Design Encounter: Valerie Monk at the City Art Gallery

Sunday 4th August to talk about Crown Lynn
http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/events/2013/august/design-encounter-valerie-monk-%E2%80%93-crown-lynn-ceramics

Also Billy Apple on the 11th August with his Dorothy Thorpe -
http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/events/2013/august/design-encounter-billy-apple-–-dorothy-thorpe-for-crown-lynn

For those of you who just can't wait till August go to :-

http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/events/2013/july/design-encounter-valerie-monk-%E2%80%93-crown-lynn-ceramics

and get an earlier experience

   

Thanks Jonno ...... I didn't see that  

This is looking very good for today, just got a few more chores to do...

Who else is checking it out?

For those who couldn't make it here are three photos to whet your interest for the next display in August. The Frank Carpay bowl had me captivated for quite some time.

Some lovely pieces and a very informative talk from Valerie.

Thanks Jonno, it's the Rhodes brick clay pot that takes my eye .....

Yes I agree Ev it is a beautiful piece , can you explain Rhodes Clay please , my eye said that it was not the usual terracotta colour of NZ clays???

The Crown Lynn records refer to the clay as brick or pipe clay, so I assume that it is just that and these pieces would have been fired with the bricks and pipes.  I find these pieces fascinating as they are hand thrown by mysterious people with the name of Rhodes

Thanks Ev,
The Rhodes people certainly were very skilled crafts people the form and the detail is exquisite maybe one day we will find out who they were.
Ah sweet mystery.......

Ev, one of our ex Crown Lynn people has sent me a pic of 'groged pipe clay' items made by Daniel Steenstra which are off-white. Below is the pic and I have pasted his words to this post. It seems likely - but not certain - that this is the pipe clay you have found a reference to in your research... in which case it would rule out the Terracotta being from Steenstra.  I find this "Rhodes" mystery absolutely entrancing.. I am sure there is an answer somewhere. But I have asked everyone I can think of and no success YET. Even Tom Clark had no clear memory of the terracotta when I interviewed him. But they do have star and tiki on the base, and there are quite a few around.

Do you have a date for your reference to the 'brick or pipe clay'?

 
"In 1964 Danny Steenstra had all sorts of odd jobs around the factory as hand throwing was no longer a manufacturing technique used much at all. One of Danny’s jobs was to visit the Crown Lynn shop in the 246 building in Queen Street and to demonstrate the art of throwing. His speciality was to throw small bud vases “off the block” which he could do in just a few seconds. At other times he was working in the Casting department. Coloured slips and terracotta were not used at Crown Lynn factory when I was there due to the fear of colour contamination with the earthenware and porcelain bodies. The attached photograph shows the three pots Danny made for me to demonstrate throwing techniques, the body he used to prefer was a groged pipe clay which held its shape much better than the earthenware, hence the distinctly buff-colour and rough appearance. This clay was never meant to be glazed but I decided to bisque fire and glaze the pots to preserve them."
ENDS

The main references to brick or pipe clay are under the heading -
Hand Thrown Earthenware in the Crown Lynn records at the Museum.
As these all have four digits, this would mean that they were made after 1964.
Perhaps they were made before this time, but I can't find any references for them.
There are some references to this ware in the Deco Advices which date to 1967 and have the actual shape numbers which all start with a 7.

I saw the most exciting piece of this work that I've ever seen recently ...



I see that Daniel has used the same 'chattering' decoration as on the so called Rhodes ware, but he hasn't quite achieved the same result.

That is just lovely.. O for a Crown Lynn museum!
x

I find it rather odd that those three pots don't tell me that they were made by Daniel Steenstra ..... not the shapes, nor the handle, or the rims - only the words of the ex Crown Lynn worker .....?
The first time I saw the names Arthur and Olive Rhodes was in an Art & Object catalogue, so I expect that someone there will have some history about them.
Anyway today I did something that I've been meaning to do for .... years!
I went to the local reference library to hunt out Arthur and Olive Rhodes in the Electoral Rolls. I found Shufflebotham easily in the Electoral Rolls which gave me a time frame, his address, his vocation and his wife's name
Oops sorry, I have to dash as it's time to go to work !!!! Back much later!