1027 Ngakura Tiki Pin box

Brown with blue glaze. Looks great in the sun
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The Ngakura trinket box currently posted on tm has prompted some questions for me.

Unlike Zana's one it is in glazes I do not recognise, just like this other one I posted:

photo Jeremy Ashford, from the collection of tomplumb, previously posted:

https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t3875-wharetana-and-ngakura-ware-from-the-collection-of-fi#21779

Besides still wondering about the glazes, which I would expect to be Basalt and Lucow, the matter of the backstamp deserves some comment.

Did CL reinstate the tiki backstamp for Ngakura ware?
If so, then it is theoretically a different stamp and should be in the backstamp gallery as such, possibly with the title "Ngakura ware tiki backstamp".

I do not see Zana's wonderful "Luke Adams" impressed mark in the CL marks gallery.
Could that go in? (Again maybe with a Ngakura ware title.)

The Luke Adams mark poses another question for me:
Was Ngakura ware a Luke Adams line that CL picked up when it took over at Christchurch or pure CL?

And the strange glazes that aren't the expected Adams glazes make me think that maybe there was a second wave of Ngakura ware made at Auckland rather than ChCh, for which the tiki backstamp was reinstated.

Sadly I have no Ngakura of my own (yet) so I am relying on pics from other postings.

So many interesting questions Jeremy!
Mark Cleverley had a Ngakura dish at his exhibition, though when I quickly looked through his book I didn't see anything relative, but my photos from his exhibition show the description for the dish "Ngakura Ware Souvenir dish finished in a greenstone glaze c.1970."  So I am assuming that he had something to do with the design ....?  Crown Lynn took over Luke Adams in 1965 and Ngakura was first made in 1969 as far as I can tell.
I could never work out what was on the base of Zana's little pot and now that you say Adams I can sort of see it.  The tiki stamp was used at various times and is also on the so called Rhodes hand thrown ware.  My guess is that the tiki stamp placed on the souvenir ware would be a marketing ploy.
I have seen several times that the design work and mould making was done by Crown Lynn for Luke Adams and the Titian pottery when they were taken over.
I have seen a few trinket boxes glazed in this lovely soft colour, so someone liked using it.

Thank you for filling so many gaps in my knowledge in one go Ev.

Greenstone was my guess for that glaze as it seemed appropriate but it doesn't look a match for mrnarna's set in that it looks too even. See
https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t1553-unknown-glaze-this-is-actually-greenstone#4341

I do like the brown/green colour combination but, with me being such a fan of the LA glazes, my choice if I had one would have to be the LA.

Seeing "Luke Adams" in that mark was probably a late night thing. First view it was just some squiggles then without even trying Luke Adams popped into my head. Having found it now it just won't go away. I don't recall seeing it on anything else.

The Cleverley connection makes me wonder whether the release was timed to corresponded with Expo70. I remember seeing a pic of the Expo70 store as it had copies of the Eric Lee-Johnson book "As I See It" in it and I sent a copy to my friend Simon, his son. I can't find it now but my google searches keep turning up Cleverley's Expo70 stamps!

Found the photo but no sign of pottery there:
http://emilmcavoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/CAUCASIA-Emil_McAvoy-Free_Catalogue.pdf

(Scroll down to photo of store.)

So pleased to have my own Tiki Trinket Pot
Lucow glaze and only 5cmw x 5.5cmh
This glaze is so pesky to photograph !!
I really want all three of these, but the other two are rarely seen and are very popular!





Jeremy I am posting a photo from the Papakura Museum of a Titian display that was on in 2010 and you will see a Trinket Pot on the far right in glazes that are different again. This makes me think that Titian may have made some as well, perhaps sometime around the takeover .... ???

Ev, these were first made during the takeover period, in the Luke Adams glazes and only later with the glaze called Greenstone. I can only see the moulds being in the possession of Titian at the later time.

I'll have to check the first date in Ceramics NZ, but I have to go out now:
My morning chores were delayed by auction!

Lucky you btw. I still have only one Ngakura (Lucow), and that is chipped.

For some reason the later Greenstone Ngakura glaze that you refer to eludes me, so you will have to share it with me somehow Jeremy ..... even a link would be fine.

Ev,
I think the base of the linked trinket box is Greenstone.
Obviously the lid isn't.

https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t532-ngakura-tiki-trinket-box#26297

I think it doesn't look like a Greenstone d152, but there is a set of stacking condiments in "greenstone" that I will link when I find it.

Okay maybe the trinket box isn't Greenstone as the condiment set does look like d152.

https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t1553-unknown-glaze-this-is-actually-greenstone#4357

Thanks for sorting that out for me Jeremy as Greenstone d152 is a Dinnerware Pattern even though it's just a glaze colour. I haven't seen any Ngakura glazed in this glaze.

I don't know what that soft green is that you have linked to, but the lid could be Basalt.

Mark Cleverley at his Exhibition had some Ngakura on display and in the description he said it had a Greenstone glaze was on it and it was Lucow.

Ev, I think it unlikely that the brown lid on the green box is Basalt from Luke Adams as the green is not a Luke Adams glaze.

If you have any Ngakura packaging you will find that they use the worth "Greenstone" to describe the Lucow glaze.

I honestly don't remember whether I saw a reference to the later trinket boxes being in the glaze called Greenstone or whether I made an assumption. The green trinket box I linked to may be an entirely different green.

Getting back to the point at which you brought me into the discussion, we appear to have three different generations of Ngakura trinket box:
1. Lucow, and maybe Basalt too from Luke Adams (Luke Adamd NZ impressed),
2. Brown top green bottom, which I am assuming is CL/Titianware (tiki and stars CL backstamp), and
3. The one you brought my attention to, which appears to be clear-glazed.

Although 3 is in a collection of Titian, it could be CL/Titianware. A backstamp would be helpful.

I forgot to check who designed Ngakura. If it was inhouse CL I think it unlikely to have been produced by Titian (outside their relationship with CL), and if it is an inhouse Titian design then it would surely not have been made in Christchurch.

I'll have a quick check through Ceramics NZ now. I have my own photos.

"... it is made by Luke Adams Limited, Christchurch and designed by Crown Lynn Design Studio, New Lynn."

I'll try and put a date to the article. Not as easy as you might think.

I think that's April 1970.

Yes I do have the packaging that refers to the Ngakura Greenstone colour which we know is Lucow. I also run the Crown Lynn: Crockery of Distinction Facebook page btw. These little pots are few and far between which makes me think that there were not a great number made, or perhaps as they were made for the souvenir market they went overseas.

Just to add to the conversation - Te Toi Uku has a boxed version in the collection.
The base of the box reads "Lovely Art Pottery souvenir pieces depicting Maori carvings and motifs, made from New Zealand clays and finished in a 'greenstone glaze'. The range includes matching bowls, ashtrays, cigarette boxes and delightful little pin-stud-stamp-jewellery pots with lids. Produced by Crown Lynn Potteries Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand, the largest pottery in the Southern Hemisphere."

http://portageceramicstrust.org.nz/object-search/?os=ngakura

Thanks Finn, I will add my photo of the packaging too. I thought it was already on the site, but it eludes me.