1938-1992

(activity)

"Although less widely known than Medalta Potteries, Medicine Hat Potteries (called Hycroft China after 1957) produced residential dinnerware for over a half century. Hop Yuill of the tile and brick firm Alberta Clay Products Company founded the pottery in 1938 to compete with Medalta and attracted many of its employees. During the war, exempted from producing army utility ware because its china was too thin, it captured Medalta’s dinnerware and artware market, thereby contributing to its rival’s demise. In 1955 the Marwell Construction Company bought Medicine Hat Potteries and later changed its name to Hycroft China, after its new apartment complex in Vancouver. It dropped the trademark stamp of a little native chief. A year later, Harry Veiner, the colourful self-made millionaire rancher and city mayor, acquired the company. Veiner continued the company's tradition of importing stencils from the U.S. in modern and traditional patterns. Its signature Hatina breakfast set with encircled ridges (renamed Matina after 1945) was offered as an alternative to the American Fiesta line. Hycroft China sold pottery at both Woolworth's and Eaton's. Souvenir ware with Canadian scenes, wagon wheels and Stetsons enhanced the company’s revenues. In 1960 the company introduced toilets to supplement its dinnerware production. Hycroft China shut its factory in 1989 and the company was dissolved in 1992."

Design in Canada (2004), pg. 244-245.

Canada