Zeller Keramic Hahn und Henne

Designer	Zeller Keramic
Maker	Zeller Keramic
Marks	Stamp to base "Made in Western Germany" and "Zell am Harmersback Handpainted"
Material	Slip clay
Description	Large bowl with rounded sides tapering to a footring and indented base.  Handpainted Cock and Hen pattern in green and black with clear gloss overglaze.  Closed handled with small hole to underside angled upwards from centre fixing on exterior of bowl.
Condition	Very Good, some circular crazing to interior gloss glaze.
Number	No Number
Production Date	Between 1960-1970
Width at rim	125mm
Width at Base	50mm
Depth	60mm
Length (with handle)	175mm
Weight	250gm
Volume	375ml
Acquisition	Salvos Store Noble Park, Victoria 6th August 2012
Rameking Reference Number	ZEL 001

This ramekin is marked on the back as being made in Western Germany at Zell Am Harmersbach, a small historic picture postcard Black Forest market town in Baden-Wurttemberg Germany.  Zell Am Harmsbach is the home of the Hahn und Henne  (Rooster and Hen) pottery factory. The painting of a cock and hen on the exterior of the bowl is a traditional design of the company.   Fabulously kitsch, in the manner of the modern 1970s vases the Germans also made. 

“Hahn & Henne” is a long produced design dating back to the early 1900s.  Traditionally, the designs are hand painted.  There are over 100 different pieces made with this design.  This ramekin being one of them, but don’t look for it among their current product line, it has long dropped off their list.  This was made pre-unification and is most likely from between 1960 and 1970s because that is the period when this backstamp was in use.  There is a pipkin, or sauciere (No 0010/1-1101) in the pattern range though.

 There was an English pottery in Bristol that also called their pottery “Cock and Hen.”  This was Pountney & Co Ltd  (1905 to 1969) who seem to have produced distinctive black and white or blue and white ware.  There are also examples of very similar bowls and plated from Pountneys.  Just who copied who?  I put my money on Zeller as the original.

Like many long-term makers, they have experienced highs and lows.  Known today as “Zeller Keramic”. With typical German efficiency, we can state with certainty that they opened on the 22^nd of October 1794 when Josef Anton Burger began an earthenware factory.  By the mid 19^th century, almost half their production was porcelain.   The late 19^th and early 20^th Century saw two town fires almost destroy the works, known as the “upper and lower Factories”, just outside the town gates. 

Before Georg Schmeider took over, the company went through three phases of ownership.  Josef and his partners Jacob Lenz, George Schnitzler and David Knoderer operated until 1846, when by then Jacob Lenz was the last man standing.  He shifted some of their production from stoneware to porcelain.  In 1867, the ageing Lenz handed over to the even more ageing Carl Schaaff who very slowly went broke and sold out to Georg Schmeider in 1907. 

By 1925 they employed over 500 people, but Georg Schmider died in 1934.  Heinrich Heiss, Georg’s son-in-law took over, then Heinrich’s son Gunter ran the company later on.  Unlike a lot of German businesses, they operated successfully for a time during the Second-World-War, but had to close for a few years from 1942 because of a shortage of raw materials.  They recommenced in 1946 and eventually closed the old Upper Factory in 1963.

The recession of the late 1980s saw another disaster averted when a real estate company took them over in 1988.  Like Denby in England, the parent company fell over and the pottery was sold off in 1994.  Known as Zeller Keramik Geschwister Hillebrand G.m.b.H, since 1997, the company still continues to operate successfully today.  There is a porcelain museum operating from the old Haiss manor house.

Dyson / Gordon

Designer	June Dyson  / Robert Gordon
Maker	June Dyson / Robert Gordon
Marks	Pencil signature “Dyson” to base
Material	Clay
Description	Small bowl with upswept spoon shaped handle.  Butterfly pattern interior glaze with clear matte overglaze glaze.
Condition	Very Good, some discolouring on handles.
Number	No number
Production Date	Late 1970s
Width at rim	110mm
Width at base	65mm
Depth	50mm
Length (with handle)	153mm
Weight	135gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Waverley Antique Market
Rameking Reference Number	DYG 001-002

No, not the English vacuum cleaner company, but an Australian potter June Dyson, 20.11.1918 to 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 revered 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 under the legendary John Barnard Knight and Klytie Pate.  The Dyson Pottery studio was based in Melbourne at their home, 12 Arkaringa Crescent Hampton.  Her husband Colin Mervyn Gordon is recorded as being her business manager but is shown as a potter on the Electoral Rolls.  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.  Some of her 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.  

 It was June's second son Andy, who showed most interest in the pottery, helping out in her studios from his early twenties.  Some of these ramekins show her traditional style of making but have a hand-painted interior that shows up in later Robert Gordon pottery.  Unlike most of her earlier work, these have a signature written in black pencil to the slip on the base.  Maybe this is an early example of Robert helping in his mothers’ studio?

 June produced thousands of items, some plain, some decorated like these.  A slightly rough and ready style is indicative of her studio ware.  June continued with her own work until the late 1980s, then worked with the Warrandyte potters almost until her death.

 Her son, Robert (Andy) Gordon  began working on his own as a potter in 1979  in Gembrook in the Dandenong Ranges, north of Melbourne and the successful Robert Gordon Pottery continues today in Pakenham in Melbourne’s outer south east.  Robert and wife Barbara now export to many other countries.

Servex

Designer	Servex (Electronics Industries Pty Ltd)
Maker	Nilsen Porcelain Australia
Marks	Stamped “Servex Oven China Bohemia Guaranteed Heatproof” to base
Material	Porcelain
Description	Shallow square dish with tab handle.  Green satin glaze to exterior and handle.  White gloss glaze to interior of bowl and base.  Unglazed foot ring.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	1934
Width at rim	83mm
Width at Base	70mm
Depth	35mm
Length (with handle)	107mm
Weight	120gm
Volume	125ml
Acquisition	Salvo Stores Oakleigh
Rameking Reference Number	SER 001-005

These are probably the earliest ramekins that I have found and can positively date.  Before the studios that form the majority of my collection started making ramekins, there were a lot of people still making domestic pottery.  Long, long ago back in this time when Australia actually made stuff there and before our Arts-Law politicians got sucked into this post-industrial ideology, was a company called Servex, an early electrical and electronics company in Melbourne, Victoria.  It was run by an early version of what today is known as a tech-head.  Back then you could buy heaps of good quality stuff that was locally made.  Later, when television again came to our shores (look up Henry Sutton from Ballarat who really invented television (GOOGLE “Telephane” even before radio came along) there were many, many local makers. 

Some of these people also made cookware to go with their domestic appliances.  Such a product are these Servex ramekins.  They came in sets of four on a ceramic tray in the same colour.  You could order them (No 688) in three colours, these are Applegreen, but you could also get them in Mimosa, or sometimes Delphinium (blue) or Buttercup (yellow) for 2/6; that is two shillings and six pence (25c today).  The interior of all three colours was in white.  Their catalogue dates from 1934 and in one later advertisement, they are described as “square handled pannikins.”

Servex has become a not uncommon name amongst the IT crowd these days.  The company that I am talking about has largely disappeared, having undergone the inevitable takeover from the overseas big boys.  Back in the mid 1930s, Servex began making a wide variety of products.  Their biggest money-spinner was electrical goods.  They also made appliances for other brands, for example, refrigerators for Astor were made at the Servex factory in Hamilton Street Huntingdale, but for the purposes of this post, I will try to stick to the ceramics part of the business.

The powerhouse behind Servex and Astor was Arthur Warner, later Sir Arthur, an electronics pioneer in Australia.  Look him up, he is also worth reviewing.  His main claim to fame is his founding of GTV Channel 9 in Melbourne, now part of the 9 Network.  (He applied for a television licence back in 1934, over 20 years before TV returned to Australia.)  He was also an influential Victorian State politician.   Concurrent with the ramekins, another Australian invention, electric jugs were made by companies such as Nilsen, Speedie, Hecla, Sunshine Electrix, Vulcan, Koster, Hotpoint and Servex were a must have in every home that could afford them.  If you have a Wynyard Elite, then you have the top collectible electric jug so treasure it.  The body of these jugs was ceramic, usually with a bakelite lift-up lid.  

They are now a class of collectible in their own right.  Just who actually made the jug bodies is a separate study.  Haigh Resistances Pty Ltd in Brighton Victoria were one, another was Nilsen Porcelain Australia, located in the unusually named Jackass Flat, just north of Bendigo Victoria (they are now in West Heidelberg, and make electrical accessories).  Bendigo Pottery was just up the road a mile or so.  Other potteries at Bendigo, Eaglehawk, Epsom and California Gully also made jug bodies.  I think it likely that these ramekins were also a product of Nilsens at Bendigo although I cannot find any evidence for this.

As well as making ceramic jugs, Servex, like some other manufacturers, also made a range of kitchenware and dinnerware.  Essexware and Diana also made ramekins of a similar design (see the “Ovenmaster” post).   Part of this Servex range were these ramekins; they are from a range called “Bohemia,” not to be confused with the Czech crystal and glass people.  Their small size is an indicator of how serving sizes have changed over the decades.

PS.  Here is another set of Servex ramekins that I have just bought on EBay.   These ramekins are held in silver-plated metal containers.  This was quite unusual in Australia but reasonably common amongst the more expensive tableware in America.  Every so often, a set from there appears on internet market sites.  The ceramic bowl was made by the Nilsen Porcelain Company at their works just outside Bendigo in Victoria and the metal holders made by K.G. Luke, a large silver-plating company that operated in Victoria from the early 1920s.  One of their brands was “Paramount Plate.” 

Sir Kenneth George Luke (11th November 1896 to 13^th June 1971) is yet another of those great self-made men of Australia in the twentieth century and deserves much more space than I allow him here.  Please look him up elsewhere to see his story, it is worth reading.

Of relevance to these ramekins is his ownership of “Paramount Plate.”  Just about everbody’s parents or grandparents would have had some of their silver-plate in their homes.  “KG” as he was known, began his working life as an apprentice engraver at a silver-works in 1910.  By 1921 at the age of 25 he had become a partner in a metal spinning and silverware business in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton.  He was the owner by 1925.  A keen sportsman, he also later became a long-term President of the Carlton Football Club (1938-1955) and President of the Victorian Football League from 1956 to 1971.  He modernized the administration and professionalised the game.  His legacy endures.  His company K.G. Luke (Australasia) Ltd became a public company in 1953 but the electroplating part of the business was located at 28-58 Queens Parade, Fitzroy North, Victoria.  They also made the medals for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.  The group was taken over by National Consolidated Ltd on the 19^th of October 1983.

 

Bryce Chesney

Designer	Bryce Chesney
Maker	Bryce Chesney
Marks	Stamped “BC” inside small fish shape to outside of base.
Material	Blue clay
Description	Large heavy earthenware bowl with tube handle. Clear gloss glaze to whole of body with blue check pattern flashing to exterior.
Condition	Good
Number	No number
Production Date	Early 1980s
Width at rim	130mm
Width at Base	95mm
Depth	65mm
Length (with handle)	177mm
Weight	450gm
Volume	500ml
Acquisition	E-Bay 19th July 2012
Rameking Reference Number	BCH 001-002

Reinvention could be the word for Bryce Chesney because he has had several careers in an eventful life.  Born in 1930 in Tully, Queensland to father, Alexander Hugh Chesney and mother Margaret, Bryce showed an artistic side from an early age, winning an orchid-growing prize in his early primary school years.  He also won a prize for his kelpie dog.

His father served in the Royal Australian Air Force for a short time during World War II then after buying a motor garage, began making and selling caravans in Queensland, or trailers to my American friends.  Check out Chesney Caravans on the interweb and see what they built.  Young Bryce joined brothers Neil (who still travels around in caravans) and Frank and began working there as a fitter and continued on in various capacities for many years until the early 1970s when he studied to become a Minister of religion.  Around 1980, he and wife Valerie moved to Sydney where he taught himself pottery-making. 

Bryce used a modification of the early Christian symbol of the sign of the fish or Icthys, His work was marked with a stamped impressed BC inside the fish and may (or in the case of these ramekins) may not have his incised signature.  These are large wheel thrown earthenware ramekins dating from the early 1980s.  Bryce made pottery on and off for the next fifteen years until his retirement in the mid 1990s.  He and Valerie now live in a retirement home near Maroochydore in Queensland.

I hope I have got this right, if not, could one of the Chesney's give me some more information.

Elischer

Designer	Johan Wolfgang Elischer
Maker	Elischer
Marks	Incised “Elischer” to base
Material	Glazed slipware
Description	Handled press moulded bowl with dimpled base.  Harlequin glaze to interior with clear gloss glaze to entire body.  Hollowed press moulded  handle to top of bowl.
Condition	Good.  Some staining to age crazed area on inside of bowl.  Slight chipping to rims.  Some dark marking to footring
Number	No number
Production Date	Early 1950s
Width at rim	110mm
Width at Base	70mm
Depth	47mm
Length (with handle)	166mm
Weight	180gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Chapel Street Bazaar
Rameking Reference Number

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  This question springs to mind when looking at some of these ramekins.  Why? Because they look so much like others made by Diana or Seaton Grant back in the early 1950s.  Just look at the shape of the handles.  As I have said elsewhere on the Blog, design copyright was viewed somewhat more flexibly in those days. 

 

Elischer Pottery was started in Sandringham in 1947 by well-known sculptor John (Johann Wolfgang) Elischer (1st September 1891 to 24^th January 1966) and his son, also named John, (real name Wolly).  John (Snr) was born in Vienna and trained at the Academy of Vienna from 1908 to 1911 and was an Associate of the Royal Academy Vienna. It was reported that he won the Prix de Rome in 1909. This was a scholarship for art students, offered by a number of countries. 

Even though his name does not appear on any of the list of winners, he may have been awarded a second prize. This is no shame because Manet and Monet both failed to win the Prix de Rome.  Although, their records show that there is no prizewinner listed under the painting category for 1909. Johan later studied in Paris (1910-1911) under the even more famous August Rodin.

After serving with the Austro-Hungarian forces in World War 1, he practiced as a sculptor in Vienna and designed figures for Austrian porcelain factories.  In 1924, he became the Art Director at Dittman-Brunner, an Austrian light fitting and novelty manufacturer.  He won an international competition in 1926 to design a memorial in Pretoria, South Africa for General Botha.  An excellent example of his early smaller work, the sculpture, 'Foundryman' is held in the Eckhart G. Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. This piece captures the intense concentration and skill involved in pouring metal.

John migrated to Australia in mid November 1936 with his sister Edith aboard the “Orama”. While living in Douglas Street Toorak in 1951, John won the 200 guinea prize ($420, about two months wages of the day) for a design for a jubilee medal for Australian Primary School and pre school children.  There is a medal on the table with his ramekins in another post.  The medal was given to the school children of Australia in 1951 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Federation of Australia. 

The design was chosen after a competition, with the valuable cash prize of two hundred guineas, won by John for his depiction of a man hand-sowing wheat. The wheat represents the seven States of Australia on the other side of the medal, at left 1901, at right 1951 in tiny letters near ground right, J.W.E. (obverse) Some of his notable sculptures are busts of Archbishop Daniel Mannix and Television great Graham Kennedy in clay.

At a meeting of the University Conservatorium Old Students, in November 1937, He said; "The origin of creative art is longing. Nature has given us all the incentive to mould, form, or create in one way or another. A child at play is only employing the creative urge it feels within itself, and an artist is nothing but a big child”. Elischer, P. Hurry and John Farmer together held an exhibition of works at the Atheaeum, Collins Street Melbourne, in June 1937. The catalogue lists 10 pieces of sculpture by 'John Wolfgang Elischer, A.R.A. (Associate of the Royal Academy) (Vienna)' (Copy in Museum Victoria History and Technology Department.

In early October 1938, John’s two sons Kurt Frederick and Hans W (Wolly) arrived in Melbourne aboard the “Oronsay”. Wolly, who spoke no English, was apprenticed to his father and studied sculpture, since, as a child he was fond of modelling. Wolly joined the Scouts, an organization he belonged to in Austria before it was banned by the Nazis. Both boys were keen athletes.  Also in 1938, his mother Anna died. She had been one of Franz Lizst's last students and was a renowned concert pianist.

Elischer also received commissions for sculptures including the King George V Memorial in Bendigo (1938). The statue was unveiled in September 1939 by the then Premier of Victoria, Mr Dunstan amidst complaints that local materials had not been used in the making of the statue.He also made a bronze fountain for businessman and philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade in Toorak. After seven years in Australia, John applied to become a naturalized Australian in 1943. Austria, Australia, only a couple of letters different. In 1946 Huntley Pottery in Glenhuntly began making slip cast items designed by John Elischer.

John (Senior) died on the 24^th of January 1966 age 74 and the business was continued by his son John (Wolly), until 1987 when it was sold.  Wolly died on the 9^th of July 2001 age 77.  Both were cremated at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery.  Prior to that, at some time, Wolly started making pieces with the brand NCP. The business continues today as “Unique Ceramics” at 31 - 33 Beaumaris Parade, Highett, Victoria. You probably have some of their stuff without knowing it. Have a look at the bottom of that ceramic port bottle of beer stein from the Dandenong Octoberfest.  In 2002, Elischer Street in Canberra was named in his honour. Unique Ceramics continues to use the “Elischer” brand today on some of their wares.