What saved it was the provenance of its tile: the tile had been a product of Malibu's first business, the Malibu Potteries; it had been made using local clays; and its glazes were not reproducible, as creator and glaze expert Rufus Keeler died of cyanide poisoning shortly after the Malibu Potteries closed, and he had taken measures to commit his recipes to memory alone.