1950's Retro White Smooth Matte Finished McCoy Pottery Planter for House Plants

Description

Up for your consideration is a simple, elegant, and useful pottery planter used to pot a house plant in it and then display your house plant in it too. It is a genuine McCoy planter made by the McCoy Pottery Company in the 1950's. McCoy is a brand of pottery that was produced in the US in the early 20th-century and it is probably the most collected pottery in the nation. Starting in 1848 by J. W. McCoy Stoneware company, they established the Nelson McCoy Sanitary Stoneware Company in 1910. They continued on until 1991, but had to close down due to declining profits.
This lovely planter has a very smooth matte finish on it and it feels almost like soap stone or Kisi stone from Kenya, Africa. I believe this planter was used for tiny cactus plants as cacti are succulents that store water in them while living in hot dry climates and have very shallow roots that can be planted into the small recessed cavity in the middle of this oval shaped planter and will hold several ounces of sandy soil the kind of soil cactus plants thrive on. Looking at the planter from the front there is a wavy pattern near the bottom that resembles the windswept sand dunes of the Sonoran desert, the second hottest desert in North America, in the Southwestern United States where winters are very mild; a place where cacti can survive year round.
Besides cactus this lovely planter could also be used as the basis for another succulent garden too as succulents store water in them as they too live in hot dry climates and have shallow root systems. Succulents are found in deserts and rain forests around the world and succulents like Echeveria, Aloe Vera, Jade Plant, Dudleya, and Agave would survive well in the small recessed cavity in this planter with similar soil that the cactus thrives in like soil containing sand, pumice, or perlite.
Nonetheless, McCoy had something in mind when his design team focused on these shallow planters and they would have to be succulent planters as Ivy, Fern, Philodendron, Bamboo, or other traditional house plants have much to complicated root systems that would not even fit into this type of McCoy planter like the one in this listing.
This planter dates 1940's after WWII when loved ones, soldiers and their wives, were reunited and bought homes rather than wives living in apartments and boarding houses. The era of raising house plants blossomed during this vulnerable time in United States history and lasted until the 1950's when house plants went on the decline. Today, however, the return of indoor succulent gardening is back by popular demand and there are numerous succulents both natural and artificial to choose from in nurseries, food stores, and other retailer's all across America.
Besides being a planter for house plants McCoy pottery is very, very collectible and there are clubs, organizations, and whole societies that specialize in the collection of McCoy pottery. There are numerous online and written publications on the subject of McCoy pottery too.
The planter measures 3" high X 9 3/4" long X 4" wide X 2 1/2" deep, and this item is in very good condition for its age.