The Rameking

Worldwide Headquarters of the Australian Studio Art Ramekin, (and a few others) that piece of Australiana that has almost disappeared from our lives and tables. How many of you Baby Boomers have sat in front of a warm fire in winter, eating tinned spaghetti from a ramekin? In the period between the World Wars, and in the decades after, many famous artists made ramekins. They continued until cheap imports and copies almost killed them off in the 1970s. See them here in all their faded glory.

Ramekin is thought to come from a Dutch word for "toast" or the German for "little cream."

Name

Ramekin

Variant

Ramequin, Ramekin dish.

Pronounced

(ram′ə kin)[RAM-ih-kihn]ræməkin

Function

English Noun
Plural

Ramekins

Hypernym

A type of dish

Purpose

Cooking

Etymology

French Ramequin from Low German ramken, diminutive of cream, circa 1706. middle Dutch rammeken (cheese dish) dialect variant of rom (cream), similar to old English ream and German rahm. Ancient French cookbooks refer to ramekins as being garnished fried bread.

Meaning

1. A food mixture, (casserole) specifically a preparation of cheese, especially with breadcrumbs and/or eggs or unsweetened pastry baked on a mould or shell.

2. With a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 oz), it is a small fireproof glass or earthenware individual dish similar in size and shape to a cup, or mould used for cooking or baking and serving sweet or savoury foods.

3. Formerly the name given to toasted cheese; now tarts filled with cream cheese.

4. A young child usually between the ages of 3 months and 11 years exhibiting a compulsion to force or "ram" their head into various objects and structures.

These days, a ramekin is generally regarded as a small single serve heatproof serving bowl used in the preparation or serving of various food dishes, designed to be put into hot ovens and to withstand high temperatures. They were originally made of ceramics but have also been made of glass or porcelain, commonly in a round shape with an angled exterior ridged surface. Ramekins have more lately been standardized to a size with a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 ounce) and are now used for serving a variety of sweet and savoury foods, both entrée and desert.

They are also an attractive addition to the table for serving nuts,dips and other snacks. Because they are designed to hold a serving for just one person, they are usually sold in sets of four, six, or eight. Ramekins now are solid white, round, with a fluted texture covering the outside, and a small lip. Please bear in mind that whatever you ask for them on Internet auction sites, someone is still getting the same thing in an op shop for peanuts.

However, there are hundreds of decorative ramekins that came in a variety of shapes and sizes. They came in countless colours and finishes and many were made by our leading artists and ceramicists. My collection has ramekins with One handle only, fixed to the body at one point only. If it has no handle, it is a bowl. If it has two, it is a casserole dish. But the glory day of the Australian Studio Art ramekin is well and truly over. See some here, ask questions or leave answers.

P.S. Remember, just as real men don't eat quiche, real ramekins don't have lids or two handles. Also remember, two handles makes it a casserole dish. Also, please note If it aint got a handle, it's just a bowl.
P.P.S. To all you cretins who advertise your ramekins by associating them with "Eames" or "Eames Era". Get your hand off it, you are not kidding anyone. The Eames people have told me that they never made ramekins.
P.P.P.s To all the illiterates out there in cyberspace, just as there is no "I" in team, there is no "G" in Ramekin. I am the Rameking, they are ramekins.
If you have a set of Grandma's ramekins at the back of a kitchen cupboard, have a look through the site, maybe you will identify them. Thank-you for looking.
There are many of you out there that have knowledge of Australian pottery. Please let me know if you have anything that I can add to the notes. It is important to get the information recorded. You probably know something that nobody else does.
Please note that while your comments are most welcome, any that contain a link to another site will no longer be published.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Diana Fish Pattern

Designer	Diana Pottery Pty Ltd; Marrickville, New South Wales
Maker	Diana Pottery Pty Ltd; Marrickville, New South Wales; 1941 - 1966
Marks	No Mark, originally stamped (see below)
Description	Ramekins set of 6, earthenware, slip-cast, each fish shaped bowl has bowl shaped sides and a short curved fish-tail shaped handle, the interior surfaces are clear glazed over polychrome colours, the exterior surfaces are differently glazed.
Number	Ramekins and tureen originally had printed marks "Diana with emblem under the base in black. Both have impressed marks "S12" or "512" under the base under the glaze. Use and cleaning has removed all trace of any stamp.
Production Date
Width	113ml 4.7/8”
Depth	49mm 1.7/8”
Length (with handle)	155ml 6.3/16”
Weight	Tureen 490gm 17.8 oz Ramekin 160gm 5.65.oz
Volume	Tureen 1100ml 38.75 fl oz Ramekin 250ml 8.8 fl oz
Acquisition	Tureen Camberwell Sunday Market Ramekins Adelaide Antique Market

Eric Cornwell Lowe was born in Melbourne in 1901 at East Brunswick, Victoria. At the time, a number of potteries operated in the area, but Eric’s father (Arthur Horace Lindsay Lowe, 1868-1938) was a Salesman and later an Agent. His mother was Amy Beatrice Catterall (b1871). Eric moved to Sydney and married Vera Louisa Christopher in 1932, they do not appear to have had children. Arthur and Amy moved up in the world, moving from Brunswick to Moonee Ponds, then to Caulfield, an affluent Melbourne suburb.

Young Eric was quite entrepreneurial in his late teens as he began importing cut glass and crockery from Germany and Czechoslovakia. Timing was not on his side as this began in 1939. This company was called “Eric C Lowe Pty Ltd.” “Maunufacturers of Utility and Fancy Earthenware”.

The shareholders of this company were;

· Eric C Lowe

· Mrs Vera Louise Lowe

· John Christopher

· Winston McKenley Christopher

· Brian Winter LeQueene

· Josephine Mary Permewan (Victoria)

· Ralph Rankin (Victoria)

Directors of the company were

· E.C.Lowe

· V.L.Lowe

· J.Christopher

· W.M.Christopher

The business was incorporated in New South Wales on the 11^th of July 1939, having previously been carried on by Eric as a sole trader, and was given 401 ordinary and 2665 preference shares when incorporated.

Eric had a large amount of stock on hand and could not sell it due to the stigma now attached to German goods. So, during the Second World War (1941) Eric and Vera got Government contracts to produce ceramic wares (cream ware cups and mugs and pots and jugs) for the armed forces. Eric did not join up as many of his contemporaries did. Many industries supplying the armed forces were “protected industries” and many of their employees were exempt from military service. Most potteries at that time were geared for the war effort and the demand from Australian and American troops was enormous.

Seen after the company incorporated, in 1941, Eric began making art pottery. This did not last long as wartime restrictions meant that this was prohibited in May 1942. They began making teapots, jugs, cups and mugs around May 1942. During wartime, price control measures meant that Eric had to submit financial returns to the Commonwealth government. This fixed the price that Eric could charge for the output. Thankfully, these records still exist. These give detailed accounts of all the itemised accounting for the business.

These are notable for showing that Fowler, Bakewell and Mashman were making similar items for the services. Still, this did not stop the business from making a profit of 39.3% in 1940/41 and 26.0% in 1941/42. Profits gradually dropped and the next year they only made about 13%. In 1943/44, the profit was down to 10.7%. The next year produced a deficit of £411. Late in 1944, Eric had to repay 25 of his workers back pay because of a Womens Employment Board decision that he had underpaid them. These were all women as most men had by then enlisted.

Although born in Victoria, his pottery was started at 122-126 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, Sydney and it continued there until the early 1970s, when cheap copies and imports caused a drastic decline in sales and its eventual closure. The giant Fowler works were already established there works in the area because of the clay found in the area, and later, Studio Anna commenced nearby. They also purchased kaolin from the Pottery Clay Works for £3.15/- per ton.

In November 1945, a fire started by a lime kiln spread to the works and quickly destroyed much of the factory. Fire is an occupational hazard in potteries and brick works but nevertheless it was a devastating blow. The works had been extensively refurbished the previous year. Contracts from the Services were drying up and production had to revert to peace time items. When the war finished, Arthur began had rebuilt and began making domestic pottery for the homes of the families of returned services people. This included a large range of slip cast vases in a variety of gloss and matte colours, sizes and shapes, or sprayed to create a speckled texture,

Their output included such products as ceramic horse-head book ends, several other animal figures, (a pair of greyhounds was a popular product) tableware, utility and kitchenware. Over 200 different shapes were produced during their lifetime. Some products were sold using the name “Hollywood.” By the early 1950s the company had more than 70 employees and were producing a large range of hand painted articles which included "Waltzing Matilda" musical mugs and jugs, and produced bright "gumnut" pots with pale green and brown glazes.

The musical mugs and jugs played when lifted, but the movements were expensive and difficult to obtain, being imported from Switzerland, so many mugs and jugs that should have had movements were sold without at reduced prices. In the 1960s Diana diversified their range further into decorated oven and kitchenware, hand painted with maple, poinsettia, cornflower, blackberry, wattle and flannel flower designs. In the 1960's, a variety of small slip cast vases hand decorated in gold were made for a gift shop in the Imperial Arcade Sydney which were marketed under the name 'Imperial'. Although these are not ramekins, I have some of them.

After the Second World War there had been a massive increase in the number of potteries around Australia. Commercial, studio and backyard potteries were being established in the suburbs of most major cities and by 1955 there were over 12,000 people working in the quarrying and manufacture of clay related industries. This also included brickworks. After the war, Eric had 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, many hand painted. Native wildflowers were a popular motif.

Among them, as mentioned, the Flannel Flower, an iconic Sydney plant used in imagery and art since colonial times. Sometimes known as the Sydney Flannel Flower, it is usually known as the Flannel Flower and was chosen to be the New South Wales floral emblem for the Centenary of Federation (1901-2001). It is found in the sandstone national parks in the greater Sydney area and can be sometimes found in spectacular drifts. The flowers are about 50mm in diameter and appear in Spring. The stunning Pink Flannel Flower is rarely seen as it only appears in the summer following a bushfire.

Soon after the end of the Second World War, Eric began advertising for more staff and soon had a thriving business making home-wares for the thousands of ex-servicemen starting their families. His pottery even had a staff canteen, far more advanced than many of the other one or two person companies operating on a shoestring budget. In the mid 1960s, they (Diana Pottery (Vic) Pty Ltd) had a shop in Melbourne at 343 Little Collins Street.

The potteries around Australia employed thousands of people, many given their start in Australia following migration from Europe after the second word war. Eric Jungvirt who started Studio Anna was one who started with Eric at Diana. I think it fair to say that you would have had a piece of Diana pottery in yours or your parents home at some stage, probably a ramekin, a mixing bowl or a vase. At their peak, Diana employed around 70 people but this had declined to around 30 by 1970. They continued on for a few more years calling their output “Dana”.

In Australia, the Whitlam Government had cut tariffs without warning by 25 percent in 1973. 1974 saw an increase in imports of 30 percent. By mid-1974, Australia was in an economic slump with unemployment rising significantly. Short-term credit rates rose to extremely high levels and this caused prices to spike sharply, and according to Government figures, inflation topped 13 percent for over a year between 1973 and 1974. On top of these problems, wage parity was legislated for female workers meant an increase in wages costs.It was in this climate that Diana fell on hard times and ceased production. Eric was by then in his early 50s.

Much of the Dana ceramics were copies of the later “Nefertiti” ramekins, with a rough textured (Avocado) exterior and a brown glazed lip and interior. They also produced wares using the names Hollywood, Imperial and just plain Australian. Check out the Diana website for lots more. Also, a potter at Bendigo Pottery told me that the conveyor that moves the pottery around the Bendigo Pottery today was said to have come from the old Diana Pottery after it closed in 1974. The entire Marrickville site consisting of the Fowler, Diana and Studio Anna potteries was demolished and subdivided in 1982. Eric died in Sydney NSW on the 10^th February 1977 age 76. Vera lived on for many years.

Alan Lowe

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Origin of the Australian Art Studio Ramekin

In the 19th Century, Ramequin Cases began to be used in cooking. These were paper cups, similar to those used for cupcakes or muffins. As time passed, people began to make them from clay and the spelling mostly changed from Ramequin to Ramekin. Ramequin still holds out in a few places, mainly in parts of the USA. The heyday of the Australian ramekin began in the 1930s.

Australian Art Studio pottery grew out of the 19th Century Arts and Crafts Movement. Following the upheaval of the First World War, potters found that many people still wanted hand made homewares. In Australia, many potters opened studios to meet this demand which intensified after the Second World War when returned ex services people set up their homes. It is the fallout from this ageing group that is now finding it’s way onto the market. Most of them may never be valuable, it is only their intrinsic value,but after another 100 years, who knows?

The Government, still in austerity mode encouraged manufacture of practical pottery post World War 2, by placing a higher tax on decorative wares, leading to potteriesmaking items that were decorative but had a practical use,thus avoiding the tax. This explains the absence of figurines that were the mainstay of many English potteries, and the proliferation of things like ramekins and vases.

Retraining programmes for returned and wounded soldiers at the end of the First and Second World Wars provided a workforce for the many potteries that flourished in Australia at the time. After the First World War, Bendigo Pottery needed a trained workforce to help make the flood of bricks for the housing in Melbourne. Towards the end of the Second, Guy Boyd worked at the Rehabilitation Hospital at Ingleburn, New South Wales, teaching pottery

Before take away food and plastics came to dominate the market, ceramics were used for a much wider range of products. The population explosion created by the Australian gold rush resulted in an increased demand for all kinds of locally manufactured goods. As the market diversified so too did the pottery, from commercial packaging to utility kitchenware. For the larger pottery’s, domestic items were, however, always a sideline to the main business of serving the building trade. For some, smaller potteries and individual potters, ramekins were the main income producer.

In 1957 the Australia-Japan Agreement on Commerce negotiated by Australian Trade Minister, John 'Black Jack' McEwan dealt a major blow to commercial potteries. This agreement opened the doors for mass- produced cheap Japanese ceramics to flood the Australian market. Many local commercial potteries were forced out of business by this competition, but a few managed to survive.

There are also the untold stories of some Eastern European migrants fleeing persecution who made a new life in post war Australia, thanks largely to ramekins. Because they made homewares and not art sculpture, their stories have not been adequately told. In some cases, this is the only place you will find part of their stories.

To help calculate the relative cost of these ramekins, I have here are a couple of items to compare the average weekly earnings for a man in Australia for the decades during which ramekins were popular; In 1940, it was $9.60, in 1950 it was $11.50. To convert to the old currency, divide by two.

Please Note

Comments on this blog are moderated BEFORE they appear on the site, and this takes time. There is often a delay between a comment being posted and it being approved. If you do not wish to have your comment posted, I will not post it.

The photographs form part of the description. Due to the light, my photos may show slight variances in colour and some shadows, distortions, reflections and highlights that should not be there. Also different computers and monitor settings will affect colours. My ramekins are all washed in warm water with mild detergent as this identifies any crazing or cracks that are very faint, or invisible to the naked eye. This ensures that the descriptions are more accurate.

Modern Ramekins

Ramekins are one of the few baking dishes that actually have their own name, setting them apart from generic sounding “cake pans” and “baking dishes.” Modern ramekins are small, cylindrical dishes that are used for baking individually sized dishes. They are ideal for baking small soufflés, as their straight sides make it easy for an egg white-based souffle mixture to rise up the sides of the dish and gain a lot of height, as well as for baking individual desserts, since they offer built-in portion control. Use them for little pudding cakes and baked egg-cups, and also for chilled desserts, such as panna cotta and chocolate mousse.

Ramekins can be made out of any heat-proof material; most modern ones are often made out of porcelain, pyrex or something similar. They can come in any size, but are most often found in 4-, 6- or 8-ounce volumes. Some will have very shallow sides, but most have a rise of about an inch or so, depending on the size of the dish itself.

Their small size actually makes them useful for applications outside of the oven. For instance, they’re often used when a cook is doing preparation work in the kitchen, separating chopped ingredients into individual dishes to be used at a later time. They’re also a nice way to present side servings of dressings, sauces and dips.

There are a small number of people who refer to ramekins as “pipkins”. I do not. Yes, there are similarities, but historically, a pipkin is a small earthenware or metal cooking pot used for cooking over direct heat. They had a tripod moulded into the base to stand clear of the fire. Examples of Romano-British pipkins are not uncommon. Late medieval and postmedieval pipkins had a hollow handle in order to insert a stick in it for manipulation. See the “Diana” ramekins for a recent homage to this. Many more recent ones have a spout at a right angle to the handle.

To me a ramekin without a handle is just a bowl or a dish.

It's simple really.

No handle-it's a bowl or a dish

One handle-it's a Ramekin

Two Handles-it's a Casserole dish

Copyright

Most of the images on this site are of my collection as are the comments. Other images and comments on this site are reproduced for the purposes of your information and interest only. I would be grateful for any information concerning Copyright and I will withdraw any items so described immediately on Copyright holder's request.

Please leave any other comments regarding anything on this blog. In the interests of accuracy, I will be pleased to have any information or comments you may have. There are many older people out there that have been involved in the Australian pottery world of the fifties and sixties. Get those arthritic fingers moving and put that knowledge out there. When you go, it goes with you.

Disclaimer

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The facts, figures, reviews, records, statistics, and other data presented on this blog is for suggestion and information purposes only. The Rameking is not responsible for any incorrect or incomplete information. The Rameking does not take responsibility for any user-reviews of websites inside its resource and reserves the right to keep or remove those. It is highly recommended that you review all the data for accuracy.

Name	Ramekin
Variant	Ramequin, Ramekin dish.
Pronounced	(ram′ə kin)[RAM-ih-kihn]ræməkin
Function	English Noun
Plural	Ramekins
Hypernym	A type of dish
Purpose	Cooking
Etymology	French Ramequin from Low German ramken, diminutive of cream, circa 1706. middle Dutch rammeken (cheese dish) dialect variant of rom (cream), similar to old English ream and German rahm. Ancient French cookbooks refer to ramekins as being garnished fried bread.
Meaning	1. A food mixture, (casserole) specifically a preparation of cheese, especially with breadcrumbs and/or eggs or unsweetened pastry baked on a mould or shell. 2. With a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 oz), it is a small fireproof glass or earthenware individual dish similar in size and shape to a cup, or mould used for cooking or baking and serving sweet or savoury foods. 3. Formerly the name given to toasted cheese; now tarts filled with cream cheese. 4. A young child usually between the ages of 3 months and 11 years exhibiting a compulsion to force or "ram" their head into various objects and structures.