Te Rona History

Can anyone provide me with some history on Te Rona pottery. There is absolutely no reference in Gail Henry's book and Google isn't much help either. There is some association with Lovatt I gather. Any pointer to anything published would be appreciated. Tnanks.

This is a really good question and I would like to know more about Te Rona too.
Victor Lovatt ran the Te Rona pottery and there is mention of Victor in Gail Henry's book, but mainly because of his father Thomas Norman Lovatt, who managed Temuka at one time. I did read that Rona was the name of Vic's wife. There is so much NZ pottery history involving the Lovatt family that needs to be discovered!

Does anyone know when Te Rona stopped producing?
I picked up a piece today, but it has a crack.

We have a second hand store in Temuka and there are still Lovatts living here, here is the history of Te Rona pottery as told to me by Thomas Lovatts grand-daughter...
Te Rona pottery was started in Temuka by Thomas Lovatt and his sons Victor and Stanton at a premises in Wilkin Street. All three men had worked for Temuka Pottery at various times, Thomas, who worked there from 1940 until his retirement in 1966, was responsible for some of Temuka potteries most sought after pieces, including the Maori ware and the Panchito rooster and Stanton was the foreman for NEECO (National Electric and Engineering Company).

Thomas and Victor started Te Rona after Thomas retired from Temuka potteries and named it after Victors wife Rona. Upon the death of Thomas in 1969 Victor was joined by his brother Stanton, Victor passed away in 1974 but Te Rona pottery was made by Stanton until 1992. Stanton passed away in 1997.

The Temuka historical society/museum has a great collection of Temuka and Te Rona Pottery as well as documentation.

Thank you so much for that information kcholding1 as that is the sort of info that we need on here. One day I will travel down that way and visit the Museum, as I would love to see the New Zealand Pottery that they have there.
I don't think I've ever seen a name attributed to the fabulous outstanding pieces that were made at Temuka and to find that Thomas Lovatt was responsible for them is fantastic. Thomas was extremely talented.

kcholding1 wrote:

The Temuka historical society/museum has a great collection of Temuka and Te Rona Pottery as well as documentation.

Thank you. We'll be travelling through Temuka shortly and will try to visit the museum.

Te Rona/Lovatt history from rootsweb:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzlscant/Lovatt.htm