Salisbury Ware 1940-1946 (and a note about Partridge/Harwyn)

Owen Salisbury and his descendants made ceramics in Auckland for over 75 years, first as Salisbury Ware and later as Royal Oak Pottery.

This post is about Salisbury Ware.  I will tackle Royal Oak next.

When Salisbury first came to my notice – say 15 years ago – there was plenty of the distinctive hand-painted ware around. Now, of course, it’s not so easy to find.  But keep looking.  They are there. You might just have to pay a bit more than we did back in the day.

The Salisbury factory in Khyber Pass Road in Newmarket in Auckland operated for only about six years. It opened in 1940 and closed in 1946.  That’s over 70 years ago.

The story begins in 1939 when Owen Salisbury began decorating hand-thrown vases made by West Auckland potter Jovan Rancich and his young apprentice Wally Silva.  Owen and his friend  Arthur Martin thought there would be a market for this type of decorated ware, and by 1940 they had set up a factory and were producing on a commercial scale.

They bought Jovan Rancich/Silva’s fired but undecorated vases (bisque ware) and sprayed them with cellulose lacquer. Sometimes commercial transfers were stuck on over the top of the paint. At the time, the same style of pottery was imported from England, but Salisbury and Martin found a ready market for their New Zealand version.

Above: Salisbury Ware vases, hand thrown at Jovan Rancich's pottery, almost certainly by Wally Silva. They were decorated with cellulose lacquer and the two in the centre have had stick-on transfers added. The bowl on the left contains a separate ‘frog’ with holes to accommodate flower stems. Heights range from 6.5 cm to 13 cm.
Below: This vase from a private collection has a more successful transfer.  

Jovan Rancich died suddenly in 1942, leaving Salisbury and Martin scrambling to find another supplier. Rancich's widow Vera and Wally Silva continued to run the pottery for about two more years, but Salisbury also bought increasing amounts of blank pots from Tom Clark from Ambrico (later known as Crown Lynn).  At that stage Clark was still developing his glaze mixes and techniques. Selling unglazed blanks relieved him of the uncertain process of decoration.

The products from the Khyber Pass Road factory, almost exclusively vases, were marked with a stick-on paper label, most commonly ‘Salisbury Ware NZ’.   Other labels from this period included NZ Mattone Ware and NZ Sunset Ware.

Above, Salisbury vases with different labels.  From left, Sunset Ware, height 14 cm; Salisbury Ware, 19 cm; Mattone, 18 cm. Blanks from Ambrico.

This was the heyday of Salisbury Ware.  A team of artists decorated the vases with hand-brushed flowers and garden scenes, or spray-painted using stencils.  During the 1939-1945 Second World War, non-essential imports came to a halt and New Zealand was forced to rely on locally made products. Salisbury Ware helped fill that gap and the factory prospered, even while Owen served in the Pacific Islands between 1942 and 1944.

Above: Salisbury Ware vases, slipcast by Ambrico and hand-decorated with cellulose lacquer.  Height 11 cm. 

Post-war, New Zealand again imported English ware and Owen Salisbury’s Khyber Pass Road factory faltered, finally closing in 1946.  This was the end of the Salisbury Ware brand.  In its place Owen Salisbury established Royal Oak Pottery, but that story will have to wait for my next post.

Glazes vs paint

The two vases below are both made by Crown Lynn, both shape number 13. Height 14 cm. So why do these vases look so different? The dark brownish one was finished at Crown Lynn. It is covered in a hard shiny waterproof glaze. The pale blue vase was decorated in matt paint at the Salisbury factory. Both would have been made in the early to mid 1940s.

Below: the vases above as seen from the base. Left, the glazed vase showing the early Ambrico mark. Right, at various times different prices have been pencilled onto the base of the hand-painted vase.

Sometimes Salisbury Ware pieces are in a poor state with badly flaking paint. The vase below will give you an idea with its white flaky patches around the rim – I have seen them much worse, but I don’t buy them.  

The difference in durability is because glaze is fired in a kiln to a high temperature and becomes glass-like, while the cellulose paint is simply dried. Paint is thus more vulnerable to wear and tear, especially if it gets wet.  However paint has one big advantage – it is less complicated to apply.  Whether sprayed or brushed on, it doesn’t need that extra trip through the kiln that glaze requires. Whatever their condition, these vases are historic treasures. When you think that they were made 70-80 years ago, we should be impressed that they have survived at all.


EDIT:  Jovan Rancich and Wally Silva

After I published this post it was brought to my attention that the early Salisbury pots which I at first attributed to Jovan Rancich are very similar to marked examples by Wally Silva. I agree and I have edited this post accordingly.

Wally Silva joined Rancich as an apprentice (aged 11 or 12) in 1937/1938. Thus, we can be sure that young Wally made at least some of the hand-thrown pots which were sold as blanks to Owen Salisbury and others.   Jovan Rancich died quite suddenly in 1942 and Wally Silva and Rancich's widow Vera kept the pottery going until 1944, when it was destroyed by fire.  It is most likely that Silva still supplied some pots to the Salisbury factory after Rancich died, but I believe that from about this time, Owen Salisbury and Arthur Martin were also buying an increasing number of blanks from Ambrico.

Owen’s son Edward Salisbury can find nothing in the Salisbury family records that suggests a commercial arrangement with Wally Silva, but unfortunately neither Owen Salisbury or Arthur Martin, or Wally Silva himself, are alive to tell us the full story.  A document written by Owen Salisbury for researcher Gail Henry describes Rancich's sudden death as 'a set back to us.' Salisbury then describes the approach to Tom Clark of Ambrico, who began making their blanks. When we look at Salisbury Ware, Ambrico shapes outnumber Rancich/Silva shapes by a very large margin.

The Silva family also recalls being told that Wally Silva sold once-fired blanks after he set up his own pottery in 1945. It is highly likely that he supplied Partridge/Harwyn, and he may also have sold some to the Salisbury Ware factory, which closed in 1946.

My thanks to Lance Silva, Edward Salisbury, Brian Ronson and Ev Williams for helping sort out this puzzle.

Harwyn/Partridge Ware

During the war years, Owen Salisbury was not the only decorator of unglazed blanks. The Partridge family of Harwyn Potteries used similar techniques to decorate vases from Rancich/Silva, Ambrico and Glen Afton Pottery.  The painting on Harwyn ware is generally lush and detailed, mainly of flowers.  Harwyn also hand-painted flowers on small glazed Ambrico vases.

Above: two vases decorated by Partridge/Harwyn. Left, hand-thrown blank from Jovan Rancich/Wally Silva, height 7.5 cm. Right, slipcast blank from Crown Lynn, 18 cm. 
Below: Crown Lynn vase hand-painted over glaze by Partridge/Harwyn. Height 8cm.

SALISBURY WARE TIMELINE
1939 – At the age of 28, Owen Salisbury began decorating hand-thrown ware made by Jovan Rancich/Wally Silva. 
1940 – Owen opened a factory at Khyber Pass Road in partnership with Arthur Martin. They began selling ware with stick-on ‘Salisbury Ware’ labels.
1942 – Jovan Rancich died. His widow Vera and Wally Silva kept the Rancich pottery going, but it is believed that most blanks were then supplied by Ambrico (which later became Crown Lynn). 
1942-1944 – Owen Salisbury served overseas on war duty in the Pacific Islands. The factory continued operating in his absence. 
1946 – The Khyber Pass Rd factory closed as imports from England were restored after the war ended. This was the end of the Salisbury Ware brand.

Identifying Salisbury Ware
Many pieces of Salisbury Ware are not marked, because the original stickers have been removed.  The early Rancich/Silva vases are almost invariably marked with numbers impressed separately into the base - eg in the example below.
Later, Salisbury Ware was marked with stickers - most commonly Salisbury Ware, but also Mattone and Sunsent Ware.

Above: stamped numerals typical of Salisbury Ware made by Rancich/Silva

Hand Made Salisbury NZ sticker

NZ Sunset Ware sticker

NZ Mattone Ware sticker

SOURCES
My heartfelt thanks to Edward Salisbury, son of Owen and Cecily Salisbury, for the large amounts of information he gave me. This came from notes and records complied by Edward, plus an interview I recorded with him.  Further information is from Ev Williams and the New Zealand Pottery Forum website, from Lance Silva, son of Wally Silva, and from the book New Zealand Pottery, Commercial and Collectable by Gail Henry.

ENDS