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Freeman-McFarlin was started in El Monte, California in 1927 by Gerald McFarlin. It was known
then as McFarlin Potteries. In 1951 Maynard Anthony Freeman joined the company as a partner and chief designer. It was Freeman's design of a new line of slip-cast earthenware sculpture that
propelled the company to new success. In 1968 a second plant was added in San Marcos. McFarlin sold his inerest in the late 1960's and Freeman sold out in 1972 to International
Multifoods. The El Monte factory was closed in 1975 and opertions were consolidated at the San marcos Plant. Hagen-Renaker acquired all operations in 1980. Anthony Freeman went on to
design some bone china items for George Good. If anyone has more information on Anthony Freeman, please email me. I can't seem to find much information about Anthony but believe he
still lives in California.
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The mermaids Anthony designed are in my opionion the most gorgeous mermaids made. I think part of the reason I collect all shapes/colors of Freeman-McFarlin mermaids is
because of the beauty and the thought of design that went into them - they are made differently from any other mermaid of the time. The mermaids are made out
of a flesh tone ceramic so the skin is not painted on, it's the pottery color. If you turn over a wall plaque made by this
manufacturer, the piece is hollow and a horizontal bar with a hole is at the top to attach a wire and hang them on the wall. There
is a simple round Freeman-McFarlin label on the back. The tailfin was always a gloss finish, whereas the top part was a matte
finish. They had no lipstick or pink cheeks, just those gorgeous big, wide eyes were painted on. Their lips were lucious and full.
They were sold individually rather than as a set (I have a postcard advertising them for sale).
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All of Anthony's mermaids were made with blonde hair back in the 50's, typically real light blonde... the one with dark hair is an oddity in hair color as well as tailfin color. The most common set you see of
the mom and babies is the dark green tailfin. I haven't a clue what happened on the dark haired one
with the light olive green tailfin - it is the only one I've seen like this in my 15 years of collecting. The second picture is a
comparison of the two mermaids made in pink. Pink is rare, but the pink one on the right is the rarest of the two.... and her
babies are even rarer. The pink mom/baby set on the right was the first mermaid set designed by Anthony and evidently they
didn't produce many of them as they are the most difficult mermaids to find that were made in the 50's. Because the set on the
right is so "different" in facial features and style, I wonder if it didn't sell that well, so Anthony came out with the other mom/baby
set. It's interesting when you collect these beauties to think about what went thru the mind of the creator and wish you could sit down and talk to them over a cup of coffee.
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