This pottery jug is made by the Mount Clemens pottery Company. It is from the.

The Mount Clemens Pottery Co. has its origins back in the 1910s in the aftermath of an area-wide economic depression in the Mount Pleasant, Michigan area. A local businessmen’s association looked to economically boost the area and traveled to pottery factories in Ohio and Pennsylvania and looked at how these different companies produced their wares. After a few years preparation, production officially started in 1915 in a warehouse built on an old farm. By the end of the first year, over 36,000 pieces per week were produced.

The Mount Clemens Pottery Company, opened in 1914, was for many years a major area employer. During World War II the company employed about 1,200 workers, who punched timecards upon arrival, but were paid only when productive time began, which as calculated by the company was 14 minutes later.

The workers filed a class-action lawsuit (Anderson v. Mount Clemens Pottery Co.) claiming that the company was unfairly docking their wages and violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. The district court ruled mostly in favor of the company and that it was up to the employees to prove that needed to be compensated for their prep time, although they did require the company to pay the workers over $2000 in back-pay. The workers then appealed the decision which made its way all the way up to the United States Supreme Court [

After the case was settled in 1946, Mount Clemens Pottery Co. still had issues with workers but things eventually stabilized. The factory permanently shut its doors in 1986 after sales plummeted.