatanooga, TN.  The company is sold to the Phil-Mar Lamp Company of Cleveland and renamed Ceramic Arts, Inc.
	1947	Eric Olson becomes Haeger's chief designer.
	1950's	Haeger employs Royal Hickman as a free-lance designer and consultant.
	1954	Joseph F. Estes becomes president of Haeger.
	1954	Elsa Ken Haeger designs Haeger's Royal Garden Flower-ware lline (produced through 1963).
	1971	Sascha Brastoff designs the Esplanade and Roman Bronze lines for Haeger.
	1972	Eric Olson retires from Haeger
	1979	Nicholas Haeger Estes becomes president of The Royal Haeger Lamp Company.
	1979	Alexandra Haeger Estes becomes president of The Haeger Potteries of Dundee.
	1984	C. Glenn Richardson becomes Haeger's Director of Design.