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.  

Luke Nguyen

Designer	Not Known
Maker	Made for Luke Nguyen by Baccarat
Marks	No marks on ramekins.  Name “Luke Nguyen” printed on bottom right-hand corner of platter; initials “LG” to left hand corner.
Material	Ramekins; Soft paste porcelain, 22ct gold to handle and exterior, Platter is laminated bamboo.
Description	Gilded bowl with white gloss glazed interior slightly indented footring base dimpled inwards from footring.
Condition	Good, some wear to gilding on footring
Number	No number
Production Date	Early 2000s
Width at rim	60mm
Width at base	40mm
Depth	23mm
Length (with handle)	97mm
Weight	90 gm
Volume	35 mm
Acquisition	Purchase Salvo Stores, Noble Park 30th September 2013
Rameking Reference Number	LNG 001-004

These four little ramekins form a tasting sampler platter.  These platters are used in some restaurants for patrons to try various dishes.  These were made for Australian restaurateur Luke Nguyen by Baccarat cookware, a brand of Playgroup Pty Ltd located in St Kilda Road, Melbourne.  Tasting samplers are made for other purposes, such as for holding small glasses of different beers.

Luke is an award winning Sydney Restaurateur and Chef (at the “Red Lantern” restaurant in Surrey Hills).  He is also an author of several books on cooking and has hosted a television series on Vietnam and its food.  Luke was born in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1978 to Vietnamese parents who had fled the country some months earlier.  He has also apperared as a guest chef on the television show Masterchef, season 2., and “Masterchef Vietnam”.  He also takes tour groups to Vietnam to experience their cuisine and learn to cook it.  In partnership, he founded the “Little Lantern Foundation” giving disadvantaged youth training in the hospitality industry.

Lustre Gold ramekins like these are press-moulded soft paste porcelain with 22 Carat gold applied to the exterior of the bowl.  Gilding, as it is known, on pottery is a complex and difficult method to learn and can be done using several differing methods.  Over five tonnes of gold are still used each year to gild ceramics.  Gold can be sprayed, brushed, screen-printed, acid etched or mixed with resin.  Early methods involved mixing the gold with mercury or honey giving the body a bright rich honey gold colour when fired at a relatively low temperature.  Ancient gilding on the wood of Egyptian mummy cases is still as bright as original. 

The method most used commonly for lining ceramics with gold is to mix gold powder and borax (borosilicate or a bismuth based flux).  The resulting powder is brushed onto the pottery with a very fine brush (usually camel hair).  When the mixture dries, because it is mixed with water it is fired, during which the borax is burnt off and the gold melts into the body.  The pottery comes out brown and must be burnished (polished) with a stone, usually agate to bring out the gold colour. 

Any further information would be appreciated. maybe Luke can get in touch?

One of the things that I have often lamented on this blog has been the loss of industry as a result of Government policy and imports.  In the case of Royal Worcester, had it not been for the collapse of the glove making industry in Worcester in the mid 18^th Century, Royal Worcester would not have come into being.  A number of local businessmen got together and decided to start a pottery.

One of the things that I have often lamented on this blog has been the loss of industry as a result of Government policy and imports.  In the case of Royal Worcester, had it not been for the collapse of the glove making industry in Worcester in the mid 18^th Century, Royal Worcester would not have come into being.  A number of local businessmen got together and decided to start a pottery.

One of the things that I have often lamented on this blog has been the loss of industry as a result of Government policy and imports.  In the case of Royal Worcester, had it not been for the collapse of the glove making industry in Worcester in the mid 18^th Century, Royal Worcester would not have come into being.  A number of local businessmen got together and decided to start a pottery.

One of the things that I have often lamented on this blog has been the loss of industry as a result of Government policy and imports.  In the case of Royal Worcester, had it not been for the collapse of the glove making industry in Worcester in the mid 18^th Century, Royal Worcester would not have come into being.  A number of local businessmen got together and decided to start a pottery.

Studio Anna (2)

Designer	Karel Jungvirt
Maker	Studio Anna
Marks	Unmarked
Material	Glazed slipware
Description	Press-moulded gloss-glazed cream coloured slipware with black interior.  Sgraffito to interior of various New Zealand designs.  Raised teardrop shaped footring with unglazed base.
Condition	Very Good
Number	No number
Production Date	Late 1950s
Width at rim	188mm
Width at Base	115mm
Depth	27mm
Length (with handle)	118mm
Weight	180gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Purchase Waverley Antiques Bazaar 20 Sept 2013
Rameking Reference Number	STA 009-012

Not strictly ramekins, more like a bowl with a large curved handle, but close enough for me, these 1950s sgraffito bowls are from Studio Anna.  Although one has a New Zealand Made sticker, it is unmistakably Studio Anna.  The black and white sgraffito and curved teardrop shape is a typical Jungvirt design.  This type of tourist ware was produced throughout much of their life and exported throughout New Zealnd and the Pacific.  Much of this tourist ware was portraying Australian Aboriginals or pseudo-Aboriginal motifs.  These are of New Zealand.

Karel Jungvirt, born 15^th August 1927 was a sculptor and artist who had trained in Prgue and Munich before escaping the 1948 Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia and arriving in Australia in late 1951. His pottery career in Australia began in 1952 when, initially employed as a mould maker with Diana Pottery in Marrickville, he was soon designing and making models there.  His skill as a potter won him the Diplome de Honeur and a gold medal at the 1955 Cannes International Exhibition of Modern Ceramics.  Despite much effort from him, he never got the actual medal though.

It was during his stint with Diana that he met Toni Coles, an East Sydney Technical College graduate who had previously been working in commercial advertising, illustrating catalogues. Coles had started working as a ceramic decorator at Diana pottery for what she thought would just be a temporary diversion.

But she enjoyed the work so much that she decided to stay on.  Karel and Toni were married in 1953 and their partnership also became a business one when Karel set up a small pottery in the basement of their flat in Neutral Bay.   When it came to registering their pottery - Studio Anna - as a business, local council restrictions meant that they had to find premises in an industrial zone in order to operate. Thus in April 1954 they moved to Shepherd Street, Marrickville, that was to be the home of Studio Anna until its closure in 1999. During its period of operation the business would expand to include the 2 adjoining properties.

From around 1954, orders came to Studio Anna as a result of its displays within the Ceramic Art and Fine Ware Association exhibitions. These were held at Anthony Horderns' Fine Art Gallery in Anthony Horderns' Department Store. A major exhibition of Australian ceramics by a number of potteries at Proud's store in Sydney to coincide with the Melbourne Olympics, also generated healthy sales for Studio Anna.

 
Following World War 2, Sydney became a popular holiday destination, particularly for American and European tourists.  Karel capitalised on the resulting demand for souvenirs with an Australian theme by creating slipcast decorated earthenware ceramics designed specifically for this market.  Ceramics decorated with local scenes and Aboriginal themes were particularly sought after by both tourists and locals - thus adaptations of Aboriginal cave and bark paintings as well as images of Aboriginal people became popular (for Studio Anna and a number of other commercial potteries) throughout the 1950s and 60s.

Souvenir shops as such did not exist in Sydney in the 1950s, so Jungvirt approached Swain's Newsagency as a potential stockist for Studio Anna ware. This was a smart move because the extended trading hours allowed to a small number of businesses, including newsagencies.  At this time meant that Studio Anna ceramics would be available to the tourist market when department stores and gift shops were closed.   Studio Anna was then employing a number of skilled artists as decorators.

Several of these artists would make personal appearances in department stores, demonstrating their decorating skills and generating further interest in Studio Anna ceramics. Toni Jungvirt in particular travelled as far afield as Tasmania and Queensland making well publicised in-store appearances, often over the period of a week.

At its peak, Studio Anna employed over 30 staff and by 1957 their ceramic ware was not only distributed widely in Australia, but was also being exported to such places as Tahiti, New Zealand, Fiji, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. But 1957 also saw a major blow dealt to Studio Anna and other commercial potteries in the form of the Australia-Japan Agreement on Commerce negotiated by Australian Trade Minister in the Menzies government, John 'Black Jack' McEwan.  This agreement opened the doors for a mass of cheap Japanese ceramics to enter the Australian market.  Many local commercial potteries producing hand-decorated ware, were forced out of business by this competition, but Studio Anna's decorating department, with a reduced staff, managed to survive. 

In the late 1960s, with public demand for Studio Anna's range of souvenirs increasing, Karel Jungvirt took the step of opening his own souvenir shop, which he named Australiana, in Sydney's newly built Australia Square. Such was the popularity of this store, which in addition to ceramics also carried craftwork made by an Aboriginal mission station and tea towels designed by Studio Anna artists (along with toy koalas and kangaroos), that eventually a total of five Australiana stores were operating in the Sydney area, including one in the MLC centre.

In addition to its decorative souvenirs, Studio Anna was also catering for the cookware market. Introduced around the early 1960s, possibly as an Australian answer to Corning Ware (which came out in 1958), a range of decorated cookware 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. As such, matching salt and pepper shakers, table heaters and candle holders also formed part of the range.

 
With hand decorated ceramics becoming less and less cost effective for Studio Anna, Jungvirt's next innovation was Fiana ware. Appearing in about the mid 1970s, Fiana ware was a range of glazed kitchen storage canisters with matching salt and pepper shakers, cruet sets, jugs and sugar bowls available in such contemporary colours as antique orange, citrus yellow, olive gold and orange red. Instead of hand painted decoration though, decals (transfers) were now being used. Studio Anna's decorating department continued to operate, only closing in 1982 when Toni Coles left the business.

When kitchenware was no longer in demand and with the introduction of duty free shops taking the tourist market from Australiana stores, Karel decided to diversify once more. Catering to the hotel and serviced apartment market in Sydney, Studio Anna started producing glazed lamp bases, even exporting them to Japan. They also took one-off commissions, which included tiled panels and a jug and decanter set commemorating the centenary of the NSW Government Expedition to Lord Howe Island in 1882.

In 1999 after many years of illness, during which time he still managed to run the business, Karel Jungvirt finally sold the pottery, returning to Czechoslovakia where he died the following year.

 

Mystery Maker Unmarked (Plastic)

Designer	Not known
Maker	Not known
Marks	No marks
Material	Injection moulded plastic
Description	Square bowl with rounded corners.  Single external colour with white interior.  Circular footring and tab handle to one corner.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	Early 1970s?
Width at rim	128mm
Width at Base	75mm
Depth	45mm
Length (with handle)	163mm
Weight	107gm
Volume	375ml
Acquisition	Purchase Camberwell Sunday Market 8th August 2013
Rameking Reference Number	MMU-P-001-011

Not all ramekins were ceramic.  As technology progressed, new materials became the norm.  Look at your keyboard dear reader.  The chances are that its plastic keys were formed by injection moulding.  Since the Second World War, the uses for injection moulded polymer material had exploded.  These ramekins are another example. There are many different types of injection moulding, but commonly, granular plastic is gravity fed into a hopper where it moves into a heated chamber where it melts.  A plunger advances, forcing the melted plastic through an opening into the mould.  Because the mould is kept cold, the plastic solidifies as soon as the mould is filled.

These particular ramekins were made using co-injection moulding process that creates a skin and core arrangement.  The skin material is injected first followed by a core material.   The white interior of the ramekin is injected first, followed by the exterior.  The white plastic cools and the green plastic flows around it, also cooling.  The nozzle at the base is then closed and the ramekin expelled from the mould.  The mark on the base where the plastic was injected in clearly visible in the centre of the base.

Elke Pottery

Designer	Ellen David
Maker	Elke
Marks	Incised freehand “Elke 12 Aust” to base
Material	Clay
Description	Drip glazed, mould pressed straight-sided bowl with folded loop handle to side.  Lightly speckled clear glaze to interior, heavy brown drip glaze to exterior and handle.
Condition	Good, 2 small chips to inside of rim, one small chip to outside rim of base.
Number	12
Production Date	1950s
Width at rim	110mm
Width at Base	90mm
Depth	60mm
Length (with handle)	180mm
Weight	300gm
Volume	400ml
Acquisition	E-Bay 6 May 2012.
Rameking Reference Number	ELK-001

Trümmerfrau, that’s what they were called, Rubble Women.  In the aftermath of the allied bombing of World War 2, the task of clearing the streets of hundreds of German cities fell to the many civilian women who had survived the war.  With the men away fighting, or held in prison camps, this necessary job fell to women.  It was in Berlin, after the war that Ellen joined this group.  In a time of almost universal unemployment, this was the only job that she could find.  Today, children play on the many mounds of this rubble comprising grassy knolls in German parks.  It was during this time that she met another Trümmerfrau, the mother of Karl Heinz David, a Berliner.  Introduced to her son, a relationship began that continued until his death.

He arrived in Australia aboard the ship Castel Bianco on the 17th of July 1951 and went to Tasmania where he worked on their Hydro scheme as a Fitter and Turner.  Ellen arrived separately and worked there as a Governess.  They came to Melbourne in the mid 1950s where Karl got a job with Johns and Waygood, a large construction company better known as the lift (elevator, for my American readers) people.  He later left and started working on his own, building and installing kilns in New South Wales and South Australia.  In the late 1950s, early 1960s, Ellen worked at the Boyd Pottery in Murrumbeena, a suburb of Melbourne as a decorator.  She once described it as the best job she ever had.

In 1960 they bought a block of land in Clayton.   Working on weekends, she and Karl built the house and pottery studio themselves over a two-year period.  The studio consisted of four areas, a room with two kilns.  (There was a third kiln but that was rarely if ever used.)  A second room where the moulds were stored and the mouldings made.  All their work was slipcast and Karl-Heinz made the vat where the slip was prepared.  The third area was at the rear where their output was stored and dried.  The last area was at the front of the building and that was Karl’s workshop.  He was multi-skilled and could turn his hand to almost anything.  He even built a caravan there.

Their house also featured in the pottery making because Ellen had a room there where she worked on the prototype designs and Karl-Heinz converted the bathroom into a photographic darkroom.  He produced all their publicity photos there himself.

At the time they began Elke, (early 1960s) Clayton was fast becoming a rapidly growing, low cost, new suburb and many migrants were attracted by the booming industry in the area. They even had a Volkswagen factory there, now a big storage facility, partly used to store BMWs and Volvo's. That site is a metaphor for Australian industry. Once they made cars there, (first Volksy's, then Nissan) now it is just a big garage for imported European cars.

Even though Elke was actually a backyard operation, it was far from being just a backyard operation. It was one of the many small potteries operating in Melbourne at the time. Output was considerable and sold through the many Department stores around Melbourne at the time. Like many of the smaller manufacturers, they would most likely have sold some of their output through an agent. At the time, the leading agent in Melbourne was F.R.Barlow and Sons Pty Ltd of Commerce House, 328 Flinders Street. Barlow’s were also agents for some English pottery as well as some Australian art works. Barlows also represented Remued for many years. Please do not confuse Elke with Ellis as some do, they are two very separate companies. 

The Studio

Elke began in the early 1960s and continued, it has been said until the early 1980s, although I think it more likely that major production ceased around Karl-Heinz' death.  As with many potteries of the time, they would carry a bag of samples around the Melbourne stores, selling small volumes to gift shops and specialty stores.  They also sold to the iconic Melbourne department store Myer, on commission.  In the 1970s, Karl-Heinz became ill and after a protracted periods of illness, he died in 1979.  This was the end of Elke as a major manufacturer.  Ellen did continue making small items and is known to have sold them at the Box Hill Market, mainly small figures and souvenir items similar to some of the Studio Anna pieces around today.

Ellen was a also keen gardener and grew many trees around the property.  One of these was a larch that grew in the back yard near the studio.  Over the years it thrived under Ellen’s careful ministrations, as did all the other trees.  She could be found out in her garden almost until her death.  Sadly, her advancing years made her reclusive .   On the 20th of December 2009 Ellen Anne David passed away at age 87. She was born on the 14^th of November 1927.   She and Karl-Heinz had no children and she bequeathed her property to an organization.  Her executor was overseas at the time Ellen died and so it took more than a month for an obituary to be published on the 14^th January in the local Melbourne newspaper the Herald Sun. 

Ellen was cremated at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery and her ashes were scattered at the same private place where she had scattered Karl-Heinz' ashes years before.  She had lived at 10 Fortuna Street Clayton and after a suitable period, the beneficiaries cleared out the property.  At some stage after production ceased, the larch tree which had grown enormously had lost its crown which had fallen onto the side of the studio.  Causing some damage to the wall, water had run into the mould room and some of the plaster moulds that were kept against the side wall were damaged beyond repair.   Around a dozen were mush and disposed of as being beyond salvation.  Ellen had not been into the studio for some time and a patina of dust covered everything as the contents were cleared.

If you saw the advertisement for the sale of her home, part of the description was “The separate storage/workshop/utility builing (sic) at the rear offers possibility of conversion to a dwelling (STCA).”  This separate building was once the "Elke Ceramic Pottery"; and Ellen was a partner in the business and also a pottery decorator there. The house still has the name "Elke" on the front wall.  Subsequent owners converted the studio into student accommodation.  Monash University is only a short walk away.  The property has changed hands a couple of times since Ellens passing.  I am grateful to Ellen’s executor Louise for much of this information.  She plans on putting a more complete story about Ellen and Karl-Heinz together.  I look forward to reading it.

Their story has now ended.  Their home and studio have been demolished.  Every trace has gone and the block cleared for renovation.  I am sure that the next chapter won't include pottery.

It's The Pits

As well as ramekins, I have recently been writing a story about the old brick, pipe and tile works in Oakleigh, Victoria.  This key industry was also once prevalent across many area of Melbourne but is now restricted to a couple of super plants.  Almost everywhere, the old brickworks have been demolished and the land converted to other uses.   Councils used the pits to dump our rubbish for decades and those areas most  thankfully have been converted to public open space.  

Over the next few months I hope to convert my work so far and publish it on my other blog "IT"S THE PITS".  If you get the chance, have a look.  It's the pits has heaps of other people using the name, so I had to find a name that was not used, so key in "wuxtiple" and you are there.  No, it doesn't have some secret meaning, it's just a combination of letters that wasn't taken.  There is not much there at the moment, but be patient.

KMK Kupfermuhle

Designer	Kristiane Wener
Maker	KMK Kupfermuhle
Marks	Paper stamp “KMK Manuell” on base
Material	Glazed terra cotta stoneware
Description	Low profile bowl with moulded short handle protruding from rim.  Hole in handle for hanging for display.  Pale grey matte glaze with unglazed foot ring.  Abstract floral pattern in off-white to interior of base.
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	1990
Width at rim	110mm
Width at Base	75mm
Depth	36mm
Length (with handle)	148mm
Weight	245gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Purchase Savers, Frankston 17th June 2013
Rameking Reference Number	KMK 001

This stoneware ramekin was made around June 1990 by the German company KMK Kupfermuhle (Coppermill).   (Keramik Maufactur Kupfermuhle GmbH & Co KG 25551 Hohenlockstedt DE.)  This ramekin is from their “Décor” Series 40000 (40,914 Ascher) designed by Kristiane Werner, the series began production in December 1987.   This pattern came out in June 1990.

This company began in 1949 with five people in an old World-War II ammunition shed in  Schleswig-Holstein in the municipality of Hohenlockstedt.  By 1960 they had bought their own premises and were hand-painting their wares.  They were one of the many German companies making that revolting technicolour pottery that seems to have become collectible lately.  The company ceased production in 1998.