Medalta Potteries: Canada

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Medalta Potteries began as Medicine Hat Pottery Company Ltd. in 1912, as an offshoot of Western Porcelain Manufacturing Company of Spokane, Washiington. It only lasted for a couple of years. A year later, the pottery was purchased by three local businessmen, Charles Pratt, William Creer and Ulysses Sherman Grant, and the name was changed to Medalta (MED from Medicine Hat, ALTA from Alberta) Stoneware Limited. By 1924, the owners decided it was time to expand their product line and Medalta Stoneware became Medalta Potteries and they made sturdy crocks, bowls, artware, hotel crockery and also insulators. In the 1930's, Medalta was one of only two Canadian companies producing lamp bases. In the 1940's and into the 1950's, they were a major provider of dinner ware to the armed services, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway. Medalta Potteries Limited officially closed its doors in 1954. It is possible that the factory could have survived a decade or so longer, had it not been that W.G. Pulkingham, who bought the company in 1952, decided to re-focus the product line to theatre give-aways and away from the highly profitable hotel ware.

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