Benhar and McSkimmings history.

Two pages of excellent history including T Lovatt and Ross Mitchell-Anyon -

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I'd love it if someone could propose some dates for some of the Benhar pieces.

The ODT article has this information to offer:

"In the early 1920s, McKinlay made a second trip to England, studying ceramics at Stoke-on-Trent and employing Thomas Lovatt to work at Benhar.

"Lovatt introduced international methods and practices that resulted in an era of quality  sometime mid-80 wares including mixing bowls, feet warmers and teapots.

"Within a few years Benhar had eight muffle kilns, three bottle kilns, used 10,000 tons of coal a year and drew its clay from a 200ha area.

"By the 1930s Lovatt had moved on and production again focused on bricks, pipes and sanitary ware."

Otago Daily Times, "Heart of Clay", by Shane Gilchrist on Sat, 13 Feb 2010,
as seen online at:
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Most of the kitchenware we have on the forum appears to date from the 70s or 80s and from what Keith Sandford told me I believe production of home wares ended entirely with the kiln conversion mid-80s.

Manos' pieces look similar to what Crown Lynn was making in its early days, so unless these are Lovatt's era, production of such small goods did continue after his departure.

I will have to check out what Gail Henry had to say when I can locate my copy of her book.

I don't encourage copying and pasting from other sites Jeremy as it breaches copyrights. The link was sufficient and you can put things they say into your own words without a problem.

Ev, copyright laws allow quite a generous percentage to be copied. As a published author I am painfully aware of that. What I have taken here is well below the allowable. I did put it in quote marks, but neglected to reference it fully: I have now rectified that. It is very easy to misrepresent someone else's words when paraphrasing so sometimes a quote is best, but respectful of your feelings on the matter, I will avoid quotes in future where possible. Jeremy.