In memory of Ray and Eileen Machin

Just look at this gorgeous vase. It was made at Crown Lynn in the 1960s and it still looks fresh and modern today. The vase was made by Daniel Steenstra and hand decorated by Eileen Machin.

When I was researching my first book I spent a lot of time with Eileen and her husband Ray. Both these lovely people have since died and this post is to acknowledge their contribution to Crown Lynn. 

Ray and Eileen arrived in Auckland in 1959, the day before the harbour bridge opened. At that time Tom Clark was recruiting specialists from English potteries to boost the quality of Crown Lynn's products. Ray was a mould maker from J & G Meakin;  Eileen a hand decorator - or 'paintress' as she referred to herself - from Johnson Brothers. 

Ray told me that it took seven years training to be a mould maker in England. "You started off getting everyone's afternoon tea, then slowly you would work up to being on the bench." When he started work at Crown Lynn Ray introduced new moulding techniques, improving quality and productivity. Very soon Tom Clark asked him to manage the mould room.

Here are Ray and Eileen at work at Crown Lynn, from a company newsletter in  September 1964.



And this is Eileen when I met her, with her three favourite vases (the blue one behind her in the background is not Crown Lynn.)

Sometimes Eileen's work is attributed to Frank Carpay - she told me a story about a dealer insisting one of her vases was a Carpay - but his work carries the distinctive 'Handwerk' mark on the base, while Eileen's is usually backstamped 'Hand Crafted' - very occasionally with her initials.

Most of the vases Eileen - and others - decorated were hand potted by Daniel Steenstra. To complicate matters, this one (below) looks like an Ernest Shufflebotham style but as far as I have been able to ascertain, he left Crown Lynn in 1956, before the Machins arrived. Anyway - each of these blue leaves was hand painted by Eileen, with careful shading of the colour.

For the vase below, Eileen applied the little flowers with a stamp, then hand coloured them. The silver was also hand applied.  

These lovely photos were taken by Studio Lagonda for my first book. 

 

The vases below are from an old auction catalogue. Eileen recalled that each was put on a small turntable and spun around, using a brush to apply the concentric lines.  For the vase on the right, paper stickers were applied to create blank dots as she applied the lines. Once the lines had been competed the paper was removed and the blank dots decorated with a brush. 

Here is a photo - from a March 1963 newsletter - of a painter decorating what looks like a lamp base  while a supervisor examines her work.

Ray and Eileen told me that Crown Lynn was very social in the 1960s and 1970s. The mould room boys used to hire a boat and go fishing on the Kaipara Harbour in the weekends, catching heaps of fish. And, said Eileen, "we went to the Crown Lynn balls all dressed up and when we got there we used to all say snap because we all got the same dresses from this little shop in New Lynn and we all had to go to the same hairdresser."   

 

After a few years Eileen left Crown Lynn and worked in a shoe shop - she enjoyed the break from the pottery business. Ray stayed on to the end, and helped package up the machinery when the factory finally closed. Here is a plate which was made to commemorate the last meeting of the Service Club - there were awards for working at the pottery for 20 years or longer. This plate is signed by all the club members on 24 May, 1989, at the time when the factory was closing. 

 and the other side..

More soon

Happy collecting!

Val Monk  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Um... derivative or a copy??

The more we find out about Crown Lynn, the more copies come to light - both shapes and patterns.  Here are two tulip cups - iconic Crown Lynn one would have thought, but the dark green one is actually made by Meakin in England. They are almost exactly the same size and shape.

Without more research I can't be sure which shape came first, but it's likely that Crown Lynn copied Meakin. 

Then take a look at these two plates: This is Crown Lynn Fiesta Ware.

 

 

This is Meakin. (Meakin photos courtesy of Suzanne Hilegeholt)

 

 And then we have our much-loved Mogambo coffee can... an identical pattern appears on this Pyrex mug, made before the Cook and Serve range was introduced.

And that was not the only copied pattern in the Cook & Serve range. Here is a Swedish Rorstrand coffee can:

The same pattern was used by Crown Lynn on Cook & Serve condiment sets (below), coffee cans and cookware. (Examples thanks to Jeremy Ashford)

And what about this lovely little Crown Lynn jug: 

Here is an identical shape, again by the English firm J&G Meakin.

The list goes on... our Fleurette is a copy of the English Belle Fiore.  I don't have a photo but click here to see images of Belle Fiore on EBay. Here's a Crown Lynn Fleurette duo - it's hard to tell the difference.

There's a famous photo of the Queen visiting Crown Lynn in 1963, watching the hand decorators working on Fleurette - I wonder if she was aware that it was a brazen knock-off of an English product. Tom Clark is on her left.

Of course some Crown Lynn ware has similar decorations to overseas-made ware. This is because many of the decorative transfers were bought on the open market, so you see (for example) this Crown Lynn Bamboo cake plate has the same decoration (in a different colour) as an English-made plate I found in the Browns Bay hospice shop a couple of weeks ago.

 

And the decorations on the Crown Lynn fruit plates (marked Covent Garden) are also found on a range of other plates including this pink Old Foley plate by James Kent Ltd, Staffordshire, England.

 

 

 

 

 I could go on, and on, and on... but I won't! Our iconic Crown Lynn swan is believed to be a copy of an English one, and I have seen an English version of the McCallum whisky jug, in three sizes, on TradeMe.  I think in the good old days there was not the same intense possessiveness about intellectual property as there is now, when manufacturers don't hesitate to take court action when their work is copied.

 

I would love to hear of other copies/duplicates that you are aware of, this is an interesting aspect of NZ pottery research.

 

More soon

ValM

 

Cool collections

Just recently I have had the pleasure of viewing several wonderful collections - I love seeing what other enthusiasts find interesting - and also what they randomly find!
First up, here is a selection of lovely pale green 'whiteware' items.  A very few of the items that usually appear in white were glazed in pastels, most often green. These exotic little shapes, a wishing well, rocking chair, little cart etc, are very hard to find and I do respect these collectors for hunting them down (and for generously sending me these photos.)

These are quite special collectors - Geoffrey Clark and his wife Brenda. Geoffrey is the son of Sir Tom Clark, founder of Crown Lynn. He worked at the factory for many years. He then trained in technical aspects of ceramics at Stoke on Trent in England as a Crown Lynn cadet and returned to Crown Lynn.  Recently when I spoke at Napier Library for a fundraising event, Geoffrey and Brenda brought along their green collection and Geoffrey enriched the discussion with the combination of his historical perspective and his technical knowledge. 
They also have several lovely very early animal figurines - this elephant:

A very cute lively little dog:

And a rabbit.

These were made in the very early experimental days at Crown Lynn, when it was still known as the Specials Department. Figurines of this type are not easy to come by - but recently friends of mine picked up two elephants at a Whangarei charity shop - one was damaged and sold for $1, the next was perfect and cost a whole $2! Amazing.

But getting back to Geoffrey and Brenda.  This very lovely vase is probably from the 1960s. The pattern is attributed to Daniel Steenstra, though I have no solid confirmation of that. It is hand potted.

Once again, I deeply regret not buying one of these when I was writing my first book - they cost a few hundred then and I never quite managed to click that 'buy now.' This is what the base looks like.

 Also important are these two vases, both made by Mirek Smisek when he worked at Crown Lynn for 18 months from 1950. They are decorated by the technique known as sgraffito - the hand potted vases were dipped in a dark brown glaze then a sharp metal pencil-like tool was used to trace patterns through the brown, exposing the pale body beneath.

 

Smisek marked his Crown Lynn work with the words 'Bohemia Hand Made' - it is very collectible and not easy to find these days.

 At the Crown Lynn exhibition a few years back, there was a display of at least 20 of these lovely vases, all different designs. (if I find my photo I will add it to this post, but just now I can't, despite a good solid search. The joys of computer files...)

Coming next - I have some very interesting pics from another couple of collections.

Take care

ValM

 

 

Another road trip... more stuff!

Last week we went to Napier and back via Gisborne and the Waioeka Gorge. It was lovely to be back on the road in our bus. This is the most interesting thing we found - a very unusual Titianware jug from the days when it was owned by Crown Lynn. It has an unusual pattern or maybe a logo on the side - no idea what it is. I was certain we had a new shape for the NZ Pottery website but no, it's already there! On this page of the treasure trove of shapes on this site.

This is what the base looks like. Number 1351. The jug is 13 cm tall.

And how's this for a hard-luck story... we popped into a junk shop up a side street and there among other odd bits and pieces was a maroon monkey egg cup. Unpriced. So I picked it up and ever-so-casually sauntered up to the counter. "There's no price on this" I said. Hoping for the $2 bargain of the century. "Ah," said the man. "A nice piece of Crown Lynn. That's going to auction." Ah well, win some, lose some. I didn't take a pic - but this is the link to the NZ Pottery selection of egg cups. Well worth a look.

Next boohoo story was this shop in Gisborne - closed on Monday, closed on Tuesday. Oddly enough George didn't want to wait around to see if it opened on Wednesday. In the front window there were some bulldog eggcups - nice colours:

And also this little marvel. A wahine toby jug from the Titian factory before Crown Lynn bought them out. No doubt the shop wanted an arm and a leg for it but I would have liked to see it in the flesh.

There was also a lovely Pania of the Reef - maker unknown but almost certainly NZ. Ah well... if you're ever in Gisborne take a look at A1 Mart - it's on the main street at the top end of  town.  You never know, it might be open.

(Incidentally that's a small Crown Lynn swan on the left of the pic, not the elusive middle sized version - one of which went for over $2000 on TradeMe the other day.)

On the plus side I did find this lovely lovely vase - 1940s Crown Lynn,  $2 at the Sallies shop, spotted at the last minute. An enchanting mix of deep maroon and bright blue. They must have my book at that shop because all the Crown Lynn dinnerware was stacked together and not cheap - $15 and more per plate.

This is the base of the vase. Fraction numbers indicating they were testing the glaze.

We found three very cool charity shops up a side road in Te Puke. On the left as you're heading north. There were lots of treasures including a nice lineup of pink mugs, which I left there. I have enough! One has a chip, but it's great to see them with their saucers.

There was one thing I couldn't resist - a Catherine Anselmi "Railway cup". After Crown Lynn closed Anselmi asked Hemara Hemara, an expert modeller, to help  her make moulds in the Crown Lynn railway cup shape. So occasionally you see these odd, brightly coloured cups, with both a Crown Lynn mark and the Catheirine Anselmi mark on the base.  This one cost me $1. They're not easy to find so I'm happy! Anselmi cup on the left, alongside the railway cup for comparison. The Anselmi cup is slightly larger and has a simple handle, without the grooves. 

 This is the base of the green cup.

Anselmi must have made up her own Crown Lynn stamp, or else got hold of one that came from the factory. You see a number of other items with the double stamp - eg here is a vase from the NZ Pottery site.

One last thought - now Crown Lynn is so popular and no longer at bargain prices, it might be time to look at other NZ potteries. This lovely Temuka fruit bowl is about 35-40 cm across and in immaculate condition. And only six dollars! The base had an odd little number instead of the usual Temuka mark. I left it behind, with regret. (No I don't have a disorder... truly!)

More soon.
Happy hunting
ValM