Lorrant Studio

Designer
Maker	Lorrant Studio
Marks	Incised “Lorrant Studio” to base
Description	Small bowl with upswept spoon shaped handle. Harlequin interior glaze with clear matte overglaze glaze.
Number
Production Date
Width	95mm
Depth	35mm
Length (with handle)	140mm
Weight	135gm
Volume	200ml
Acquisition	Prahran Antique Market

June Dyson, 20.11.1918, 28.07.2004

June spent her early years in Tennyson Street St Kilda (an inner suburb of Melbourne) and enjoyed the social scene thanks to her socialite mother Mrs (Edward) Dyson. Her father, Edward Dyson was a successful poet and author and her uncle Bill, a well known political cartoonist and the Australian Government's official war artist during the First World War.

In her early 20s, she commenced studying pottery at the Royal Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT) under the legendary John Barnard Knight and Klytie Pate. The Dyson Pottery studio was based in Melbourne, but in 1958, she opened another studio in Gembrook in the Dandenong Ranges. The area was a favourite amongst potters. William Ricketts had worked in the area for decades. These pieces are both incised with "Lorrant Studio" and are press moulded, mostly in good condition with a few glaze bubble spots from firing and some minor wear marks.

Lorrant is, according to Ford, her maiden name. It was actually Dyson, so where “Lorrant” comes from, I do not know. This mark was only used at the start of her career in 1945 and changed to “Dyson Studios” in the late 1940s. June formed a working, as well as a personal partnership with her scientist husband Colin who became the company's Business Director. It was June's second son Andy, who showed most interest in the pottery, helping out in her studios from his early twenties.

June produced thousands of items, some plain, like these ramekins, some decorated, like the cornflower pattern on another post. Slightly rough and ready style are indicative of Dyson's studioware. June continued her own work until the late 1980s, but continued with the Warrandyte potters almost until her death.

Her son, Robert (Andy) Gordon began working on his own as a potter in 1979 and the successful Robert Gordon Pottery continues today near Pakenham in Melbourne’s outer south east.