Orzel

These ramekins are marked “Orzel New Zealand” and have a matte underglaze with a trickle glaze effect. They have the gloss glaze reminiscent of Crown Lynn who took over Orzel.

Orzel pottery was produced by Cameron and Dorothy Brown who established their first small pottery in Waitakere, West Auckland in 1951. At first they called it Sherwood Pottery, and then, from around 1957, Titian Studio. They then moved the pottery to Henderson in 1958 and began experimenting with a wide range of decorative glazes for their wares. In 1965, they moved to Takanini. The Browns sold their company to Crown Lynn in 1967. They then set up another pottery, Orzel Industries in 1972 and created a number of decorative wares with a very nice trickle glaze effect. Their products look and feel very much like Crown Lynn but is less common.

Mystery Maker Marked "PFH"

These plain glazed ramekins are incised "PFH" in fairly primitive script. They appear to be mould cast with prominent stirrup marks to the base. Possibly "Picton Hopkins".

Crown Lynn

The New Zealand Society of Potters have reported that there are more potters per head of population in NZ than in any other country.  In the heady days of the ‘60s and 70s, almost everyone in NZ seemed to be a potter, or if they weren’t, they certainly knew one. Craft shops were everywhere and the pottery produced was earthy in colour and texture, domestic in scale and intended for use.

Clay in New Zealand was first used to produce bricks and pipes, however, as more people with skills in pottery and ceramics travelled from Europe, the ceramics industry grew. The largest period of growth was the 1870s and 1880s as potteries closed in Britain and many potters travelled to New Zealand where the growing ceramics market welcomed them. It was not until some of the early companies decided to produce domestic ceramics that they became successful. Many of their techniques including slip casting and press moulding were used to produce ranges of domestic ceramic pieces.

These types of Ramekins are marked "Made in New Zealand".  I have included them because NZ is so close to Australia and the top ones show some degree of artistic merit, even though they are mass-produced.

High gloss, graduated brown glaze. The brown slip glaze applied over the base matt glaze to create the graduated contrast in colour. This glaze extends over the rim to the inside. The glaze is in perfect condition outside as well inside. The colours are fresh.

These ramekins were made in the early 1970s at the Titian factory under licence from Crown Lynn, who began in 1854 when Rice Owen Clark made pipes to drain his farmland by wrapping logs in clay and firing them. This led to making pipes for neighbours and eventually becoming the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company.

During the Second World War, they produced millions of mugs and plates of varying quality for the American forces stationed in New Zealand and the Pacific, as well as tableware for the New Zealand military and domestic use. Quality improved and an increasing range of tableware eventually gained a reputation for being well made, in fact some was regarded as “unbreakable”.

Crown Lynn pottery was slipcast at the time and a trickle glaze technique was developed (as seen above) that is now sought after by collectors. In the late 1940s and early 1950s art pottery was developed. Until the late 1970s Crown Lynn was the largest producer of household pottery in the Southern Hemisphere.  In the late 1960s, Crown Lynn had an outlet at 3 Tivoli Street South Yarra, an upmarket suburb in Melbourne, Victoria. 

Crown Lynn bought Royal Grafton Fine China from Tams in the early 1970s. (More likely they just bought the name as the factory closed in 1972)  The New Zealanders were looking to expand into the UK and saw the acquisition of a local works as way of circumventing import quotas.  They believed that the Ottowa Agreement had made it difficult for New Zealand to compete in Britain.  They saw this acquisition as a means of accessing the US market.  In 1960, almost half of New Zealand’s ceramic production was exported to the U.K, yet thirty years later, almost all was imported.  Corporate neglect has been blamed for the ultimate demise of Crown Lynn.  


On the 5^th of May 1989 it was announced that Crown Lynn would close.  The plant and equipment was sent to Goh Ban Huat Berhad in Malaysia.  Curiously, Temuka Homewares, part of Pacific Retail Group Ltd is a good selling line of ceramic tableware.  Pacific are the owners of Ceramco who bought out Crown Lynn. 

Crown Lynn became Ceramco in 1974 with the factory eventually closing in 1989. All assets were then sold to GBH Porcelain of Malaysia. Artists Rudolf Boelee and Robyne Voyce acquired the Crown Lynn New Zealand trading name in 1994. They started using old images of Crown Lynn wares as paintings. They now run the Pug Design Store in Christchurch that has developed a range of Crown Lynn wares including tea towels, cushions and cards depicting the company's most famous products.

The last set of slipware ramekins has that 60's/70's look, giving them style as well as practicality. They are made from a mustard glazed ceramic and feature a stylized floral relief design around the outsides. The bases of all 4 are stamped '1187 MADE IN NEW ZEALAND'. They are in very good condition. No chips or cracks visible. Each ramekin is 6cm tall, with a top opening diameter of 10.2cm, with 5cm handles.

Want to know more? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Lynn

Pettit

Coles-Pettit Pottery

Pettit Pub Group

Wheel thrown ceramic ramekins with a styalized leaf pattern handles. Flat unglazed base inscribed "Pettit". Looks like they were made in the late 1930s. Plain light blue exterior glaze with plain white interior glaze. There are no chips, cracks or crazing. 

Pettit began in the early 1870s with John Cole as the Cole Pottery in White Hart Lane Walthamstow, a district of northeast London England.  Later moving to Folly Lane, Highham Hill, Walthamstow.  John’s son Edward took over in the 1880s and three of his other four  sons also worked in the pottery trade.  Eventually employing 9 men, the business had to shut down for a year because of a strike and the neighbouring pottery “Sankeys” undercutting Coles prices.  Sankey later moved to Nottingham, giving Coles a new opportunity.

The Pettits were related by Marriage to the Coles.  Mary Colley, who married John Cole, was the sister of Ann Colley, who married William Henry Pettit (son of Henry Pettit and Mary).  Both the Cole and the Pettit families lived and worked on site at the potteries in Green Lanes, Tottenham (the Tile Kilns).  Where William went after he left the Tile Kilns is unclear.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that he went to set up the Pettit Potteries in Walthamstow, but this was not immediately the case, as the 1871 census for Walthamstow shows that it was John Cole who, although no longer at the Tile Kilns and not yet at White Hart Lane, was actually at Walthamstow.

He was listed as a pottery proprietor (flower pots) and living with his family at Cambrian Cottages, Walthamstow. George Pettit, William’s son, was listed as a potter, living with his wife Julia and daughters Clara and Annie at 3 Cambrian Cottages, Walthamstow, next but one to John.  William Pettit did appear 10 years later in the 1881 census as a potter with a new wife Louisa and living in the Cambrian Cottages block at number 6.

So it was John Cole rather than William or George Pettit who started the potteries at Higham Hill, Walthamstow. However, John vacated them shortly afterwards for White Hart Lane, whereupon ownership was taken over by the Pettits. Whether or not this was always the intention, it is impossible to say.

According to a newspaper cutting in the Vestry Museum at Walthamstow, the pottery started in 1868 and closed in 1943 during World War II because it couldn't get the coal to power the kilns. Both the date and the reason are open to question, as London potteries generally ceased production earlier in the war so that the lights from the kilns would not signal positions to enemy bombers. Sales continued from stocks.

These ramekins are not very well made or glazed.  Just how they came to Australia is a mystery, although many Pettits migrated.  As I only have two of them, the standard theory applies; someone, probably an English migrant fell off the perch and their stuff found its way to the op-shop, where I found them.   There is no record of Pettit exporting their products.

Poole

Have I departed from my policy of Australian art ramekins only and included that famous English pottery? I don't think so. Not even close. Poole's was a short lived pottery, starting up around 1957 in Park Road Cheltenham, Victoria. These ramekins are of differing sizes but same shape. Slip cast with harlequin interiors. Well made, but the stirrup marks let them down. The signature "Poole" is incised, but is not clear on most pieces. These pieces have external crazing consistent with age.

Lane

Lane, Kemp, Willis Potteries Pty Ltd were established at 109 Highbury Road Burwood Victoria in 1936 and in one form or another, produced a variety of pottery until the mid 1970s. They also had premises at 329 Warrigal Road Burwood. The ramekins they produced appear to have been of one pattern. Some had a black exterior and harlequin interior. These have a mottled green high gloss glaze sprayed to the interior. The external glaze is matte. They are square with rounded corners and the handles seem to resemble those of Cotton (UK).  The circular ones are from a later incarnation of the company.

The original Lane, Kemp and Willis were; (believe it or not!)

Arthur Ulrich Superbus Lane, 450 shares

Graham Roy Kemp, 450 shares, and

Rupert Horace Willis, 100 shares.

In 1938, Alexander George Quibell, a Quantity Surveyor also became a shareholder.  Later, Alexander was head of the queue of unsecured creditors when the company went into liquidation.

You don't get names like that these days.  Their partnership lasted from August 1935 until February 1940 when Arthur went it alone.  Arthur and Graham were manufacturers and Rupert was an accountant.

All of the ramekins I have seen from Lane have had paper stickers attached to the base.  These have no sticker or marking, nor are there any cracks, chips or crazing. These are both a late 1950s-early 1960s ramekin sets.  They have a modernist retro shape inspired by the European potters who had moved into post-war Melbourne. They have a mid green glaze with brown and olive mottling and a finish called pewter in this range of ramekins.  Not to be confused with the reflective metallic finish. The square ones measure 4.5" wide x 5.75" long.

On the 21^st June 1939, Lane Kemp & Willis who had been in liquidation, lodged a notice of intention to apply for registration as Lane Potteries Pty Ltd.  Lane and Willis were to be directors of the new company, Kemp was not there.  On the 25^th of July 1939, the new company was granted a Certificate of Incorporation.

In 1966, the “Suburban Distributing Company” was listed as occupying the building in Warrigal Road.  This was a short-lived pottery business.  Southern Aurora Pottery Pty Ltd also operated from 1967 at 329 Warrigal Road Burwood Victoria, the same location as Lane, and now an antiques auction house.  By 1974, Lane was gone but Southern Aurora was still operating.  The name Southern Aurora comes from our equivalent of the Northern Lights. Auroras are the result of emissions of photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere. It was a popular name in its day, having both a train and an aircraft named after it.

The ramekins that Southern Aurora later produced appear to have been of one pattern, but with varying decoration. Most have a plain cream exterior and harlequin interior. Some have a mottled green high gloss glaze sprayed to the interior.  The external glaze is matte. The potters got their clay from the now abandoned Burwood Brickworks quarry, bordered by Burwood Highway, Middleborough and Eley roads, Melbourne, Victoria. Southern Aurora Pty Ltd were then found in the outer suburb of Bayswater, Victoria from 1975 to 1977.  By then, the Australian government had suddenly and without warning slashed tariffs by 25%.  This opened the door to cheaper imports and almost killed the local industry overnight.    

Later, from 1969, Southern Aurora Pty Ltd operated from their premises.  Although manufacturing in Bayswater, the company kept using the Burwood address for business purposes.

Isobel

These ramekins are incised "Isobel" to the base. the shape and style are like those of Guy Boyd and Ray Cook, perhaps an early work copying their Bentleigh studio.  Copyright was a little more flexible in those days.

Standard reference on pottery marks (Ford) refers to Hilda Ilich as being Isobel. I think he may be incorrect on this one. Helen Ilich, Painter and Ceramic Artist was born in Croatia in 1914, migrated to Australia 1950. She worked at Ellis' in 1955, then Guy Boyd’s pottery, Crosbie Road, East Bentleigh. She left Boyds around 1960 to work at Isobel. She left Isobel after 2 years to return to Ellis. Helen then taught painting to women from a studio in her home. She continued painting into the mid 1990s and died in 2002.  Isobel  probably refers to Isobel Joy Fraser who ran the show but I have no confirmation or information on this.  I believe that both Helen and Isobel worked together at Boyds.

Described as "Hand Made", the ramekins at the top are thrown with the chocolate brown colour mixed into the clay and a light glaze applied to the interior. There are no chips cracks or crazing. They were made by  "Isobal Art Pottery" on the Maroondah Highway in Croydon, Victoria, now an outer suburb of Melbourne. She started by underglaze painting them with her name "H.Ilich", Little information is available on her or her work other than her working with Guy Boyd in Bentleigh before moving to Croydon where she worked helping Isobel in her normally one-person operation in a shed at the back of a shop. Any other information would be appreciated.

Diameter; 100mm

Height; 48mm

Weight; 300gm