Elizabeth Lissaman

Elizabeth was one of New Zealand's original women potters.
She is famous for her artwork on her pieces and her unusual dating format.

Some lovely photos of Elizabeth Lissaman's work courtesy of manos-samos


and her backstamp with her dating code that converted her name Elizabeth to numbers -
[E=1 l=2 i=3 z=4 a=5 b=6 e=7 t=8 h=9]
which means this piece with the code Ehea was made in 1975




and the backstamp with the code Ehet showing it was made in 1978

So happy. We stopped at Otorahanga, for an opshop that is only open Saturdays, and this plate was waiting for me. 27 cm across, it has a couple of wee nibbles in the rim which have been covered with black felt tip.  I was so nervous getting this home; it got packed in a blanket in a box under pillows at the back of our bus! According to the dating system in this post, my platter/bowl was made in 1973. Wonderful.

This is just magnificent Val and I am very envious

I got all breathless when i saw it - and thanks to you and NZ Pottery website - the only reason I knew what I was looking at! xxx