Like Lane & Co., Lane Ceramics made many different household ceramics including platters and ashtrays and some cookie jars. According to Jonathan Leeds, his father Richard Leeds was Senior Vice President of Condecor Inc.  Condecor operated the Lane Ceramics division during the 60's and 70's. This is supported by a Siamese Cat TV lamp that is marked "Lane & Co" with a lamp socket with a UL label that reads "Lane Ceramics, a Div of CONDECOR".

Stuart Scheyer, of Glencoe, IL, was the President or Condecor/Decorel until he sold the firm in 1995 to Newell. Jonathan recalls visiting his Dad's showroom on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, although Condecor's home office was out of the suburban Chicago town of Mundelein, IL.  Condecor divested the California division (Lane and Sunkist) sometime during the 1970's.

Condecor Inc. was later known as Decorel, Inc. The entire Decorel and Intercraft product lines was ultimately absorbed into Newell's housebrand when Mr Scheyer sold the company to Newell in 1995.

The cookie jars were  marked with stamp impression in the ceramic base.  The most popular is the oval shown above.  However, the Hobby Horses are marked in a single line without the USA or the oval.   I have never seen a mark that looks like handwriting on a Lane Ceramics jar. 

The foil label shown above was found loose inside a Butter Churn jar which was marked with the oval logo on the bottom.   The phrase "Distinctive American Craftsmanship For Over Twenty-Five Years" is an interesting bit of copy.  If we guess the vintage of the label to be between 1965 and 1970, this means that the original "Lane"  started between 1940 and 1945.  I have a label from another Condecor Inc. company (Decorative Arts) and it has the phrase "Quality American Craftsmanship", so who knows what "Twenty-Five Years" means.

I have one unmarked Hobby Horse that is an exact copy of the brown horse that is marked "Lane Ceramics", so I assume there were some examples of Lane Ceramics jars that were not marked.  The "Cookie Time" jar has been reported to have "Lane Ceramics" labels.  However, my two Cookie Time jars have no markings.  I have never seen any dates on these items, but it is assumed that they were made in the 60's.  Unlike Lane & Co., they didn't seem to make many TV lamps.  By the 60's, TV lamps were on their way out.

If anyone knows more about the company, how they operated, or knows someone who worked for them, please send me the info.  I also would like pictures of the facilities, staff, work, etc.

tomg@lanecookiejars.com Ver 02/17/2010 04:31 PM -0800