Temuka

Pickings have been very slim during lockdown.  I found these in an Op-Shop recently.  Made in New Zealand and sold in Australia by a Sydney department store, Grace Brothers.  The price stickers are still on the base.  They are more of a flat dish than a ramekins, and have a low volume.

 Researching some potteries, especially from a distance can be problematic, especially when it is obvious that most posts are simply copies of one-another.  This is especially true of Temuka Potteries, just have a look.  Due to the COVID lockdown, it is difficult to travel, even though we have a travel bubble with New Zealand.  Anyway, here goes.

Most of these clones will tell you that the pottery was begun by Arthur Rowden Toplis in the 1930s.  Arthur is described as the third manager of New Zealand Insulators, the parent company of Temuka.  It goes back well before then and well after.

Temuka is a small town located on the Canterbury Plains of the central south island of New Zealand 15km north of Timaru.  The North Otago museum at Oamaru has a collection of Temuka pottery but it seems they want to divest. 

 Way back in 1868, Joseph Whitehead began brickworks in Temuka.  William Hoare and his partner Page began a brickworksnear Whitehead in 1894 in Temuka.  The Temuka Pipe Company took over the works in 1909.  In 1916, was bought by John Redpath.  He owned a small insulator company and asked Peter Mc Skimming to join him.  (I included this bit because Mc Skimming are still a well-known NZ company.)  Dominion Porcelain and Tile took over in 1922.  

New Zealand Insulators took over in 1924.  This is just a potted early history.  There is a lot more but you can chase that up yourself.

Arthur died at Temuka on the 9th of June 1938 at the age of 53.  He was buried at the Temuka Cemetery on the 11th of Hune 1938.  He was survived by his wife Mabel.  The managers before Arthur were RH Taylor (a former owner), and JG (Jock) Ritchie. Arthur is describes as a skilled craftsman and an experienced potter.  Arthur has learned his craft in England, (many Toplis’s are from Derbyshire, in the centre of English potteries.) and later Portugal.

Later, Thomas Pickering took over as manager in 1941.  He had run his own potteryuntil 1938when increasing competition forced it to close.

It was said during the Cold War, (remember that one, boomers?) only three things would survive a nuclear holocaust; ants, cockroaches and New Zealand Railways cups. And the first two would make it only if they were hiding under the cups.

Together with George Pickering, they began making items as Christmas presents for customers of their parent company National Electric and Engineering Company (NEECO).  Things such as vases, teapots and mixing bowls.

We can jump forward to the 1970s now, skipping over a fire in the 1950s that led to resumption of production of electric jug bodies.  In 1966  NEECO was sold to Cable Price Downer Ltd.  Thomas Lovatt was replaced as Manager and the production of domestic pottery declined.  Thomas after his retirement from Temuka together with his sons in 1966 later began Te Rona pottery.  Thomas died in 1966.

These ramekins are a product of the 1970s.  Any colour as long as it is brown.  Temuka produced a range of stoneware in lovely brown.  Remember those sets of kitchen storage jars of varying sizes?  Those lovely brown coffee sets?  So popular, that a new pottery was built in 1977.  Come on boomers, you must have the remnants of a brown stoneware dinner set hidden away at the back of a dusty kitchen cupboard?

Anyway, the company is still in business today.  A lot of their early output is highly collectible, so if you see any, buy them.

David Jones

Designer	Not known
Maker	Diana Pottery Marrickville
Marks	Stamped in black ink to base “David Jones Bronze Lustre Stoneware Ovenproof”
Material	Glazed slip
Description	Oval bowl angled inwards from lower third.  Brown gloss glazed ring to outside of bowl and entire inside of bowl Dark bronze colour matte glaze to whole of rest of external body, unglazed foot ring.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number.
Production Date	Mid 1960s
Width at rim	120mm
Width at Base	125mm
Depth	45mm
Length (with handle)	160mm
Weight	245gm
Volume	450ml
Acquisition	Purchase, Mill Antiques, Daylesford 15th February 2020
Rameking Reference Number	DAJ 001-004

Pickings have been rather slim lately, so it came as a surprise that I came across these recently.  In their latter stages, the successors to the Diana Pottery (on the same site) produced a series named “Dana.”  Dana used the old “Nefertiti” pattern to make these ramekins for the Sydney Department store, “David Jones.” 

David Jones began in 1837 in Sydney, New South Wales.  The company grew, creating a national retail chain. In 1982, David Jones bought Melbourne department store, Buckley & Nunn, including its properties on Bourke Street. The first David Jones store in Melbourne opened on the Bourke Street site that same year. Three years later, in 1985, David Jones acquired Adelaide department store John Martins, but operated it as a separate entity to the more upmarket David Jones-branded store.

During the Second World War (1941) Eric Lowe, a Sydney potter got Government contracts to produce ceramic wares for the armed forces. After the war, he changed production to domestic pottery and throughout the 1950s, Diana was the largest and most prolific pottery in New South Wales, producing hundreds of different products and designs.

I think it fair to say that you would have had a piece of Diana pottery in yours or your parent’s home at some stage, probably a mixing bowl or vase. The pottery was located at 122-126 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, Sydney and it continued until the mid-1960s, when cheap copies and imports caused a decline in sales.

They continued on for a few more years calling their output “Dana”.  Much of the Dana ceramics were copies of the later Diana “Nefertiti” ramekins, with a rough textured exterior and a brown glazed lip and interior. These are a lustre ware product made especially for the David Jones Department Store in the early 1970s.  Check out my Diana posts for lots more about Diana.  David Jones had previously made cream slip vases with gold handles for a gift shop in the Imperial Arcade in Sydney under the name “Imperial.”   

Lustre ware, fashionable in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s is produced by a process using a metallic overglaze on pottery or porcelain to produce an effect of iridescence. Pigments containing salts of gold and platinum are used.  It is produced by a second reduction firing at a lower temperature (640-740°C).

Mystery Maker Marked "CS"

Designer	Not known
Maker	Not known
Marks	Incised ”CS” to base
Material	Clay
Description	Hand-made coiled clay
Condition	Good
Number	No number, “V.I” incised to base of one ramekin
Production Date	Not known
Width at rim	108mm
Width at Base	73mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	143mm
Weight	R1, 227 Gm;  R2,  277 Gm
Volume	237ml
Acquisition	Mill antiques Ballarat, 2 April 2019
Rameking Reference Number	MMM 006, MMM007

Sometimes, the big fella upstairs throws you a curved one.  I have been looking at these ramekins for years at the Mill Antiques just outside Ballarat in Victoria, seeing them go from stall to stall.  They are crudely made and were vastly overpriced.  They look like student pieces.  Anyway, recently I was browsing and came across them again.  This time, the stall was closing down and everything was very heavily discounted, particularly these ramekins.  It appears that the stallholder had moved locations in the complex over the years and was now closing down.  So, thanks big guy.

It appears that they are hand made from strings of clay coiled up to make the shape, an ancient technique for making pottery.  I have no idea of who made them, when or where.  They appear to be made in the 1930s or 1940s.  The clay looks similar to that around Preston, a suburb just north of Melbourne.    

  

Saywell Imports

Designer	Not Known
Maker	Not Known
Marks	Embossed oval silver paper adhesive label to base of saucer marked “An Exotic Import by Saywell Imports.”
Material	Moulded glazed slip
Description	Three-piece set of brown single handled bowl with contrasting interior with geometric design to base and unglazed foot ring.  Short dished handle attached to exterior of bowl. Dish is brown matching gloss glazed slipware, unglazed foot ring.  Swirl pattern in light brown to centre of saucer with matching colour on edge of saucer. Lid is also gloss glazed in matching two tone brown with patches of lighter brown to two quadrants.
Condition	Good
Number	No number
Production Date	Late 1970s / early 1980s
Width at rim 2 sizes	Saucer 146mm Bowl 93mm Lid 97mm
Width at Base	Bowl 50mm
Depth	Bowl 45mm
Length (with handles)	130mm
Weight	Saucer 242gm Bowl 208gm Lid 128gm
Volume	175mm
Acquisition	Purchase Salvo’s Ballarat  24 Aug 2018
Rameking Reference Number	SAY 001-012

These ramekins were made in Japan and imported to Australia by Saywell Imports.  Paget Sayers journey in this business began in 1963 when he started Saywell Imports with partner Ian Murray. Initially based in his small home in Woolloomooloo and then Rochford street in Erskinville and later, Wentworth Avenue in Sydney’s CBD (better parking)  Saywell Imports brought a huge variety of household items , sourced worldwide.

.

Born in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse during the depression.  Orphaned at age 16 following the death of his mother, his father having died some 5 years earlier.  He began working at various jobs, even at age 19, working on a ship to England and working on an oil tanker and other trips before eventually returning to Sydney.  He worked as a salesman for a couple of years before starting his own business. 

Some of the keys to their success were profit-sharing with the staff, free lunches for staff (only sandwiches) and some of the staff could name their own salary. These strategies were considered novel and enlightened at the time but Paget likes to think it was his "inner-Buddha" nature. It was on an overseas buying trip that Paget discovered Bhuddism.  At its peak, there were about 50 employees. 

Paget is a philanthropist who devotes his time to Your Aid, who deliver charity providing education, clean water and medical services to rural communities in Cambodia and supporting the PAL Buddhist school in Sydney.

Saywell Group,was a long-time highly successful furniture distribution business in Australia and New Zealand. Paget later said “I had a very successful business called Saywell Imports, but when I was 45, I decided that when I hit 50 I’d like to retire. So, when I was 50, I sold the business to a company who ruined it within four years.”  Later, it was sold 2008.  A company called “Saywell Importing” on the Gold Coast is not connected.  

CULA Potteries

Designer        Ken Day? Maker CULA Potteries Marks Hand Painted in black “Cula D65” Material Mould formed slipware. Description Cream coloured exterior of bowl with offset unglazed foot ring. Yellow and black interior glaze with sgraffito wavy lines to interior. Reinforces semicircular handle attached to top edge of rim of bowl. Condition Very Good, Number D 65 Production Date Before 1958 Width at rim 113mm Width at Base 55mm Depth 48mm Weight 143gm Volume 237ml (1 cup in old money) Acquisition Purchase Daylesford 23 June 2018 Rameking Reference Number CUL 001, 002
Despite years of collecting, sometimes a surprise comes along.  This one happened recently when I found these two ramekins hiding on the bottom shelf of a retro/antique store in Daylesford Victoria.  They are from CULA Pottery, yet another small manufacturer that began after the Second-World-War.  In 1946 Ex-Servicemen Ronald Frank Curnow (1914-1998), originally a Queensland boy, later of Narrabeen and William Langley (combined the first two initials of their surnames to form CuLa) purchased a small working pottery in Grenwich, Sydney (I don't know which pottery).  In 1948 the partnership was dissolved.  Just who continued, I also don’t know.  In 1950 the works were relocated to larger premises at Brookvale in the Wahringah Shire in Sydney.  Into this pottery came master potter and mould maker Ken Day.  Ken had previously worked for Diana for many years.  He made moulds for CULA and other potteries at this time.  It is better than even money that he made the moulds for these ramekins.  He began his own pottery “DAYEL” in 1955 and operated it until 1957. The CULA pottery closed in 1958, most likely yet another victim of the trade agreement with Japan.  Ken then set up as a contract modeler in the old Martin Boyd pottery.  CULA made a variety of slip cast wares including these ramekins glazed in a variety of dark orange through to brown.  Like many potteries of the time, cultural appropriation was not considered and some were hand decorated with Aboriginal motifs or flowers and marked “Cula” either painted or inscribed.  Unusually, these ramekins have an offset base that makes them sit on an angle.

Maxwell & Williams

Designer	Maxwell & Williams
Maker	Maxwell and Williams
Marks	Transfer print to base and side.  Base “Maxwell& Williams Designer Homewares Homestead first quality porcelain Dishwasher, Freezer, Microwave and Conventional Oven safe.” Transfer to side “Maxwell & Williams Ramekin Designer Homewares The Homestead Collection”
Material	Mould formed porcelain.
Description	Cream coloured bowl with thickened rim and cream interior and unglazed foot ring. Transfer printed (as above).
Condition	Very Good, small chip to rim of one bowl.
Number	No number
Production Date	1910s
Width at rim 2 sizes	98mm 107mm
Width at Base	90mm
Depth	68mm
Weight	285gm
Volume	375ml
Acquisition	Purchase Salvos Store Norman St Ballarat 22 June 2018
Rameking Reference Number	HAG 001, 002

Question?                           When is a ramekin not a ramekin?

Answer;                              When it’s a bowl.

Just because you call a bowl a ramekin doesn’t make it so.  These bowls made by Maxwell and Williams have the word “Ramekin” printed on the side.  Well, they can call their product whatever they like, but by my definition, they are bowls.  Beautifully made but still bowls.  Nevertheless, theirs is still a story that needs to be told.  Don’t look for much on the web because you won’t find it.  They are a private company owned by a very private family, so I won’t tell you too much.

Maxwell and Williams are yet another success story created by migrants escaping the chaos of post-war Europe.  The Maxwell and Williams story is an interesting one.  Heinrich (Harry) and Anna Grundmann, German migrants, arrived in Australia on the 17^th of January 1952 aboard the migrant ship “Cyrenia”; a creaking old Greek ship built in 1911.  The ship sailed from Piraeus in Greece to Fremantle Western Australia.  Another website states that they were holocaust survivors.

On Board were 6 people named Grundmann, only Heinrich and Anna travelled on to Melbourne.  After working as a salesman, Harry decided to go it alone.  He began his own company H.A.G, combining his and Anna’s initials.  The company began life in a small garage at their home in Clinton Street in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton East.

Their story is one of talent seizing opportunity.  The business began at just the right time because Australia had signed a trade agreement with Japan in 1957.  The grandfather of the current Japanese Prime Minister Abe signed the agreement with our then Trade-Minister; ”Black Jack” McEwan, opening the door to a range of imports not available previously.  (It also almost killed our studio pottery industry).  It was abrave thing for the Post-War Government to do.

Maxwell and Williams is just one member of the  HAG Import Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd, registered on the 17^th of June 1975 and operating from a purpose-built warehouse in Millers Road Brooklyn Victoria Australia.  Their Action Plan states; “H.A.G. Import Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd (H.A.G.) is a family company that has been selling homewares in Australia for over 35 years. H.A.G. is the sole Australian importer and distributor for the brand names Maxwell & Williams, Casa Domani, Doozie, Headline, Krosno and Ritzenhoff.”

Maxwell and Williams are Max Grundmann, son of Harry and Anna and Bill (William) Ryan, Max’s business partner.  The company operates in over fifty countries worldwide and employs around one hundred people.  Max was studying at Monash University in Melbourne when he realised that he had inherited a love of sales from Harry.  He joined the company in 1974 and took over when Harry suffered a heart attack in 1978.  That is when Bill joined the company.  Bill had a background in finance.

The business really took off when they marketed the “Krosno” brand and the Maxwell and Williams name was born in 1995 when Max was staying in Europe.  After doodling “Maxwell and Williams” on a paper table cloth the name was born.  I believe that this piece of paper is now framed and hanging in their offices.

They also have a range called "White Basics" that have a "Ramekin" with fluted sides, that has similar dimensions.  Much of the fine porcelain produced these days is made in China.  Even though these do not have a country of origin marked on the, I think it reasonable to conclude that they are of Chinese origin.

Holmburg, Karl

Designer	Not Known
Maker	Karl Holmburg
Marks	Sweden 501 impressed to base with logo
Material	Glazed earthenware
Description	Small rectangular bowl with rounded corners sloping to base.  Heavy green speckled gloss glaze to interior and exterior.  Unglazed foot ring.  Handle extending from upper third of exterior of bowl, grooved on top.
Condition	Excellent
Number	501 impressed to base
Production Date	Late 1960s
Width at rim	95mm
Width at Base	60mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	160mm
Weight	Varying from 151 to 180 gm
Volume	150ml
Acquisition	Purchase E-Bay 1 November 2017
Rameking Reference Number	HOL 001-007

Pickings have been a little slim on the ramekin front lately, so it came as a surprise when these came up on E-Bay recently.  Almost unknown in Australia and still rare in their native Sweden, these ramekins are unusual in that they were made by a company that specialised in wooden products in the pre-internet days.

The large ramekin with lid is approximately 22cm wide (including handle) x 110mm high.  The opening is approximately 120mm wide and the base is approximately 95mm wide.  It weighs approximately 670 grams. Impressed to the base is "Sweden 520-2" and makers mark and there is a sticker on the lid.  The smaller ramekin with pourer and lid is approximately 16omm wide (including handle) x 80mm high.  The opening is approximately 75mm wide and the base is approx. 65mm wide.  It weighs approximately 245 grams.  On the base is "Sweden 520-2" and makers mark and there is also a sticker on the lid on this piece.  The stickers read "Karl Holmburg Gotene UGNSELDFAST (Heat Resistant) Made in Sweden".  The wooden tray is approx. 500mm long x 100mm wide x 20mm high and has a heat branding stamp.

This pottery ramekin/tapas set was made in the late 1960s in Sweden by Karl Napoleon Holmburg (1883-1955).  The set comprises 4 square ramekins, 1 large ramekin with lid, 1 smaller ramekin (saucier) with pourer & lid and the wooden serving board of Bangkok Teak (Tectona Grandis).   In those days, Teak was an expensive, exclusive timber used for high end products.  It was known as “Burmese Teak”, because at the time, half of the world’s teak came from Burma (today’s Myanmar) and was used for furniture and small wooden products. 

Karl Holmburg, a Carpenter, began making furniture in the early 1920s at Gotene in Vastra Gotland, Sweden.  He started by working with his father Anders Johan Holmburg, also a Carpenter in the family business that Dad began in 1903. They initially made exclusive designer furniture to order for the larger furniture store such as Nordiska Kompaniet (NK)  in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Anders died in 1927.

The company expanded slowly over the next 30 years and by the early 1950s, they employed around 20 staff.  At that time, they restructured and production switched to teak products for the home, mainly kitchen items such as trays and bowls. 

Karl’s sons took over the running of the company with elder son Karl-Eric in charge.  In the 1960s, the company launched its own teak cutlery series by which time they had around 100 staff and were Sweden’s largest maker of teak products.  This couldn’t last and by the late 1960s, fashions had changed and despite attempts to diversify, the company was bankrupt by 1973.  Teak had become much more widespread and commonplace by then.

It is odds-on that the tray was made by Karl’s company but  it is likely that the ramekins themselves were made by Rörstrand, now part of Iittala, having moved their production to Sri Lanka and Hungary.   In 1926 the company moved from Stockholm to Gothenburg and again from Gothenburg to larger premises at Lidköping in 1936. In 1983 Rörstrand was bought by Arabia and in 1987 they merged with Gustavsbergs Porslinfabrik.  In 1990 Rorstrand were taken over by the Finnish Hackman Group.  Between 1960 and 1990 Rörstrand had several owners, including Uppsala-Ekeby, Finnish Wärtsilä and Hackman and Gustavsberg .  Check out my post for them for more information.

Iittala is a design company from Finland that specializes in housewares.  In December 2005 their factory in Lidköping closed, ending almost 280 years of local manufacture. The former porcelain factory is now the Rörstrand Centre containing a museum, restaurant, art gallery and outlet store.  The museum contains one of the best collections of porcelain in Europe.

I should point out that none of the Rörstrand ceramic designs are in any way similar to these ramekins and to further confuse things, as mentioned earlier, they were taken over by Upsala-Ekeby in 1964.  (Uppsala-Ekeby began manufacturing porcelain in Uppsala in the 1960s because of increasing sales.) There are some similarities in colour and design with a few of the Uppsala-Ekeby products.

The products had various burned stamps, stickers and labels over the life of the company.  They are marked “Karl Holmburg AB Akta Teak Gotene Sweden” or “Karl Holmburg AB Genuine teak Gotene Sweden”.  The branded ones also have a number that may be a model and/or size designation. There is a label with the ramekins written in Swedish. (Not one of my languages, but here goes; - )

“Your beautiful ramekins and beautiful Bangkok teak tray will become more beautiful if they are used properly.  Do not expose the ramekins to high heat and never put them in a dishwasher.  Clean after use, by washing or wiping off with lukewarm water and immediately drying on a towel. They should be seasoned with cooking oil or paraffin oil occasionally.”