Is this a John Parker mark?

Hi Ev,
I have just seen a pot of John Parker's on TM which has an interesting mark on it that I don't recognise. Then I remembered we have a wall plate with a similar mark, but very different style of pottery. Could you have a look and see whether you think the plate might be JP or not?

The Trademe listing is:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=618084914

The wall plate mark is:




Thanks heaps.

I have some mugs with the exact same mark as the one given in the auction - check mystery marks 'four dots' plus some salt and pepper shakers with the mark you have (mystery mark 'four dits'):

http://newzealandpottery.forumotion.net/t2529-does-anyone-know-this-mark

Yes that does look like the one. The fact that your salt and pepper, and our wall plate have got stickers from applied arts galleries in widely dispersed parts of the country suggests the potter was a prominent one who should be nationally known - like John Parker.

John Parker has all of his marks on his web site ....
http://www.johnparker.co.nz/technical.html#marks
though I don't see this mark ..... ?

Come to think of it I can't remember John Parker ever making domestic ware as such. He seemed to always be into form and shapes and exploration ......
I will wander around his site and see what turns up.

Thanks for the link to his notebook. The agate vase with the four dots looks like it dates to 1973 so pretty early. I wonder if these four dots could have been his first mark, and maybe he did a bit of domestic in these early years?

The marks that John used that are on his web site start from 1966 and these are all variations of JP. I will check out some old NZ Potter magazines when I get time to see his early work. I'm very keen to find out who the potter was that used the four dots mark now, as they were very accomplished at making domestic ware.

In the New Zealand Potter Vol. 15/1 Autumn 1973 is an article on John Parker and it mentions that John started pottery in 1966 at Margaret Milne's night school class. There are photos of bottles. Another item is about John Parker's first one man exhibition at the New Vision Gallery with photos of crackle vases and talks of bottles and bowls. Another photo of his work turns up in the Auckland Studio Potter's exhibition .... more bottles. I'm sure that Glenys told me she has a good selection of his work and I've asked her to check out this topic.

That's definitely not a John Parker!
His marks were always clearly identifiable as a JP.
I have some VERY early pots and they have the jp combined.
That plate doesn't vaguely look like John's work to me, although you can never tell a potters work by his early work. You'd never believe some of mine are JP but they have a very clear mark.
I do have some 'domestic' ware of John's - clearly marked!
He'd be only too willing to comment if the owner asks him. I think his email address is on his web site.

Just an aside, he is taking part in a workshop Residency with the same group of ceramic artists who visited CHina a couple of years ago, at Sturt University south of Sydney and right now the related exhibition is opening. He'll put pictures on his web site very soon I would think.

Thanks for sorting that out glenys. In an interview I read recently John said that he learnt to throw quite quickly. I hope to get to the exhibition which is on at the corbans estate Henderson.

Thanks for that Glenys and Ev. Until I saw that agateware vase with the four dots mark on Trademe it had never entered my head that the plate could be John Parker. I have considered Estelle Martin, because I once saw a vase with this mark attributed to Estelle, but you can never trust these attributions, so the plate's authorship, and that of Cat-a-lat's pieces remains an open question...

teaandcoffee wrote:Hi Ev,
I have just seen a pot of John Parker's on TM which has an interesting mark on it that I don't recognise. Then I remembered we have a wall plate with a similar mark, but very different style of pottery. Could you have a look and see whether you think the plate might be JP or not?

The Trademe listing is:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=618084914

The wall plate mark is:




Thanks heaps.

I'm in the outback of OZ!
Just seen this stream of discussion.
The pot for sale on T ME was not in my opinion a John Parker. Note that the seller only compared it to his work in the book.
The wall platter has a sticker on it. It was certainly made by the same potter and sourced from Rotorua. The potter was very competent so both owners should be proud of the beautiful work they own and continue to search for the real potter.

OMG!   
I've just seen pics of JP's latest work at Sturt Residency.
IT'S BROWN!

Haha ... Any chance of a link

I'll email him and ask him to put them on his web site asap.
G:D 

I found the wood fired photos of John Parker's work on Moyra Elliot's blog and made a thread about it in the John Parker topic. They are so warm and magical I really love them!
Today I received a copy of John Parker Ceramics that I found on TradeMe and it is a fantastic hardback book with 95 pages of pottery history about John written around the year 2000. I'm so delighted with it and it shows some of his early work ..... bowls and bottle shapes .... not as splendid as his latest works, but never the less they have his style.