A Rancich - Silva study

Jovan Rancich - Wally Silva Study

Determining which pots were made by Wally Silva using Papers Past.

1932 Jovan Rancich and Joseph Radonich began making and selling colourful pottery at their property on the corner of Margan Avenue and Titirangi Road, New Lynn  and this work was very popular. This was the time of the Made in New Lynn, Titirangi Rd, JR & Co NZ that they wrote on the base of their pots.  Joseph Radonich found work elsewhere in 1935, due to the Depression, but still owned half of the property.
Advert from the New Zealand Herald 5th December 1934. Note the J Rancich & Co ..




1938 Rancich employed an apprentice, Wally Silva who was born 9th October 1926 and left school in 1937.  Wally was aged 11 when he joined the Rancich Pottery.  His apprenticeship lasted for one year.

1939 Owen Salisbury started buying kiln loads of hand thrown vases from Rancich in the high fired bisqued form, until Jovan passed away on May 28th 1942.  These vases were stamped with numbers, which denoted the shape.  Salisbury decorated this ware with paints and laquers, sometimes adding a decal and added a Salisbury Ware sticker and then onsold them.  [Salisbury bought high fired blanks from Ambrico from 1942 to 1946 and decorated them in the same way.]



1942 Jovan Rancich died and his wife Vera and Wally Silva kept the pottery going until 1944 when a pile of coal caught fire and the pottery was destroyed.  During this time Wally Silva continued to work at the Rancich Pottery making high fired vases that were purchased by Partridge Pottery who had talented decorators paint them beautifully and then sold them as Harwyn Pottery.
Mrs Rancich had a standing advert in the Auckland Star for a boy to work at the pottery all through 1944.  Vera Rancich and Joseph Radonich sold the property in 1946 and Vera moved to Canada with her two daughters.

Thanks to Papers Past these thoughts can be confirmed by the Harwyn adverts from 1943 to 1946 right across the country from Whangarei to Dunedin.  The majority of these ads are from 1943-44, so they would have been made by Wally Silva at the Rancich Pottery.  Wally would have been 16 years old then.  
This Harwyn vase was supplied by Ambrico and the Harwyn Float Bowl was made by Wally Silva at the Rancich Pottery.  



Harwyn vases made by Wally Silva at the Rancich Pottery 1943 - 1945.





1945 Wally Silva started his own pottery at 176 Old Titirangi Road, New Lynn and called it Sylvian Pottery. Wally made high fired handmade pottery blank vases and supplied Harwyn and Flambeau of Partridge Pottery to decorate.   His pottery ran until 1949.

Flambeau adverts show up from 1945 to 1947 all over New Zealand and would have all been made by Wally Silva at his own pottery and sold to Partridge Pottery to decorate in the distinctive poured paint technique.


Flambeau advert from the Northern Advocate October 1945 for J.W. Courts, along with Partridge, Harwyn and Salisbury:



Crown Lynn brought in Wally Silva to help with the design of hand thrown pottery and he worked closely with Dave Jenkin, for a short time after he closed his pottery shop.

In other words and to put it simply, Wally Silva made all of the Rancich Pottery Harwyn vases and all of the Flambeau Vases.

It is now time to let Wally Silva have his own category and Gallery, instead of being lumped in with Jovan Rancich as has been the case for the last 15 years of cataloguing their work.  However the work that was made when he worked at the Rancich Pottery will remain titled Rancich/Silva, as Wally was employed by the Rancich Pottery at that time.

Many thanks to Lance Silva for helping with this project.