Southern Aurora Pty Ltd

Designer
Maker	Southern Aurora Pty Ltd
Marks
Description	Plain bowl with footring.
Condition	Good, some have small chips to rim.
Number
Production Date	1970s
Width	118mm
Depth	47mm
Length (with handle)	155mm
Weight	245gm
Volume	315ml
Acquisition	Waverley Antiques 28 Dec 2011
Rameking Reference Number	SAU 001-21

Southern Aurora Pottery Pty Ltd operated from the late 1960s at 329 Warrigal Road Burwood Victoria, the same location as Lane, and now an antiques auction house.  By 1974, Lane was gone but Southern Aurora was still operating.  The potters got their clay from the now abandoned Burwood Brickworks quarry, bordered by Burwood Highway, Middleborough and Eley roads, Melbourne, Victoria.  Southern Aurora Pty Ltd were then found in the outer suburb of Bayswater, Victoria from 1975 to 1977, I don’t know if it was the same company though.  Strangely, the company registration appears not to be recorded in the Victorian Government Gazette.

Lane, Kemp, Willis Potteries Pty Ltd were first established at 109 Highbury Road Burwood Victoria in 1936 and produced a variety of pottery until the late 1960s.   Their old building is long gone.  After over 25 years in Highbury Road, they moved up the road and around the corner in 1962 to 329 Warrigal Road Burwood.  This building was originally built as a bakery in 1928 and operated as a bakery until 1960.  The ramekins that Southern Aurora produced appear to have been of one pattern, but with varying decoration.  Most have a plain cream exterior and harlequin interior. Some have a mottled green high gloss glaze sprayed to the interior. The external glaze is matt.

All of the ramekins I have seen from Lane have had paper stickers attached to the base of the interior of the bowl . These have no sticker or marking. nor are there any cracks, chips or crazing, but a label inside the box identifies them. These are a late 1960s-early 1970s ramekin set.  They have a mid green glaze with brown and olive mottling and a finish called “Green Pewter” in this range of ramekins.

The name Southern Aurora comes from our equivalent of the Northern Lights.  Auroras are the result of emissions of photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere.   It was a popular name in its day, having both a train and an aircraft named after it.

Japanese Noodle Bowl

Designer
Maker
Marks	“Japan” stamped in black ink on footring.  Hand-painted fruit motif to inside side of bowl.  Dimpled pattern to exterior to give a type of basket-weave effect with  brown glaze to handle.
Description	Wheel thrown earthenware bowl covered in cream slip and gloss glaze with short flat handle as part of the bowl, protruding about 1cm above the rim.  Short pointed area opposite handle
Condition	Good
Number
Production Date	1980s
Width	130mm
Depth	45mm
Length (with handle)	140mm
Weight	175gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Waverley Antiques Nov 2011
Rameking Reference Number	Jap 001-004

Probably better described as “Noodle Bowls” or maybe desert bowls, these Japanese ramekins have a short moulded handle protruding above the rim of the bowl; they are designed to both hold chopsticks as they rest on the rim because the rim is angle backwards towards the handle, as well as to give a thumb hold.  In Asia, they are usually sold in sets with notches for chopsticks, but in Australia, likely to have been sold as just the bowls.  Most noodle bowls are just that, bowls.  These have just that slight touch of understated design that the Japanese are famous for.


These ramekins are made from earthenware clay that is baked to become hard and compact It is a hard, semi-fired and absorbent clay used for both decorative and construction products. The colours can range from grayish to dark reddish-orange, light to medium reddish-brown, or strong brown to brownish or deep orange.  It is lightly fired, unglazed earthenware usually reddish in colour. It has frequently been used by sculptors and modelers to produce models or studies for more finished pieces in other materials.

Classically, most earthenware has a red coloring, due to the use of iron rich clays.  However, this is not always the case, and for the modern potter, white and buff colored earthenware clays were commercially available.  It can be as thin as bone china and other porcelains, though it is not translucent and is more easily chipped.  Earthenware is also less strong, less tough, and more porous than stoneware, but its low cost and easier working compensate for these deficiencies. Due to its higher porosity, earthenware must usually be glazed in order to be watertight.

A lot of people have ramekins that were made in Japan.  They began to arrive in Australia after the Trade Agreement between the two countries was signed on the 6^th of July 1957.  Australia thus became the first country to trade with Japan after World War 2.  Because of the standard of living in the respective countries at the time, trade was mostly one way for manufactured goods.  The signing of this agreement began a shift in Australia’s reliance on Great Britain, with Japan quickly becoming Australia’s most important trading partner. Initially, their ramekins were copies of existing Australian makers with a few decorative changes.  This was common practice for the times as many Australian makers copied other designs anyway.  Copyright compliance in Australia was viewed somewhat more flexibly than today.  

It is sometimes difficult to trace the makers in Japan as they would make up western names to add to their wares.  Now, most marks have been washed off over the years.   Others, like these, simply had the word “Japan” stamped on the base, or later “Made in Japan” moulded into the base.  

Tams

Designer
Maker	Tams
Marks	Moulded “TAMS England” to base
Description	Press moulded slipware ramekin with matching saucer.  Roundel moulding to exterior and on saucer.  Deep blue gloss glaze to entire body.
Condition	Very good with small fleabites to rim of ramekin.
Number
Production Date	Typical 1970s design
Width	95mm
Depth	60mm
Length (with handle)	145mm
Weight	190gm
Volume	300ml
Acquisition	Soda Tree Café and Collectables, Montrose Victoria 10 Dec 2011.
Rameking Reference Number	TAM 001-012

A Staffordshire Winter is usually wet and cold; a fitting backdrop to what was about to happen.  Under clear skies, on Friday the 11^th February 2000, Angela Tams visited all five premises operated by Tams Ltd to shake hands and personally say goodbye to all 730 workers.  Still desperately sad and grieving after the death of her husband Gerald, who had lost his six-year battle with stomach cancer the previous October, Angela, former Deputy Chair had taken over from him as Chair of one of the last great family owned pottery works in England.  Gerald had planned to retire the following September on his 60th birthday.  He didn't make it. Unfortunately, Lloyds Bank called in their loans and Tams were unable to pay.   The Receivers from KPMG had moved in and the premises closed.  If you visit the area, you can still wander around their deserted factory piled with the now dusty unfinished crockery, moulds and paperwork.  

Tams had operated as a pottery in Staffordshire from 1875 until 2006.  The company had been started by John Tams after splitting with William Lowe in Longton in 1873.   John and William had gone into business together about 1865 at the St, Gregory’s Pottery, High Street Longton.  John was the son of James Tam and his wife Anne (Proctor) and was born in Stafford Street Longford in 1837.  In his youth, John was apprenticed as a potter, and after his partnership with William Lowe was dissolved, John bought the Crown Pottery in Longford at the corner of Commerce and High Streets.  John married Mary Kent, the daughter of Charles Kent, a draper, of Red Bank Cottage, Dresden, where John Tams and his wife were living in 1881. Later they lived at St. Edmund's Villa, Ricardo Street, and from 1898 at The Hayes, Stone.  They lived in Trentham and went on to have four children, John, Mary, Joseph and Dinah.  John retired from the business in 1918 and died on the 17^th May 1919. 

Gerald Tams, Managing Director was the great grandson of the founder and had spent four years studying for a Diploma in ceramics at the Staffordshire Polytechnic.  For over 20 years he had worked in every area of the family business.  Gerald and his cousin Paul Tams, former Director and Sales Manager, had been groomed to take over the works since they joined in 1960.  In 1984, Gerald bought out Paul who went on to become a Farmer.  He also bought out another eight family members.  Following this, Gerald moved from earthenware to making bone china.  Sales increased and the 1980s became the most profitable in their more than 100 year history.  Institutions were more than happy to buy shares.  In 1988, Gerald had bought “Duchess China” at a bargain basement price and by the early 1990s, sales exceeded ₤30m.

Crown Lynn (New Zealand) bought Royal Grafton Fine China from Tams in the early 1970s. (More likely they just bought the name as the Royal Grafton factory closed in 1972)  The New Zealanders were looking to expand into the UK and saw the acquisition of a local works as way of circumventing import quotas.  They believed that the Ottowa Agreement had made it difficult for New Zealand to compete in Britain.  They saw this acquisition as a means of accessing the US market.  In 1960, almost half of New Zealand’s ceramic production was exported to the U.K, yet thirty years later, almost all was imported.  Corporate neglect has been blamed for the ultimate demise of Crown Lynn.  On the 5^th of May 1989 it was announced that Crown Lynn would close.  The plant and equipment was sent to Goh Ban Huat Berhad in Malaysia.  Curiously, Temuka Homewares, part of Pacific Retail Group Ltd is a good selling line of ceramic tableware.  Pacific are the owners of Ceramco who bought out Crown Lynn.  These ramekins are typical of the period and are similar to those made by Crown Lynn.

In 2002 Tams was the biggest ceramic employer in Longton and one of the biggest mugs manufacturers in Europe.  The company’s principal works was the Crown Works  at what is now the Strand in Longton.  They also had the Blythe, Sutherland and Atlas works in Longton, plus a warehouse at the old Monarch flatware site in Fenton; Tams Group Limited having been formed in April 2000.  It was a management buy in of part of the former John Tams Group PLC, that went into receivership in February 2000. In 2006 that group again went into receivership and finally closed.  The company had fallen victim to the strong value of the Pound, cheap Asian imports and a declining domestic market due to the increased use of plastics.  The company had always exported to Australia and other Asian countries but these markets had also contracted sharply.

The company had always been run by the Tams family; even after it went public in 1988, four years after Gerald had organized a buyout in 1984.  The family still owned 70%.  Tams Group Ltd had purchased the rights to Tams, Royal Grafton and Grafton Living from Alfred B Jones and Sons Ltd, marketing these brands and still manufacturing in Longton, Stoke on Trent.  Sadly, debts led to the company being placed into receivership when their overdrafts, said to be around ₤2.5million, were called in.  The Tams brand continued for a further six years when the company name was bought out and they carried on with mug production until 2006 when further financial problems signaled the end of the Tams name.


Angela went on to become High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 2006, the role being mostly ceremonial and later Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire.  Since 2008, she was a volunteer with the charity "The Compassionate Friends."  She has now retired, But at age 68, don't count her out yet.

Mystery Maker Marked V Palmer

Designer	Mystery Maker V Palmer
Maker	Mystery Maker V Palmer
Marks	Painted V Palmer to base of 2 of the ramekins, stamped “VP to side of base on one.
Description	Wheel thrown terra-cotta bowl with flat base.  Sides curving inwards then flaring out at the top. Glazed to interior, handle and exterior.  Hollow trumpet handle.  Throwing and glazing similar to Tremar pottery.  Unglazed flat base.
Condition	Very Good
Number	No number
Production Date	1980s
Width	110mm
Depth	57mm
Length (with handle)	145mm
Weight	350gm
Volume	500ml
Acquisition	Salvos Store Noble Park, 2 Dec 2011
Rameking Reference No	VPA 001-003

No information on V Palmer so far.  This type of primitive earthenware had resurgence in Australia in the 1970s when a renewed interest in our past led to a revival of early arts and crafts.  Op shops are now full of this cheap pseudo-vintage earthenware.  Terra Cotta is probably the most common form around today.   Earthenware is a moderately porous pottery body that is fired to a temperature somewhat below that required to produce a vitreous article.  Ceramic vessels are fired to temperatures of 700-1200° centigrade. It is generally opaque, porous, course ceramic and made from potash, sand, feldspar and clay.  It is one of the oldest materials used in pottery. 

These ramekins are made from Terra Cotta.  This is a type of earthenware clay that is baked to become hard and compact (from the Italian meaning "cooked earth").  It is a hard, semi-fired and absorbent clay used for both decorative and construction products. The colours can range from grayish to dark reddish-orange, light to medium reddish-brown, or strong brown to brownish or deep orange.  It is lightly fired, unglazed earthenware usually reddish in colour. It has frequently been used by sculptors and modelers to produce models or studies for more finished pieces in other materials.

Classically, most earthenware has a red coloring, due to the use of iron rich clays.  However, this is not always the case, and for the modern potter, white and in the case of these, buff colored earthenware clays were commercially available.  It can be as thin as bone china and other porcelains, though it is not translucent and is more easily chipped.  Earthenware is also less strong, less tough, and more porous than stoneware, but its low cost and easier working compensate for these deficiencies. Due to its higher porosity, earthenware must usually be glazed in order to be watertight, this isn’t.

There is a quote about Tremar that I think also applies to these; “ If you had to design pottery perfect for Bilbo Baggins and Hobbits I think this would be it!  There is a certain ancient charm about it.  This pottery is so earthy, rustic and charming; but not without a high level of craftsmanship. The pieces are beautifully and confidently hand-thrown and so lovely to the touch - very smooth, very matt glazes, and with great use of pattern, colour, form and 

Longley, Bill Longley

Designer	Bill Longley
Maker	Bill Longley
Marks	Small impressed stamp “Bill Longley Australia” to side of base
Description	Well made, heavy wheel thrown earthenware bowl with strap handle fitted over depressed demi-lune inset on rim.   Hand painted floral design to interior of bowl.  Off-white gloss glaze applied to both interior and exterior, except foot.  Thin light-blue line around top of rim and near the base of the interior of bowl.
Condition	Very Good
Number
Production Date	1980s
Width	175mm
Depth	50mm
Length (with handle)	172mm
Weight	500gm
Volume	300ml
Acquisition	Salvos Noble Park 2 Dec 2011
Rameking Reference Number	BIL 001 BIL 002 BIL 003 BIL 004 BIL 005 BIL 006

Had they been made around a century ago, instead of recently, I could almost describe these as a missing link between a bowl and a ramekin.  Using my own definition, these have to be ramekins because they have a functional handle to one side.  They are of a modern shape and design, being made of a fine earthenware with glaze to inside and out with an unglazed foot and are stamped “Bill Longley Australia” to the base.

Bill Longley began an apprenticeship with “Kingwood Rural Industries” Surrey in 1948.  They then became “Greyshott Pottery” in 1956.  This Pottery is about an hour west of London and was producing ceramic giftware for London stores and gift shops. It now creates studio art ceramics for galleries and homes around the UK and under its “Grayshott Stoneware” brand; it makes catering ware for many well-known pubs and restaurants, as well as custom ceramics for celebrity chefs. 

After a long stint in the Royal Air Force (1954 to 1977) and later, teacher training, Bill bought the “Penderleath Pottery”; St Ives, Cornwall in 1977 from Anthony Richards and renamed it the “Cripplesease Pottery.”  The interestingly named place is just outside the village of Nancledra, in Towednack Parish.  Cripplesease is belived to mean that it is a resting place.  Bill made a wide range of domestic stoneware.  He built up the pottery into a successful business, eventually selling in 1981 and migrating to Australia with his wife Sue.  The business then became less successful until around 1984 when other owners took over.

Arriving in Melbourne, Bill began making and selling pottery at weekend markets, as well as helping Robert Gordon (June Dyson’s son) set up his pottery, begun in 1979, in Pakenham, now an outer suburb of Melbourne.  The Robert Gordon Pottery is now a fully mechanized works and one of Australia's largest pottery businesses.   They also do a nice coffee and a reasonable Devonshire Tea, it is worth a visit.  These ramekins are very similar to Robert Gordon Pottery, where Bill worked as an advisor and thrower for some time.

Robert Gordon Pottery makes high-fired (2000 deg.) stoneware kitchenware, dinnerware and bakeware.  Bill then retired in the late 1980s to Daylesford, a picturesque country town in central Victoria where he keeps his hand in as a craft instructor and mentor.

Bill in Daylesford, Victoria 1988

Carlton Ware

Designer
Maker	Carlton Ware
Marks	Black Ink Stamp to base. “Carlton Ware Handpainted Made in England Trade Mark Registered Australian Design”
Description	Carlton Ware, "Windswept" pattern . Ramekins; Deep slipware teacup bowl with round foot. White glaze to exterior with green leaf pattern.  Deep green glaze to interior, similar to their "Vert Royale" colour. Knife-blade handle, tapering to rounded point at end.   Platter; Kidney shaped dish with stylized leaf decoration (Windswept design) in green on an off-white background, inset moulded ring to fit ramekins.  length 270mm width 95mm.
Condition	Good with some staining and age related crazing to foot and bottom of bowl interior.
Number	Stamped 2425
Production Date	late 1950s (after 1958)
Width	102mm
Depth	60mm
Length (with handle)	145mm
Weight	150gm
Volume	320ml
Acquisition	Camberwell Sunday Market 27 Nov 2011
Rameking Reference Number	CAW 001 CAW 002 CAW 003 CAW 004 CAW 005

Much is available on the web about Carlton Ware, so I won't put too much more.  For more, there is a link to a good site at the end of my blog.  They were established in 1890 in Copeland Street, Stoke-on-Trent, England.  The company was formed as a partnership between James Frederick Wiltshaw and William H and James A Robinson from which the company name of “Wiltshaw and Robinson twas formed.  Quickly becoming a leading manufacturer in an already crowded market, they named the factory “Carlton Works”.  In 1894 they added the trade name of Carlton Ware to the swallow design on the backstamp to create a new trade-mark.


Since the 17th Century, Stoke Upon Trent, situated between Liverpool and Nottingham, has been known for its pottery manufacturing.  Consisting of the six towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton, the presence locally of plentiful supplies of clay and coal led to the development of the pottery industry.  Construction of the Trent and Mersey canal enabled the importation of china-clay from Cornwall together with other materials and facilitated the production of creamware and bone china.  Stoke Upon Trent is still the largest clayware producer in the world and the centre of the British ceramic industry.  Captain Smith of "Titanic" fame came from around Stoke Upon Trent.  China-clay is still a major industry in Cornwall.


I must admit to a bit of fifty cents each way with these because they are marked as having a “Registered Australian Design.”  The stamp is about the only Australian thing about them though.  Carlton Ware has always been popular with collectors and as a result, were copied by the Japanese, even then.  The owner of Carlton Ware, Mr Wiltshaw (Frederick Cuthbert) realized that designs registered in Australia under the South-East Asian Treaty Organization of September 1954  (SEATO) could not legally be copied by the Japanese.  (SEATO ended in 1977).  As a result of this, a lot of their output had the design registered in Australia.  Be careful of websites telling you that the "Australian" designs are 1930s.  That is crap, since the treaty didn't come into being until 1954.

The 1950’s created an explosion in output and creativity and were easily the most productive period for the company.  In 1958 the company was renamed “Carlton Ware Limited” with Cuthbert Wiltshaw, son of William as Managing Director.  Cuthbert died in 1966 and the company was then sold to Wood and Sons, another pottery that was even older than Carlton Ware.  They were an earthenware manufacturer at the Trent potteries and later the Stanley pottery, Burslem.  Sadly, Wood and Sons went into receivership and eventually folded in 2005. 


Their designs vary from the simple elegance of these pieces, to the exuberant cabbage leaf patterns, and all in between.   Like a lot of makers in the 80s, Carlton Ware went into receivership in 1989 but was unsuccessfully revived in 1990-92.  In 1997, Francis Joseph of the Carlton Ware Design Centre, Roslyn Works, Stoke on Trent acquired the company that today, continues making novelty items for the collector market.  The Copeland Street site was redeveloped as offices in 1989.

The Old Carlton Ware Copeland Street Works

Georg Schmider

Designer
Maker	Vereinigte Zeller Fabriken Georg Schmider
Marks	Stamped "Zell GS AM Harmersbach Handgemalt Opatija"
Description	Creamware slip pipkin with bell shaped bowl rising from pronounced circular foot.  Hand-painted floral to one side with three-toned speckled colour to top of bowl covered with a clear gloss glaze. Closed end knob handle
Condition	Good, with no chips. Some shrinkage crazing to glaze on interior of bowl.
Number	4680
Production Date	1970s
Width	103mm
Depth	55mm
Length (with handle)	141mm
Weight	175gm
Volume	240ml
Acquisition	Oakleigh Rotary Sunday Market
Rameking Reference Number	ZGS 001 ZGS002 ZGS 003 ZGS 004

More properly described as pipkins, but most likely the remnants of a fondue set, the pattern name of these items is named after the popular resort town of Opatija in Croatia about 90 km from Trieste. They are marked on the back as being made in Zell Am Harmersbach, a small historic picture postcard Black Forest market town in Baden-Wurttemberg Germany.  Zell Am Harmsbach is the home of the Hahn und Henne (Rooster and Hen) pottery factory.  Fabulously kitsch in the manner of those modern 1970s multicoloured vases the Germans made.  So tacky that one of my followers would love them.


Like many long-term makers, they have experienced highs and lows.  Known today as "Zeller Keramik'.  We know (because of typical German efficiency) that the pottery opened on the 22nd of October 1794 when Joseph Burger began an earthenware pottery.  Almost half their production was porcelain by the mid 19th Century.   The late 19th and early 20th Centuries saw two town fires almost destroy the works, known as the Upper and Lower Factories, just outside the town gates.   


By 1925 they employed over 500 people, but Georg Schmider died in 1934.  His son-in-law Heinrich Heiss took over the business, then Heinrich's son Gunter ran the company later on.  Unlike a lot of German businesses, they operated successfully for a time during World-War-2.  Flower pots were not high on the list of targets for Bomber Command;  but they had to close for a few years from 1942 because of a shortage of raw-materials.  They recommenced in 1946 and eventually closed the old Upper Factory in 1963.


The recession of the late 1980s saw another disaster averted when a Real Estate company took them over in 1988.  Like Denby in England, their parent-company got into difficulties and the pottery was sold in 1994.  Known as Zeller Keramik Geschwister Hillebrand G.m.b.H since 1997, the company still continues successfully today.  There is also a porcelain museum operating from the old Haiss manor house.  I have added a bit more about this company on the post for Zeller Keramic if you are interested.

 

Zell Am Harmersbach

Zeller Today

Denby

The Old Denby Factory

Designer	Albert Colledge
Maker	Denby Pottery
Marks	Almost illegibly stamped “Peasant Ware England” in black to base.
Description	Wide, low sided slipware bowl with large loop handle.  Pink interior with grey exterior.  Semi-gloss glaze over entire body except footring.
Number
Production Date	Early 1950s
Width	125mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	208mm
Weight	385gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Waverley Antique Market  7 Nov 2011.
Rameking Reference Number	DEN 001 DEN 002 DEN 003

Available in Australia at the upper end of the market, Denby pottery comes from a 200 year old English company in Denby, Lancashire.     They originally made china, porcelain and stoneware tableware, as well as branching out into glassware and cooking utensils.  A body of clay was discovered in 1806 during roadworks and two locals, Jacob and Brohier began making stoneware bottles.  Later, in 1815, local businessman William Bourne and his sons John and Joseph took over.  William came from a family of potters.  They later took over a couple of other potteries and named the company "Joseph Bourne and Company", a name that endured.  Their pottery is usually marked "Bourne Denby England.


Expanding rapidly because of the new railways criss-crossing England, they dug 25 tons of clay daily to be used in their patented kilns.  Denby produced a huge range of pottery during the 19th Century, from ink wells to water filters and everything in between, producing decorative as well as utilitarian wares in clay, slip and terra-cotta

Denby continued to make decorative homewares until the early 1950s when they then began to concentrate on tablewares, such as these ramekins, wartime restrictions being recently lifted.  Designed by Albert Colledge (1891-1972) in 1951, this “Peasantware” pattern is an example.   It is claimed that they can withstand oven temperatures, but I wouldn’t try it, just in case.  Ramekins are intended to be used to cook food in, but, due to their age and rarity, don’t risk it.  These are earlier than their “Oven to Table” ware and are described as being “tough, ovenproof and long lasting”.  An early Denby catalogue shows "egg poachers" but are clearly ramekins.  

Glyn and Albert Colledge 1948

Like many companies in the 1980s, Denby was taken over.  In 1987 they were bought by the Coloroll group, an English home furnishings company from Manchester who themselves went into receivership in 1990.  Unwilling to let the company die, Denby was then subject to a management buyout by the Managing Director and a few other executives, and subsequently publicly floated in 1994; it was a bargain.  Bought for 6 million, it floated for around 40 million, although a lot went to pay off debt.  Today, Denby still produce a wide variety of products including fine china and porcelain, as well as that old staple, stoneware.

 Since the management buyout, Denby has purchased other companies such as Burgess, Dorling & Leigh, Poole and Leeds Pottery.  Since then, they have opened many more retail outlets and increased staff.  As well as pottery, they also make cast-iron products.

Denby now sells into more than thirty countries including Japan, South Korea, North America and China.  In 2011 export sales increased over 30%.  Despite this increase in exports, production remains in the UK.  A new distribution warehouse is planned, as is a new visitor centre, shopping centre and hotel are well progressed.

The handles on this range are a large folded loop.  Not too many other makers used this design, although you can see similar handles on some of the later Diana (U63) ramekins and many of Charles Wilton's ramekins.  Design copyright by the Australians seems to have been viewed as somewhat flexible in those days.