George T. James, 82; Ceramist Designed Dinnerware, Vases

George T. James, 82, who in 1954 designed the Franciscan Pottery’s Eclipse dinnerware shape, which was decorated with the still-popular Starburst pattern, died Friday in Glendale after a fall.

James was born in Lowell, Mass.; served in the U.S. Army during World War II; and received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Alfred University in Alfred, N.Y., in 1949. In 1950, he began working for Gladding McBean & Co. in Los Angeles as a ceramic engineer and designer in their Franciscan division. He later became design director of the Franciscan Pottery.

Besides Eclipse, James also designed Contours, a modernist line of more than 50 vases and accessories. He taught ceramics at USC in the mid-1960s and was a consultant for Sasha Brastoff’s West Los Angeles ceramics company.