Beach Artware thoughts....

EDITS 27 June 2015.  Since I wrote this, we have received new information from Eva Beach and Sharon Beach/Codlin, both of Beach Artware. They identified many of our pieces and as a result I have noted below which pieces are Beach and which are not.

I have started a new topic as the old stream is getting so LONG! This is a link to the original conversation.

 Here are my three orange jars.  The tallest is 17 cm high including lid.  Steve Fullmer told me how bright and clear the uranium orange glaze was, and that later they went to a lead-based orange, so I am picking that the one on the right is uranium, and the others are lead. EDITS: Sharon Beach and others have since told me that the shiny orange is lead, and the matt is uranium. But that's only a guess at this stage.  All three jars have that warm sandy base and the koru swirl inside the lids. I am 99.9 percent confident that they are hand potted Beach Artware. (You will recall that the brightest was confirmed by email by Ernie Cooper and Pamela Clark)
Most of the ware I am discussing in this post is unmarked but as Ev has noted a few have the marks P (Paul Beach?) DS (Daniel Steenstra?) and DC
EDIT June 2015 - the orange jars are Beach. The initial 'P' does not stand for Paul Beach as he didn't work at Beach Artware.



Next we have this collection of brown ware, again I am 99.9% certain it too is Beach Artware and/or Kiln Craft/Clay Craft. The lidded jars are hand potted, the spice jar and the mugs are slipcast.  I have been told that different clays are used for hand throwing and for slipcasting, which would explain the variations in the colours on the base of this ware. A few of these lids have the koru swirl in the inside top; most do not. The tallest jar is 17 cm including lid.

EDIT June 2015 - the Beach family confirmed that this brown ware below is Beach Artware.

This salt pig is also from the same stable - I love the swirly top! Height 14 cm.


THEN We have the shiny green and brown ware. I am about 80% confident this is Beach but I would be happier if we could find someone who can hold it in their hand and confirm that they made it.  I thought Paul Hemara (who worked at Beach for a while) would recognise it but he didn't. The shapes are very similar to the orange and the brown, as is the clay body. These jars are hand thrown. As we know there is a huge assortment of this ware around in all sorts of shapes and sizes ranging from very tiny to very large. The handles of the jugs are applied afterwards which I guess is an indication that they too are hand-thrown?

EDIT June 2015 - this ware is not Beach Artware. Sharon and Eva Beach thought it could be from Peter Lowry but this has not been confirmed. The piped words on the outside of the cannisters are not a feature of Beach Artware.


Here are recent acquisitions - a huge utensils jar (Height 19cm) and a vase and a jug with those distinctive grooves which we have seen in the DS salt pig and other items.

Here is the classic Clay Craft 'frilly top' bowl, I believe this one is hand thrown. It is the same shape as the orange one Jeremy posted this morning. You see them slipcast in the Clay Craft range as well. I had to buy it as the clay body is exactly the same warm sandy colour as the other hand potted Beach ware.
EDIT June 2015 - the Beach family confirmed that this shape below  was made by Beach Artware. Although they didn't look at this specific example they confirmed that another which is very similar was hand thrown at Beach.


And here's a question!  I put my brown honey jar in my 'probably Beach' collection but look how similar it is to the Parker jar. Hmmm. Both are around 11 cm high.

EDIT June 2015 - After Beach Artware was sold, Sharon Beach and at least one other colleague moved to Parker Pottery - hence the similarity in shape and style in the jars below.  Sharon confirmed that the jar on the left is Parker, the jar on the right is almost certainly Beach.

I think Val has more to add about this but I will join in as she showed me these this afternoon and there is so much that the photos don't show.

My first thought on looking at the photos above is that maybe the "Beach" isn't Beach but looking at it first hand there is so much about it that says it is.

Likewise the photo of the Parker doesn't give much away but I think it has every appearance of also being hand-potted, something I was not expecting from the information we so far have on Parker commercial wares.

I totally agree with Val that there are some strong connections between these two pieces.

I will leave the specifics to Val to explain.

Also Val, as I don't particularly like the brown glaze I didn't take much notice first viewing, the two smaller pieces with your utensil jar look quite striking in your photo as the lighting has really brought out the potting marks (striations!) on the surface, which is something I don't usually notice on the brown ware.

I hadn't noticed how long the Beach thread had got (6 pages) in such a short time so good move starting a new one Val.
Could you put some links at end of thread one and start of thread two to help navigate.

Please click through to Parker Pottery.  I hadn't given this any consideration before, but some of the early Parker ware looks as though it is hand-thrown.  Which makes sense given that Norm Parker was originally a hand potter.

Here is the orange glazed vase that I picked up at the Retro Fair.  It has a white glaze on the inside and the clay used is yellowish.  The shape isn't as true as some of the other orange pots and I would say it's been hand thrown by someone not as experienced as others that made this ware.  It has lumps and bumps in the form and there is a large scratch in the clay on the side which I didn't photograph.







Salt and Pepper with piped writing ...
These are different in height, but as I didn't measure them I can't say what the difference is.  The corks are in the back of the upper belly and you can just see them in the photo showing the bases.  It looks like the bases are different sizes so I must check that out too.

I picked up these kitchen jars a while ago believing them to be Clay Craft because of the glaze - they have the same warm sandy base as the other Beach possible ware and to me they look hand thrown.  The two jars together on the left are made for corks, the other once had a lid.  Which I SO wish it still had... i bought it because of the glaze. Below mine, I have posted examples that Hemara and Frances Hemara have in their kitchen - they told me they were Clay Craft. My two jars on the left are 13.5-14 cm tall. The lidless jar on the right is 11 cm to its lip.

These are jars from the Hemara household. I didn't ask if they were hand thrown...

This is another of mine which I believe is probably CC. I have this glaze on a couple of my little spice pots. it is probably slipcast.

And... here are some more probably Beach brown items. The coffee pot has the familiar koru swirl in the lid, so is probably hand thrown.

EDIT June 2015. After talking to members of the Beach family I am reasonably confident that the brown coffee pot is hand thrown Beach Artware. The gravy boat and saucer are probably not Beach.

The gravy boat and saucer(below the blue coffee pot)  also look hand thrown.  The brown coffee pot is 26 cm high, gravy boat is 7 cm high, saucer is 16 cm across.

This is my Clay Craft coffee pot (marked on the base and slipcast) for  comparison. It is 22 cm high.


And last. This salt pig. Not a very good pic, I can't decide whether it is cast or hand thrown but I am leaning toward hand thrown. There are finger grooves inside, and the lip of the opening has clearly been added later. Height 14 cm.

EDIT June 2015. After talking to members of the Beach family I no longer believe this salt pig is Beach.

That's an incredible post Val !!  All I can add is that the brown and gold coffee pot has the same robust handle as the wine bottle that I saw.

Today I found a Beach Baby .... forgot to measure it, but it would be just over 2 inches high.  It has a nick out of the rim that has been glazed over which is very unprofessional.  A very glossy orange like it has been in a hot spot in the kiln.  The base is that yellowy colour and I think it has a marker pen 10c on it from another life.

Ev that wee pot looks to be the same bright warm orange as my original lidded jar. Interesting that you say this might be because it was a bit hotter in the kiln; I assumed that the rich orange would be the uranium glaze vs the less bright lead glaze.  There are so many possibilities and I have a lot to learn!

Meanwhile here's another I forgot to post.  It is a very cute tiny lidded jar that was in a house we rented in Taupo. It has a wee DS impressed on the side. When I photographed it (in early August) I had no idea how this all fitted together but now I realise that it is probably quite important as it too could be by Daniel Steenstra. I have other wee lidded pots, unmarked, in this angular shape in the deep green glaze.   This pot is about 7-8cm high from memory.  Once again, this one has that lovely rich slightly iridescent blueish greenish greyish glaze.

LATER: the owner of this pot tells me it was bought in Auckland about 37 years ago, ie 1977.

Jug with no handle. Maybe there is a name for such a thing but idk.
$1 well spent. St John's Market, always worth a visit.
(Actually I spent a better dollar on Wednesday and got two lolly pink tulips.)

5 1/2 inches (138mm) high, hand potted, orange skin texture,
allover fine crazing, tending to brown on other side

I have picked up a bit more of this ware lately. The dark brown vase is 190 mm tall and about 125 mm across the belly. Two band of wavy decoration and the frilly top. Rough sandy/yellow base with inscribed P.



This jug already posted also has the P inscribed

This jug is 150 mm tall and has the wavy decoration. Same sandy/yellow base but no mark.


I bought a set of 6 of these spice jars and they have whiter clay base but a similar glaze to the frilly sugar bowl that is larger than my other examples and has the sandy/yellow base and seems to be hand potted.


Some more orange...had to buy it even though the coffee is chipped. The level of gloss is very high on these. Salt pig similar to others...no chattering just incised lines and swirl in top.



Small salt and pepper that Jeremy has posted in the red and here in the brown and mushroom with a small lidded pot.

Mike, my wee salt pig and pepper have incised lines so yours are a new shape.

I forgot to include this one. Vague impression of a swirl under the knob. Terracotta and quite heavy.

The tea and coffee jars are also terracotta and the salt pig is the sandy/yellow clay.

Hand thrown candle holder 5cm high x 9.8cm wide.
It was the glaze that caught my attention, then the soft flutes and lastly the pale yellow clay.

Oh dear i edited this and all my content disappeared. I will replace later.

As I didn't see these last week I can only imagine that they came in together.  The salt is made from the yellowish clay and the pepper has been made using terracotta clay.  Notice how the orange is more pronounced on the terracotta.

And still there are more!  This time an angular sugar basin minus it's lid ...



The base has some letters on it, possibly from a marker pen ... ?

Paeroa.
I saw a lovely green Beach coffee/tea pot and 6 matching tapered mugs all on a custom timber "tree" today at Paeroa ... forget the shop name but second on left coming from Ngatea ... then a Clay Craft set at Junk & Disorderly, with a pot like Val's blue one (derivative of the hand-potted Beach one) and belly mugs, but in the blue and brown glaze ... $45 each set I think ... then at the "laundrette" shop half a dozen or more pieces of the Beach green including some large pieces (utensils jar etc) all for just $30.

I stupidly left the iPad in the car so sorry for no pics.

[I have run out of room for storing such quantities of pottery so settled on buying a new Orzel two-finger mug (different surface modelling and altered handle) bringing my different Orzel coffee mug shapes to seventeen ... but I probably won't get to post that until next year.]

These two have the typical Beach base and are inscribed "DS". Any thoughts?

Mike these are nice. And they look like they are almost certainly from the range which i believe to be Beach. And of course DS could well be Daniel Steenstra.. but all this is still conjecture until we can find someone to confirm. One of my projects for 2015 perhaps...

8 inch green vase.

I thought I had stopped buying Beach but I like this one.
I think it ticks the boxes.

200mm H

Usual base, no marks

I had to play with these photos as none of my efforts produced the right colour of green. I have pumped a bit more green in to bring it as close as I can to a true rendering. You can see my usually bright red towel background now looks magenta.

Wow it's great to see other colours and I agree that it ticks all of the boxes.

I think this one belongs here.

I agree haselnuss.

I found these lovely cups today at Sallies. Just bought the one. There are different sized bases and tops but otherwise they don't appear to be handpotted.

about 3 inches across and 2 1/4 high

You can see what I paid. I would have had the lot but there's just no room.
Still plenty for someone else to have a good set.

Thanks Jeremy, today I weakened and bought two of those green cups. I believe they originally would have had saucers. They are rather cute and I do like that green glaze.

I've really wanted one of the large Beach? ewers and have only seen them in brown for sale. At $6 I did buy this one.


And an orange lollies jar and candle holder.

There is one of those large bottles locally with 6 goblets and they are asking $75, so bravo well done for that price!