Leach, Bernard Leach

Harry and May Davis Ramekins.  Gee where did this design come from?

Designer	Bernard Leach
Maker	Bernard Leach
Marks	Stamped letter “S” struck through horizontally in cartouche with word “ENGLAND” stamped underneath on outer edge of foot ring.
Material	Tera Cotta Clay
Description	Originally a lidded bowl, this an earthenware clay bowl with flat handle angled upwards from upper third of exterior.  Double band incised to exterior of bowl.  Glazed brown semi-gloss interior
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	1930s
Width at rim	90mm
Width at Base	55mm
Depth	38mm
Length (with handle)	130mm
Weight	172gm
Volume	125ml
Acquisition	Purchase E-Bay 5 Nov 2013
Rameking Reference Number	BLE 001

I know I will get the crazies out over this one, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.  I tell it as I see it.  As I say, I am not a potter, nor do I have an academic interest in ceramics.  Sometimes a case of the “Emperors New Clothes” comes along.  So all you purists, please take a tranquilizer before reading on.  This is a website for functional pottery.

There is often disconnection between myth and reality.  Much of what has been written about Bernard is an example of this.  What he was, and what his story has become are two entirely different things.  His reputation as a potter is still better known in Japan than it is in Britain because along with Kanjiro Kawai, Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi, in 1936, he founded the Nihon Mingei Kan (Folkcraft) movement there.  Many references call him the “Father of Studio Pottery.”  Shoji later became a Japanese “National Living Treasure”.  Bernard is also called a “bridge between cultures” and any other numbers of clichés.  So I will leave it to the sycophants tell this part of his story.

Much has been projected onto the story of a man with a great determination who was an inspiration to a generation of potters worldwide.  He was not as widely accepted in his day and his reputation has grown over time within the studio pottery circle.  But it is still studio pottery.  The best analogy I can draw is one I heard a long time ago.  Anyone can build a garden shed, but only a few are capable of building a cathedral.  Bernard was pretty good at his particular type of garden shed, but it ain’t no cathedral.

What must be at the forefront of consideration is that while Bernard was introducing this “new” style of pottery to Britain, dozens of the great Staffordshire potteries were at their peak, producing some of the finest pottery and porcelain ever made, anywhere in the world - ever.  These exceptionally talented artisans toiled for decades in relative anonymity, their artistic skills beyond compare, so it is natural that Bernard’s seemingly rough and ready pottery was viewed somewhat differently at the time.  Have a look under granny’s bed, you will probably find an exquisite, functional Staffordshire dinner or tea set there.

He saw his mission as raising the profile in the West of the Japanese Raku style of pottery.  Few people are blessed with knowledge of their own importance and Bernard was one of them, always with one eye on history, he kept notes and diaries on almost everything.  Ever the searcher, he was continually learning and searching, eventually becoming a follower of the Bah’ai faith, for whom he is something of a poster child.  

His early, disrupted and somewhat turbulent life shaped his future and his philosophy.  Bernard Howell Leach was born in Hong Kong on the 5^th of January 1887 and moved to Kyoto Japan with his Maternal Grandparents as a baby shortly after; his mother having died in childbirth.  His father was a Judge with the Colonial administration and remarried shortly after his first wife’s death.  Bernard returned to Honkers in 1890 and had a problematic relationship with his stepmother.  When you read the story of his life and relationships, it doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to allege that young Bernie carried some serious mummy issues.

Like many of his time, he was subject to the fear of a nuclear holocaust, in its time, much the same as our own doomsday cult of climate change.  One of Bernard’s friends and pupils was Harry Clemens Davis who ran the St Ives pottery in 1933 when Bernard was off on one of his many overseas trips.  Harry became infected with the same phobia and moved to New Zealand to escape the impending nuclear disaster.  Harry made ramekins a lot like this one.  Well folks, Bernard and Harry are now long gone and the nuclear annihilation didn’t happen.  Make of that what you will.

St Ives Pottery 1945

The Rameking will now get on his soapbox and launch forth on his version of climate change.  I expect to get the usual rants from the interweb.  The driver of our current climate change is the magnetosphere, that magnetic field around the earth working as a shield, deflecting and diverting electrically charged solar particles.   (You can see this happening in the aurora borealis and the southern aurora).

This shield is not total and has been weakening and become erratic over the past two millennia.  Most recently over the last 20 years or so.  Some dingbats see this as a sign of a polar shift.  This has the effect of allowing more solar particles in, thus increasing global temperature and changing the ionosphere.  This has caused the jet stream to fluctuate, instead of flowing smoothly around the globe.   Maps for pilots worldwide have already been revised so their autopilots will work.  This has caused the recent increase in aberrant weather patterns.  Now, back to the task at hand.

There are many that think because he was good at one thing then he must be good at others.  This has never been, nor is it now a truth.  Most of us, even the best, are generally only good at one thing.  Everyone, no matter who, has a particular talent that when nurtured becomes better.  Bernard is no exception.  He was good at a particular style of oriental pottery, that’s it.

His early life was marked by a distaste for education until he discovered art.  There are many, many sites with heaps of information on his art, life, work and travels, coupled with his relationships.  I suggest you look at Wikipedia and The Baha’I websites along with many others.  I will stick to this ramekin.  It is a simple earthenware bowl with a stem handle and too small to be of any functional use except as a tasting bowl. Low firing heat.  I got it from E-Bay and it as early example of his work dating from the 1930s.  It’s a wonder that it has survived. 

Apilco

Designer
Maker	Apilco
Marks	Black stamp to base “APILCO porcelain a tau FRANCE”
Material	White Hard Paste Porcelain
Description	Called a “handled egg poacher’, Wide-mouthed bowl with flat circular base and upswept handle.  Clear gloss glaze to interior and exterior, unglazed flat foot ring.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	1990s
Width at rim	111mm
Width at Base	75mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	175mm
Weight	280gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Purchase Waverley Antiques Market 10 October 2013
Rameking Reference Number	API 001 to 006

These ramekins are referred to by their makers as “egg poachers” along with several other ramekins of similar type from other European makers.  They also make another multi-egg poacher suitable for quail eggs.  I have seen a similar poacher made by Maxwwell and Williams, but the Rameking Gnomes do my quail eggs each morning so I have no idea how they are prepared.  They do a good job but have not quite got the hang of cooking nightingale tongues.

Apilco is France's leading manufacturer of porcelain products for the Hotel and Catering industry.  All Plain White items are made in France with hard porcelain. Whatever the manufacturing technique used, the basic raw materials are the same.  These raw materials are mixed, crushed and transformed into three broad categories based on techniques used.  All Apilco items are made of non-porous 'hard porcelain' that is characterised by its ability to remain resistant to mechanical and thermic shock.  Porcelain is made of kaolin, clay, sand, feldspar, and chalk.

The group has more than 300 employees and has 3 centres of production, all located in France.  All their products are genuine Limoges porcelain and are cooked at very high temperatures (1400°C) to receive a high resistance to thermal and mechanical shock. Being non-porous, it does not flake or crack, making it a high quality hygienic product.  Ecologically, the porcelain is produced without chemical additive.  It is cooked in high-efficiency ovens to control and reduce gas consumption. 

The integrated company has its headquarters and main factory is located in Chauvigny, France, in the Vienne region and only a few kilometres from Poitiers.  Known by the business name of “Deshoulieres SA” and its trading name of “Deshoulieres Apilco” this group has been using these time tested materials and methods to create superb porcelain products since 1826.  Apilco's non-pourous clay features a durable glaze, making each piece resistant to chipping, cracking, and staining. It is well-known internationally for its quality, the company offers thousands of beautiful white porcelain products

Chauvigny is a medieval market town on the banks of the river Vienne and is located 23 Kms (30 miles) east of Poitiers.  It was built on a high rocky spur.  The town grew up at the cross roads of two major routes of communication, an East-West route from the Atlantic towards Lyons, a North-South route linking northern France to southern France following the River Vienne. Originally situated in the town centre, the porcelain factory, now trading under the well-known name of Apilco, opened an ultra-modern factory on the outskirts of Chauvigny at the Planty industrial park.

Like many European companies, this one has a very interesting and varied past.  In the beginning, in 1826, Jean Bozier began as a potter creating eathernware in coal-fired ovens in Marats, near Chauvigny, France.  He worked in partnership with his Brother-In-Law Louis Deshoulières.  By 1890 there were 20 employees.  In 1928 they installed a 70 horsepower steam engine.  This replaced their two gas discharge suction engines. In 1905 there were 40 employees.  In 1938, the works moved into the town of Chauvigny

Louis son, Gaston then began the expansion of the works.  In 1906, Ferdinand Deshoulières began making fine stoneware kitchenware, but a fire in 1908 destroyed part of their workshop.  They were quickly rebuilt and in 1909 they were back in production with their new porcelain “Pefecta” range. By this time, they employed 50 people.

The famous hotel ware “Apilco” brand, was first begun and owned by Albert Pillivuyt and was bought by Ferdinand Deshoulières and his son Louis in 1935.   Jean Louis Richard Pillivuyt had founded a porcelain factory in Foëcy in 1818. The area was well suited to production; the neighbouring Sologne's forests had wood for fuel, a great quantity of water and the proximity to Limoges where kaolin deposits had just been discovered.  Manufacturing porcelain was the new advanced technology industry of the time, but the beginnings were difficult and discouraging.

After the First World War, production expanded thanks to improvements made in manufacturing porcelain.  Fuel for firing had been changed from wood to coal.  There were 800 employees at the plant.  Both World Wars had caused great financial hardship and Charles Jnr was forced to sell.  Only 28 employees were still there and buildings and machinery had been damages. 

A programme of modernization began.  A new 2,000m² workshop was built in 1946 after the Second-World-War on land called “Paradise” and a Tunnel Kiln was built.   This was a gas-fired process that still operates today.  They also replaced their 70 HP steam engine with a 105HP engine.  In 1966 a third factory was built in the “Planty” industrial zone of the town, supplemented by two other workshops in 1970 when there were 500 employees, and 1986 which also included their administration services. 

Furnaces cells in the 1960s improved production.  A furnace cell replaces the last firing stages in a traditional kiln with several smaller zones.  This allows firing to be moved within a kiln to create different firing periods and cooling periods dependent on the speed of movement within a kiln.  This can be achieved over a shorter distance than traditional kiln.  Automatic production was their specialty and they became the highest capacity (1.2 million plates per month) French manufacturer of porcelain plates.

In 1980 Deshoulières purchased the “Porcelaine de Sologne” brand, well known in the wedding registry and giftware business. With the help of the Nikoil Group.  All their products are made of hard paste porcelain. Its top-quality and non-porous nature make it resistant to heat and is extremely durable. It is therefore oven, microwave and dishwasher safe except for the products containing gold or platinum.  In 1985, they began powder-pressing part of their production in parallel to the casting process.  In 1988, they employed 493 workers.  Deshoulieres is now the Number One French porcelain manufacturer with its 3 brands: Deshoulières, Porcelaine de Sologne and Apilco. 

Harold Hughan

Designer	Harold Hughan
Maker	Harold Hughan
Marks	Painted H Hughan faintly to base in oxide and incised H  G  I
Material	Glazed earthenware clay
Description	Shallow bowl with small curved handle.  Glazed in brown “avocado” finish.  Unglazed footring.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	After 1945
Width at rim	110mm
Width at Base	55mm
Depth	35mm
Length (with handle)	150mm
Weight	230gm
Volume	240ml
Acquisition	Purchase Australian Pottery at Bemboka 25 October 2013
Rameking Reference Number	HUG 001

Harold Randolph Hughan (1893-1987), potter was born on 11 July 1893 at Mildura, Victoria, the second of ten children of Victorian born Randolph Hughan, Gardener, and his English-born wife Emily, née Clayton. Of slight build, and known to close friends simply as `Buzz’, Hughan was described by Kenneth Hood, who had championed his work, as being, like his pots, `reserved and unassuming’.  Much of Harold’s childhood was spent at Hamilton, Victoria.  In 1910 he moved to Geelong and retrained, by correspondence, as an Electrical Engineer, hence the nickname “Buzz”.  

Having previously served in the Militia for some years, on 27 October 1915 Hughan enlisted in the 1^st Australian Imperial Force.  He saw action on the Western Front in 1916-18 with the 3rd Divisional Signal Company and the 44th Battalion.  In November 1917 Sergeant Hughan was commissioned and in March 1918 promoted to Lieutenant. On the 2^nd of September 1919 he married Lily Booth at the parish church of St James, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, England.  They arrived in Melbourne in February 1920 and his AIF appointment terminated on 14 April. He continued to serve in the Militia, rising to Major in the Volunteer Defence Corps (Home Guard) during World War II.

Born in 1893 he was of an older generation, but as he didn't take up pottery until 1940 he is situated firmly in the post-war pottery movement.  The beginning of his interest in ceramics coincides neatly with the publication of A Potter's Book, which he first read in 1940, the year it was published.  After several jobs, Hughan moved to Melbourne and joined the firm of Oliver J. Nilsen, for whom he worked as an electrical engineer until his retirement in 1963. Long interested in crafts, including woodwork and weaving, he was introduced to pottery in the early 1940s by his wife and their son, Robert, who had taken it up as a hobby.

Bernard Leach’s A Potter’s Book (1940) attracted him to studio pottery in the Anglo-Japanese tradition; C. F. Binns’s The Potter’s Craft(1910) taught him to throw pots on a wheel he devised from the crankshaft of a motorcar engine. He soon built his own kiln and made stoneware in a workshop behind his Glen Iris home.  He made his own kick-wheel and started using feldspar and iron oxide to create celadon and tenmoku glazes with occasional use of dolomite for special effects.  His research into stoneware bodies and glazes was aided by Robert who was a ceramic technologist with the CSIRO.  He was strongly influenced by Bernard Leach, teaching himself to throw with the book propped up in front of him so that he could follow the illustrations.

In 1950 Hughan would contribute a chapter to Australian ceramic history by staging the first major exhibition of stoneware ceramics at the Georges department store gallery in Melbourne. His first retrospective exhibition was held in 1968 at the National Gallery of Victoria and a second exhibition (an exceptional honour) was held at the gallery in 1983 to commemorate his ninetieth birthday. In the catalogue accompanying this second exhibition, the then Director of the gallery, Patrick McCaughey, wrote that 'More than any other Australian ceramist Harold Hughan has been able to absorb the feel and colour of that landscape into his own practice and so returned something authentically and familiarly Australian to us.

With the greatest of goodwill, it is hard to see how this was the case.  Rather than making identifiably Australian pottery, Hughan actually worked in what was a powerful global style, that of Anglo-Oriental ceramics.  One couldn't tell whether a faceted celadon glazed jar was made in Melbourne or London, and even when Hughan produced a magnificent late series of temmoku glazed platters with decorations based on Australian wildflowers, the actual origin of the flora was not at all apparent, buried as they were in a calligraphic cipher of brown on black.

These were international pots made in response to Leach's philosophy of a timeless standard in ceramics and the primacy of traditional Oriental techniques and they were made in Australia just as they were made everywhere A Potter's Book was read.  The Powerhouse Museum has a potters wheel designed and made by Harold) in about 1941. This is probably the first potters wheel to be made in Australia for use in studio pottery. 

Hughan drew inspiration from the Herbert Kent collection of Chinese ceramics at the National Gallery of Victoria: his great love was the pots of the Song and T’ang Dynasties, but his interests encompassed many aspects of historic and contemporary practice. Seeking an `Australian idiom’, he also experimented with new forms. It was important to him that his pots were domestic, functional and affordable; yet they were also distinguished by subtle shapes and beautiful glazes, particularly the Orient-inspired celadons and tenmokus.

He gained a devoted following, especially for his large platters, decorated with oriental motifs, native iris or sprays of bamboo. While prolific, he worked at his own pace well into his nineties. `I do not make pottery for a living’, he said in 1984, `it [is] purely for pleasure, and always has been’.

An exhibition of Hughan’s work at Georges Gallery, Melbourne, in 1950, led to his becoming one of the first contemporary studio potters to be represented in the National Gallery of Victoria. Later exhibitions included major retrospectives at the NGV (1969, 1983).  His work has also been collected by the National Gallery of Australia; most Australian State and regional galleries and by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.  A member of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria since 1949, he was invited in 1970 to be the patron of the Victorian Ceramic Group, which established an award in his name. In 1978 he was appointed MBE.

He started potting full-time on his retirement in 1963 and remained a most significant and influential figure until his death in 1987. The National Gallery of Victoria showed a retrospective exhibition (with catalogue) in 1969, and another on the occasion of his 90th birthday in 1983, when Craft Australia published a special supplement.   He continued making pots into his nineties, dying in 1987 at the age of 94. His early works are marked H GI (for Glen Iris) in oxide. Works from 1945 are marked with an impressed H GI and may also be signed in oxide.

Predeceased by his wife (1966), and survived by his son, he died at Prahran, Melbourne, on 23 October 1987, and was buried in Springvale cemetery.  In 1978 he was awarded the MBE for his services to pottery.  In the 1940s, potters wheels would have been imported, but as an engineer, he had the ability to design and make his own. He was assisted in the building of kilns and development of clays by his son Robert (Bob) Hughan (b. 1925)

Sources

http://www.australianpotteryatbemboka.com.au/

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=150295#ixzz2ip2rqVBC Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial

http://damonmoon.com/articles/across-the-ditch.html

Pyrex

Designer	Pyrex
Maker	Pyrex
Marks	Moulded ”PYREX” (in capitals) to base
Description	Milky pale blue (turquoise) Pyroceram squared glass bowl with sides tapering to an indented circular footring, tab handle moulded to top outside edge.
Number	No number
Production Date	1950s
Width	110mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	130mm
Weight	160gm
Volume	200ml
Acquisition	Purchase Camberwell Sunday Market 21 Oct 2013
Condition  Good, slight chips and scratches
Rameking Reference Number	PYR 001-004

Pyrex is a name for glassware introduced by Corning Incorporated in 1915.  Originally Pyrex was made from borosilicate glass.  In the 1940s the composition was changed for some products to tempered soda lime glass that is now the most common form of glass used in glass bakeware and has a higher mechanical strength so is less vulnerable to breakage when dropped (the main cause of breakage in glass bakeware).

These ramekins are made from a product called Pyroceram.  The manufacture of this material involves a process of controlled crystallization.  NASA classifies it as a “Glass-Ceramic” product.  NASA used a borosilicate coated quartz sand ceramic tile to cover the Space Shuttle providing a heat shield to resist the 3,000 degree F temperature on re entry.

Glass Ceramic materials share many properties with both glass and ceramics.  They have an amorphous phase and one or more crystalline phases and are produced by a “controlled crystallization” in contrast to a spontaneous crystallization that is not usually wanted in glass manufacturing.  Glass ceramics usually have between 30% [m/m] and 90% [m/m] crystallinity and yield an array of materials with interesting thermomechanical properties.

Pyroceram is a material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in 1953.  Capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 450 degrees C (840 F), its development evolved from Cornings’ work in developing photosensitive glass.  Corning credits S Donald Stookey with its discovery; while he was conducting research he noted that an accidentally overheated fragment of glass resisted breakage when dropped.  These are an early example.

Another Australian Pottery, Studio Anna was also catering for the cookware market at the same time.  Introduced by owner Karel Jungvirt around the early 1960s, possibly as an Australian answer to Corning Ware (which came out in 1958), a range of decorated cookware he called Pyro-Ceracraft was developed. Available in a wide selection of designs and described as oven tableware, this range of heat resistant ceramics included casserole dishes, pie dishes and ramekins and was designed to be attractive enough to be brought straight from the oven to the dinner table.

Glass ceramics are mostly produced in two steps.  Firstly, a glass is formed in a glass manufacturing process.  The glass is then cooled down and is then reheated in a second stage.  In this heat treatment the glass partly crystallizes.  In most cases nucleation agents are added to the base composition of the glass-ceramic.  These nucleation agents aid and control the crystallization process.  Because there is no pressing and sintering, glass-ceramics have no pores , unlike sintered ceramics.  When a liquid crystallizes during a cooling phase of a process, the molecules organize from a primary nucleus to form complex structures.  These structures continue to grow until they impinge on neighbouring molecules, then they stop.  Properties of the item depend on the size of the molecular structures.

For crystal growth to start, a primary process called nucleation has to occur.  This is the focal centre around which the molecules can organize themselves.  The secondary process of crystal growth follows nucleation.   A nucleation agent is a foreign body added to create a new surface on which crystal growth can happen. Typically this phase takes the form of an agent to have a good match with the growing crystal

The 2nd World War saw production of domestic ware drop to fairly low levels at Crown.  Most of their production was servicing the war effort, including contracts for the US Navy.  After the war, some of their early patterns made a comeback, but much of their production turned to ceramic glazed, colourful but streamlined and less decorative items, as was the fashion in the 1950s.  Much of their glass was mould-blown or involved hand tooling, but this ceased in 1968.

During the 1950s and 1960s tableware production continued, especially for homes, hotels restaurants and milk bars.  In 1963 Crown Crystal became a division of Australian Consolidated Industries (ACI) which set up a joint venture with American company Crown Corning in 1968, known in Australia as Crown Corning Ltd.  In 1998 ACI became an affiliate of Owens-Illinois in the USA, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of glass containers and a leading glass equipment manufacturer.

Crown Corning is now known as Crown Commercial Pty Ltd and continues to produce a large range of glassware for both commercial and domestic markets.  Ramekins of this type are not in the range.  The Crown Crystal Glass Company merged with the American company Corning in 1972 to become Crown Corning.

There is now quite a bit of evidence that Crown Crystal was copying patterns from overseas after 1932.  Copied patterns have confused collectors so be careful on Internet auction sites.  In a case of what goes around comes around, Australian glass patterns are now also being copied, so be doubly careful.  For more information, look at  http://www.ozcrowncrystal.com/  because that is where a lot of this has come from.  Glass is not my area and they have some very interesting information.

McLaren, Gus McLaren

Designer	Gus McLaren
Maker	Gus McLaren
Marks	Signature “Gus McLaren” painted in black to base
Material	Glazed earthenware
Description	Wheel thrown recurved bowl with open-ended knob handle.  Unglazed flat base with circular pattern from wire cutting.  Matte glaze to exterior with magnesium oxide flecks.  Gloss glaze to interior.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	Early 1970s
Width at rim	80mm
Width at Base	127mm
Depth	78mm
Length (with handle)	187mm
Weight	420gm
Volume	700ml
Acquisition	Purchase Waverley Antiques Market 4th Oct 2013
Rameking Reference Number	GML 001-008

I have compiled the following from anything I could find on the web about Gus.  Much comes from the McLaren Pottery website, Australian Pottery at Bemboka and several other sources.  There is a lot to get through, so please be patient.

William George (Gus) McLaren was born in Melbourne on the 7^th of November 1923 to William and Beryl, Gus became a celebrated Australian artist, animator and potter.   He studies cartooning part-time two nights a week for a year  at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).  His artistic abilities became focuses during his service in the Australian army during World War 2. He enlisted in Western Australia on the 7^th January 1942 and he later served in the pacific.  He painted panels for a recreation tent for wounded Australian and allied soldiers.  This work now resides at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. 

In 1946 as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation forces Press Unit, Gus traveled to Japan to teach art to the Japanese and there he met and was interviewed by a young cartoonist, named Les Tanner, who also worked for BECON (a British and Allied Forces Newspaper).  They produced cartoons for the newspaper they were attached to.  Later Les would become a nationally published political cartoonist.  By early 1947 BCOF had begun to decline and, by the end of 1948, was composed entirely of Australians. The force was dismantled in 1951, when the Japanese Peace Treaty came into effect.

After Gus’ discharge on the 2^nd of February 1949, the friendship endured for over the next fifty years, until Les Tanner's death in 2001.  After the war, Gus moved to Sydney where he worked as a cartoonist and illustrator for the Daily Telegraph and Women's Weekly before moving home to Melbourne where he worked on The Argus newspaper, as the cartoonist "Just Gus" in 1954/55.  When the Argus closed, he read a review left on a desk on a book on pottery.  He found and read the book and began his career by making chess pieces from local clay.  He claims never to have finished it, but he later displayed a chess set at the Australian Gallery.  He later sold a chess set for 50 guineas  ($105.00).

His signed cartoon of four soldiers playing poker with one taking the pot and saying “Well! Well! Ten o’clock, lights out you know”, 1950, brush and ink and blue pencil, 20.5 × 26.3 cm (AWM), is the original for the gag published in the last of the Australian War Memorial’s 19 illustrated Christmas books, As you were (1950). “Gus” also signed a not very good woman driver joke in Melbourne Argus 1956: “The roundabouts confuse me so I always get through them as quickly as possible”.

In the early 1950s, Gus and Elizabeth (Betty) moved to Warrandyte, an outer area of Melbourne popular at the time because of the low cost of land, with artists and potters.  Later (in 1955), he began potting with Reg Preston and was one of the founding members in 1958 of the Potters Cottage at Warrandyte in Victoria.  Reg fired Gus’ chess pieces.  (See my post on Reg Preson for more details on them.)  Reg and his wife Phyll Dunn (see my post) remained friends until their deaths.  They even moved in and shared a house with the Prestons for a time. 

He and Betty were among the founders of the Warrandyte's Potters Cottage, and as his technique developed, he moved into stoneware ceramics and more sculptural projects. He went on to have regular exhibitions in Melbourne and his work was exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Tasmanian Art Gallery, Shepparton Regional Art Gallery, University of Queensland and with many private collections in Australia and overseas.

While he concentrated on producing and exhibiting "one-off" pieces of pottery from the 1950s through the '80s, Betty carried on exclusively with the Yarra Ridge Pottery business. Through all these years McLaren also dug clay from the Bradley's Lane site, made mud-earth bricks, and built the family home — always building extensions, always without planning permission.  All this was paid for by his work as a cartoonist.

He was also the main innovator in setting up Potters Restaurant, and later The Hot Pot Shop in South Melbourne, specialising in "peasant" provincial casseroles served in rugged stoneware plates that were enthusiastically souvenired. These eateries were highly successful, but he sold out once the innovative appeal had worn off.

Eventually “Potters Cottage” expanded to encompass a gallery, a flourishing pottery school, and finally a very successful and well known restaurant, “Potters Restaurant” (which Gus was very much involved in the setting up). He was also one of the principle teachers at the Potters School.

Gus and Reg began making pottery together using the name “Regus” (Reg & Gus).  Reg taught betty slipcasting and the team expanded.  Gus and Betty then set up Yarraridge pottery and together and separately, the two produced an extensive body of work. This included wheel-thrown and hand-built pieces, as well as a range of slip-cast figures designed by Gus and decorated by Betty. These designs are still being used by Betty to make figures for sale from her McLarren Pottery on the New South Wales south coast.

Later they moved to their own place in Bradley’s Lane Warrandyte, but continued working at Reg’s pottery until he finished building their own studio.  The house was designed by Architect John Hipwell, another member of Potters Cottage.  In between his other work, Gus made mud bricks to enlarge the home and studio without recourse to permits .  They first moved into a shed which later became the studio.  He exchanged, at modest prices, his work with friends such as John Percival, Gareth Jones-Roberts, Arthur Boyd, and fellow potters. In the 1970s, he and Betty built a "Warrandyte" home at Merimbula, where she moved and began potting during a long separation.

Once in their studio named “Yarra Ridge Pottery” they started producing animals, designed by Gus and slipcast by Betty”.  During this period,   Les Tanner worked on a collaborative project with the McLarens producing a satirical swipe at the establishment of the day, in the form of ceramic jugs, designed by Les and slipcast by Betty of  Sir Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria in the 1950 to 1970s  They also made a Sir Robert Menzies jug.  (Bob Menzies is still Australia’s longest serving Prime Minister.

In 1962, McLaren became the author of Australia's first animated TV cartoon, at Channel Nine. A trailblazer, he was the co-writer, animator, artist and director of Freddo the Frog for Fanfare Films. He then worked with Hanna Barbera on Scooby Doo, and on the animated feature film Grendel Grendel Grendel, with Peter Ustinov.

Gus began working full-time on animation in the 1970s.  He worked on television commercials, animated feature films including a long stretch with Hannah Barbera.   Gus created the character “Freddo Frog” for MacRobertson Chocolates, now owned by Cadbury Schweppes.  Betty kept the pottery business going while Gus was otherwise occupied, but he would come back for short periods.  Over time, Betty took over operation of the slip casting and decorating process, as well as working on her own hand-painted pieces, supplying the Potters Cottage and other galleries in Victoria.

He became interested in stoneware and built a gas-fired kiln.  (Stoneware is fired at a higher temperature than earthenware.)  This work was becoming increasingly abstract, being less decorative and more sculptural in form using matte ash glaze.  His surfaces were becoming more rugged and textural and his life-long love of Science Fiction was seemingly reflected in the wonderful and fantastic shapes of his ceramic sculptures.

He continued a successful career as a potter and went on to have regular exhibitions in Melbourne and has pieces exhibited in the National Gallery of Victoria. Gus’s work has been represented in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Tasmanian Art Gallery, Shepparton Regional Art Gallery, University of Queensland and many private collections both in Australia and overseas.

Whilst Gus concentrated producing and exhibiting “one-off” pieces of pottery (and during the periods of his animation) which includes the period from the ‘50’s,’60’s, 70, and 80’s, Betty, carried on exclusively with the Yarraridge Pottery business., producing the animals, decorating and firing pieces (designed by Gus in the ‘50’s/’60’s) such as bulls, horses, lions cats etc. whilst also working on her own designs supplying Potters Cottage and other galleries mainly in Victoria.

In the early 70s’s Gus and Betty purchased land in Merimbula, New South Wales and over the next few years Gus built the house, (where she currently lives). In the early eighties Betty trained their daughter Kirsty McLaren to continue the business of producing the animals in their Warrandyte studio, she ran the business for a couple of years before leaving for London in the mid-eighties to become a photographer where she currently still lives.. Their eldest daughter, Susan, after an early career in fashion modeling, after living in Europe, and is following the family tradition, and has become a ceramic artist, producing highly colourful mosaic designs and ceramic sculptures. Susan now works at the studio in Merimbula helping Beth with producing Gus' designs.  She has two children Ella and Zac, and is now a grandmother to two young boys Oliver and Luca.

The boys, John, headed north to Merimbula, he took after his father in his love of creative stone-walls and landscape gardening, while youngest Tim, has settled in Melbourne with his wife Janine, and son, Liam and divides his time between his passion as a jazz musician [guitarist] and computer programming.

In the early 80s, after a short break, Betty began working again in her new studio in Merimbula and resumed the full and exclusive productions of the animals as well as other work that she produces and designs, continuing to supply Potters Cottage in Warrandyte (as before) right up until its recent close. Betty, now in her 80’s still continues to supply local galleries, as well as galleries far afield, the unique McLaren Pottery animals, which had it’s origins in the 1950’s right through to the present day. 

After Betty moved to Merimbula, NSW, daughter Kirsty ran the pottery at Warrandyte. After Kirsty left for London in the mid-1980s, Betty moved production to Merimbula where she is still producing slip cast animals to Gus's original 1950s and 1960s designs under the name McLaren Pottery. Betty's works are signed 'B Mclaren' or 'Betty McLaren'. McLaren Pottery works are signed 'MCL' or 'McLaren'.  Gus’s ceramic work is signed 'Gus McLaren'.

Gus has ceramic works in both public and private collections. When the Potters Cottage held its 45th anniversary in 2003, he participated in the exhibition.  He also has a considerable body of work in animated films. In 1962 he directed the first animation series made for Australian television, Freddo the Frog and he was one of the animators who worked on Grendel, Grendel, Grendel, a full-length animated film retelling the Beowulf epic released in 1981.

When Betty moved to Merimbula in the early 1980s, Gus remained in Melbourne, but returned to live with his family in West Richmond before his death in 2008.  Early in 2008, Gus asked his daughters to take him back to Merimbula, where he lived with his family.  Gus died of pneumonia and heart failure on the 29^th of August 2008 at Pambula Hospital in New South Wales. He was 84.

He enjoyed his morning coffee with The Age  and he was buried with a copy of the newspaper on the Merimbula waterfront, enthusiastically telling visitors of his pleasure in the town, and in again being with his children Susan, Kirsty, John and Tim, and Betty, who survive him. Betty, a living national treasure is now 86 and the last of the original Potters Cottage group.  She  is still working at Merimbula with the help of daughter Susan.