Frank Rock

Designer	Frank Rock
Maker	Frank Rock
Marks	Signature F Rock intaglio painted to centre of base.
Description	Ramekin bowl with body the shape of a Flounder. Heavy earthenware with harlequin glaze to bowl interior and light brushed pale brown colour on exterior under a clear glaze.
Condition	Good, slight chipping to interior of rim.
Number
Production Date	Early 1950s
Width	140mm
Depth	25mm
Length (with handle)	188mm
Weight	285gm
Volume	200ml
Acquisition	Adelaide Antique Market

Born in Java around 1889, a Dutch possession at the time, Franciscus Theodorus Hendrikus (Frank) Rock was in his early 50s when he came to Australia  during the upheaval of the second world war.  He later became a naturalised British Subject.  Ford tells us that Rock was a retired Dutch ceramic engineer who set up a studio in Balmoral, Sydney in 1950 and continued working there until the late 1950s, making a small range of slipcast functional ware, using brilliant glazes and foliage decoration reminiscent of Javanese art.  Frank lived and worked in Stancliff Flats at 6 Wyargine Street Mosman.  He moved there in 1943 and was actually a Mechanical Engineer.  His home backed onto the beach at Edwards Bay and are now a block of flats overlooking Balmoral Beach on the shore of Sydney Harbour.  An early example of what are now called Home Units, the property originally belonged to retired Doctor Mary Rocke, I don’t know if she was a relative.  The original “Frank Rock” moulds for these fish ramekins were still at the Easton Pottery in Willoughby, Sydney, when Jan Gluck began renting it in 1958. Frank lived in Balmoral. Henrietta Easton had stopped working at 495 Willoughby Road in Willoughby in 1956. Jan produced ramekins with almost identical glazing to Frank, except his had a hole in the tail.  Fish-shaped ramekins must have been one of his most popular lines, given how many are still around. These are 3 cm high, 19.5 cm long and 14 cm wide. Frank Rock died in Mosman in 1959 aged 70 years. 

This comment is partially copied from Australian Pottery Blogs.