NASCO Brittany

This tureen (or casserole or soup pot) and ramekin set was made by the National Silver Company of Nagoya, Japan and marked “NASCO Brittany”. It could be used as a fondue set also.   The chances are that it was made by one of the many ceramic companies in the Owari province.  This area produced varieties of porcelain and pottery over many centuries, more particularly Seto ware. 

It consists of a metal frame holding a ceramic bowl over a metal container for a flame to heat the contents.   Six ramekins are held by metal hooks on the outside of the metal frame, through holes in the underside of the handles.  This set came in two different metal frames, the other being a tree holding the ramekins vertically. 

Various other china dinnerware has been produced by NASCO, but it seems that NASCO Brittany was a one-off, short lived experiment.  You can find many odd ramekins in op-shops for not much money.  Rarely do you find a full set like this.

Old Cheese Factory Craft Centre

Designer	Not known
Maker	Not Known
Marks	Stamped “Cheese Factory” to foot ring. Plus gold label printed in black ink attached to outside “Hand Crafted The Cheese Factory Craft Centre Ballingup W.A.”
Material	Glazed earthenware clay
Description	Wheel thrown glazed earthenware clay bowl with extended knob handle, open at the end.  Unglazed base.  Brown glaze to bowl, handle end in brown, but with a blue overglaze to the rest of the bowl.
Condition	Very Good
Number	No number
Production Date	1980
Width at rim	117mm
Width at Base	74mm
Depth	48mm
Length (with handle)	1180mm
Weight	330gm
Volume	300ml
Acquisition	Vinnies, Oakleigh, 1st Feb 2014.
Rameking Reference Number	OCF 001

This ramekin was made at the Old Cheese Factory Craft Centre, the largest privately owned craft centre in Western Australia.  Originally the Manjimup Dairy Produce Company Ltd, established in 1933.  It is located about 500 metres off the South West Highway on the Nannup Tourist Drive.  After changing hands a few times over the years, it became a craft centre in 1979 when it was purchased by Stephen Cox and potter Beverley Smitchens, producing works in ceramics, timber, wood turning, furniture as well as Aboriginal art and handcraft.  They sold to Des Milburn in 1985 and later Jennifer Taylor in 1985.  In 1997 it was bought by Mary Kent and also sold antiques and collectibles.

Potters Wendy Wishart and Gary Hambleton operated there before Gary moved to the nearby “Old Stables Pottery ” at Mallinyup.  This ramekin does not look like the work of either of them, but bears the printed label “Hand Crafted The Cheese Factory Craft Centre Ballingup W.A.”  These is also a stamp “Cheese Factory” on the foot ring.

Wendy Wishart

Le Sphinx

Designer	Not known
Maker	NV Koninklijke Sphinx
Marks	Black stamp to base.  The stamp reads; "Parafeu" across the top of the star, "Le Sphinx" across the inside of the star, and "Hollande" between the bottom of the star.
Material	Glazed slip
Description	Small lidded ramekin with stem handle.  Graduated mustard coloured glaze, lightening towards base.  Uncoloured  footring with clear gloss glaze to interior. Lid has knob handle in centre
Condition	Very Good
Number	No number
Production Date	1970s
Width at rim	66mm
Width at Base	52mm
Depth	38mm
Length (with handle)	112mm
Weight	Lid           45gm Ramekin  75 gm
Volume	75ml
Acquisition	Salvo Stores October 2013
Rameking Reference Number	SPH 001-112

These tiny ramekins are known as Parafeu Pastry Cups and were made by Royal Shpinx in Maastricht, Holland.  They came in sets of six on a matching tray.  Just what a pastry cup is, I don’t know.  Maastricht is famous for its ceramics, not just Andre Rieu.  The company was founded in 1827 when Petus Regout (1801 to 1878) changed from glass and crystal cutting and grinding to producing ceramics.   He started a glass factory in 1834 and in 1836 he was producing stoneware for the local market in competition with imported English creamware.  He used printed English designs from Stoke on Trent, employed English workers.  Most of their output was elegant tableware, mostly like the famous blue and white Delft ware.

In 1870 his sons took over and the company became  SA Petrus Regout & Co.  At its peak, they employed 7000 people.  In 1925 the glass company separated and merged with Stella to become  Kristalunie.   Adolphe Regout ran the company from 1934 until 1958.  Petrus Regout began making sanitary and hotel ware and in 1958, the company merged with Societe Ceramique  and in 1960 became NV Koninklijke Sphinx.   (In 1958 they were permitted to be called Royal Sphinx.)  Societe Ceramique was started in 1851 by Winand Clermont and Charles Chainaye and was Petrus’ main competitor.  Gustavsberg, a Swedish company took over in 1997 and in 1999, Sanitek, a Finnish company took over.  In 2008, the company went belly-up and production moved to Sweden.  Today they make bathroom products, but only warehousing continued in Maastricht.

1827 to 1870 Perus Regout & Co

1870 to 1899 Petus Regout NV & Co (re-named after his sons took over)

1899 to 1958 NV Sphinx Ceramique v/h Petrus Regout & Co

1958 to 1960 NV Sprinx Ceramique

1960 to 1994 NV Koninklijke Sphinx

1994 to 2001 NV Koninklijke Sphinx Gustavsberg

2001 to 2012 Koninklijke Sphinx BV

2012 to Present Sphinx Maastricht BV

  

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