Royal Oak blue - and brown

I found these at the Salvation Army shop in Tauranga.. very tempting to buy but George starts asking practical questions like "Where are you going to put it?" so I thought I had better make do with photos. I love the salt pig. It's big and fat. And ever so cheap... Sigh

I found a pair of canisters - see below, one has a label, so I can be pretty much certain the blue is Royal Oak.

A salt shaker

And a soup dish (stickered)

And a pate dish (no sticker)

And THEN in Whakatane I found these lovely big fat jars. I am pretty sure they are Royal Oak, but no gurantees. They were too cool to leave behind and I bought the plain one because the other had a badly chipped lid. After a good scrub it looks splendid on the bench at home. These jars are quite imposing at 23 cm tall.

This is its base

And this is the one with the chipped lid - glad I got the plain one!

That's about enough Royal Oak for one day. I would be very happy if someone could confirm - or not - that those big jars are Royal Oak.

Great stuff Val !!
I will give the nod that the big jar is Royal Oak, as the glazing and decorating match many others that I have seen.

Maryr,
Jules's shop, Vantage Vintage (or vice versa) in Water Street (near Caffeine) has some very large pieces by Royal Oak.
Check them out some time. I don't think they're going anywhere in a hurry. Four matching soup dishes at SPCA Kamo.

Well, I got a surprise today. My first visit to Hikurangi in a couple of months. The second hand/antiques/collectables shop (I should check to see if it has a name) had very little for me, one Keith Mahy "Anker" glass to add to my Crown Crystal, one infamous Chinese mug, and some Bodum spare parts, but the Red Cross shop had a lovely surprise.

The volunteer said she didn't like it and I said I didn't like it either. Someone somewhere must, but for now I will find space for it, as I could not resist it. Having seen one on tm (damaged), and one in Salvation Army (damaged) I finally found:

a Royal Oak coffee pot, and its set: 4 mugs, milk and sugar (scrunched Royal Oak sticker on pot).
There was no spoon jar but I already have one, albeit with a different base glaze,
and two pairs of mugs with different glazes again.

The Glaze is like treacle or grease, poured on fat and frothy, at its best on the coffee pot.
I know Royal Oak is ubiquitous and has its detractors, and I originally shunned it myself,
because I saw so much that was at the end of its life, but this glaze is riveting, fascinating.

I'll give it a spruce up with the dishes tonight and post pics tomorrow.

Op-shop Royal Oak purchases

Reactive glaze, only one mug of four shown

Detail of glaze

Three different jugs, centre one is smaller, right has small flower pattern

Three different mugs, centre one is smaller, right has large flower design

Spoon Jar (with pukeko spoon)

There are more Royal Oak pieces in the local shops, including tea/coffee/milo canisters and 4 soups bowls, with different glaze combinations but I think only the two base glazes (white, orange). No blue or pink at the moment.
Unfortunately the two mugs matching my coffee set are chipped. Two each of the others shown is enough for now.

Very nice Jeremy.... tx for the pics. I have a couple of containers - Milo and sugar(?) from memory which have that same gloopy glaze. Amazing that it ran so far and no further down the side of the item.

FYI... There are quite a few bits & pieces In Hamilton -- I saw a teapot the other day, cups and so forth. It is lovely but nothing I would want to collect. 

More Royal Oake. Milo and Coffee canisters from Hikurangi second hand shop. (H 100mm, W 95) Love the blob on the Milo. Right-hand canister from Hikurangi Red Cross, (H 100, W 90)
And, in the middle, now I have a spoon jar to match my other set. It necessitated spending $3 on a further coffee set (minor chip on coffee pot), so I have some spares.

At the Avondale market, yesterday I saw a few more items, two teapots mentioned elsewhere, and a further, chipped coffee pot. Point of difference here, this one has a reactive glaze lid as well, whereas my others have plain brown. Man said "lovely isn't it?" I said hideous!" Man said $7?" I said "It's already priced at $6, how about $5?". Man said "Good condition, no chips." "I lifted the lid to reveal a 1/4 inch chip." Man said $5?" And I walked away.

Three more Royal Oak coffee pots. Not so nice to look at. Kinda chunky and primitive. I do not know the design rational, which may have made some sense at the time. This is the second reactive glaze one and I have not cleaned it. The blue and brown SMALL hand-painted flower-motif pots differ only in colour. I presume pink was also an option; likewise LARGE flower, and plain brown edging. I have yet to see these pots with a different base colour.


Reactive glaze pot with lid in this trademe ad:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/pottery-glass/porcelain-pottery/other/other/auction-661156442.htm
And another with plain lid here:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=660485711

wow, Jeremy those are nice   - must be time to "make another display shelf" hehehe

Jan,
I don't speak emoticon, but I think I detected a hint of sarcasm.
I have a shelf for these and am just shuffling pieces in and out.
I think the degree of grotesqueness balances out the Country Fair,
on the other side of the window. back at ya!
They actually make a nice display, all cleaned up.

I'd be keen to have some more info on the teapot in Hamilton. glaze? Shape? Price? I do seem to have acquired a few NZ commercial pottery teapots (CL x 3, CL Country Fair x 2, Clay Craft), and I do have a shelf for them, so a Royal Oak, particularly reactive glaze and in good nick, would suit me fine.

Jeremy go and check out SPCA kamo. On the shelf just inside the door on the right, bottom shelf at the back is another coffee pot like these but boring ish glaze.

Maryr,
I was there about 10am but totally missed it if it was still (or already) there.
I always have a peek at the Titianware set there wondering whether it will grow its final piece. Unusual pale bland glaze but a nice set all the same.

DO I REALLY NEED another Royal Oak Coffee Pot!?!
I bought the reactive glaze because it was that glaze, the brown flower because it was complete and the blue because it was blue, but then again I did accidentally buy all but the coffee pot in plain brown one day when I was distracted!

No one seems to like this stuff, but it is so ubiquitous it must have been BIG in its day. I suppose someone should take on the role of maintaining a "library" of it.
Just don't expect me to go out and buy all the matching canisters, pate dishes etc ...
... although I do already have the baguette plate (garlic bread maybe?).
A 4 inch square reactive glaze corked TEA canister to match the coffee and milo would be nice though.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maryr, I checked out that pot and it seems to me it's a whole different kettle of ugly.
Not a match for these: maybe NZ, maybe even Royal Oak, but definitely ugly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14/12/13
Another update:
To see the ugly pot for yourself go to: http://newzealandpottery.forumotion.net/t3079-stewart-pottery-ltd-kitchenware-range#9609
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did see a whole lot of PINK on trademe:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=659671687
Some weird shapes there!

OMGoodness!!!! I haven't seen the PINK before  
I haven't noticed many pink kitchens in my lifetime either ......
The Garlic and Spaghetti Jar are new shapes to my eyes .........
I think you are right Jeremy, because there is so much of this pottery around now, they must have sold truck loads of it in the 1980's and 90's !!

Some more Royal Oak shapes.

______spice jar___hanging garlic bowl__egg cup______small salt pig____
_____72B x 85H______85B x 70H_____50T x 40H_____70B x 102H.____
_____________________garlic bread plate_________________________
______________________360 mm x 96___________________________

I THINK these jars are Royal Oak, and the utensils jar..it astonishes me how much of this stuff must have been sold, yet I have no memory of it!

Storage jar base

Maryr,
Yes they are.
Royal Oak made canisters with handwritten labels and canisters with transfer labels.
I like the utensil pot but would be so scared of chipping the lava.

Here's a bit more blue and brown. Left and right are new additions.
Note the trademark Royal Oak pointy handle.


I still don't have any pink or blue flower mugs.

--------
2/3/14
Plain pink on white, no flowers, smaller size.

This was so grotty on the shelf at the Red Cross but it cleaned up beautifully.

I have hummed and ha-ed about getting the royal oak blue gravy boat, plate AND matching spoon that has been at the op-shop for a while now. Has the flower pattern that you see most often. Just no room left here but I will get it if someone wants it?

Thelma, thanks but no for me.
I can't speak for Maryr, but I'm not seeking this stuff out.
It just keeps coming at me. I only really buy it now to post here.

If you can get a photo of it it would be good.
We are putting together quite a few Royal Oak shapes now
but there's a ton more out there.

There are two distinct hand-painted flowers. Large and small.
The large ones are kinda fuzzy, the small more crisp at the edges.
They also used transfers, as Maryr's canisters show.

It has that thick glaze & NZ Made printed on it too.  
10cmh from the 10c bin..

Kat,
My thoughts at first too.
I picked it up and thought it was very light to hold.
The glaze also appears to be a bit thinner than, and a slightly different colour from, the Royal Oak Reactive Glaze.

For those who only have this picture to go on, I think the "NZ Made" is in the glaze,
rather than an applied sticker, so my guess is it refers to Apex Valves, and
NOT NECESSARILY to the mug.

A new mug shape too.

When I picked it up this morning I immediately thought of the "Miss Kiwi Bird" I got in St Johns Kerikeri yesterday which doesn't appear to match any familiar mug shapes either, and although that has "New Zealand" in the glaze I know that doesn't NECESSARILY mean my mug was made in NZ either. For Miss Kiwi Bird see:
http://newzealandpottery.forumotion.net/t4392-small-treasures-from-the-far-north#15345

It may pay to look at the fettling and the clean-up on the base.

I'm sure that once enough pieces have been studied at this may give an indication of maker because they all seem to do it a bit differently.

I only just noticed a very faint stamp on mine, a bit like a postmark.
I don't think it'll tell me much so I'll photograph it and add to my own topic, shortly.

__________________________________________
A little while later...
It occurs to me that the NZMade mark on Kat's mug may be no guarantee of a NZ made mug but the presence of a chap's name on the back indicates possibly a small personalised production, which would be more easily managed within NZ.

Another Reactive glaze. This was rather grimy when I found it but it has scrubbed up nicely. It has that typical Royal Oak random splodge of glaze on the almost-flat base.

Sheesh their teapot and coffee pot lids make me shudder .... yeek
The body shape on the teapot is extremely like the Christine Harris, Petra Ceramics and Studio Ceramic ones...... how coincidental is that..... it's just that darn lid that is wack!

The Christine Harris version has a different shaped handle but yes they are very similar.  Hey believe it or not my cousin Lesley has teapot envy.. she remembers having one of these and would love to have mine.. birthday present coming up!

Finally, a Royal Oak teapot to call my own.
From Tikipunga market. Perfect condition. Cleaned up nicely.

Same shape as Val's, above, but a different glaze on a whiter pot.
I prefer Val's actually as it matches my other pot.

Big bump of glaze on the spout!

Note that since this thread was posted, we have been told that Lava Glaze was only a relatively small run made by Owen Salisbury in his semi-retired years in the mid-1970s.  He dug a small amount of scoria from under his house and made a glaze from it.  He got 'Lava Glaze" labels especially printed.

The glaze in this thread was described by a member of the Salisbury family as brown glaze over white.

I will post a link the the true Lava Glaze item posted by Haselnuss elsewhere on this site.

Here is a vase with a Lava Glaze sticker, and some notes by Oakpot
https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t7803-royal-oak-lava-large-pitcher-large-dimpled-mug-gallery?highlight=lava