Hand thrown wares including orange pots

I thought the tea container was in this post but must be somewhere else. Here it is tho with some other known and possible CC family items.

I have also had this mug for a while and did think it may have been CC family as well. Some obvious similarities...



Also this green pot has very similar glaze in areas to the spice pot. I was wondering if one of the spice pots Val posted a while ago was close to this where the dark glaze runs into the lighter there is an almost gold tinge to the glaze. The pot here has a white rough foot ring similar to the Beach large mugs.

EDIT 9 July 2015.  Since I wrote notes below we have talked to Eva and Sharon Beach, ex Beach Artware.  They assured me that the pots above in Mike's post with the added words eg 'spoons' 'tea' and 'Milford Sound' are not from Beach Artware. They may have been made by Peter Lowry who worked at Beach for a time, but that is yet to be confirmed.
On the top pic on Mike's post, the two mugs on the left are definitely a Beach/Kiln Craft/Clay Craft shape, and it is likely the bowl and vase in the same glaze are also from the same stable.
The two green pots which are last on Mike's post above - the spice jar and larger kitchen jar, are definitely Beach, or made during the transition between Beach and Kiln Craft/Clay Craft.


Mike thanks for this nudge.  I have been slowly slowly coming to the conclusion that all that series you have posted belong to early Clay Craft/Beach. I just haven't got around to writing up my reasoning. It's heartening that you have come to the same conclusion.  But, importantly, I have not been able to find anyone who worked there at the time to confirm this. At one stage there was a group of about six young hand throwers working at Clay Craft/Beach and I think that many of these items in green as well as brown are hand thrown.  More later... I have a few other things to deal with this morning.

Thanks Val no nudge intended I had come across the little lidded pot and the green Milford mug and it has got me interested again. I seem to remember someone saying they were used to seeing buses of people turning up at Peter Beach's pottery and buying heaps of the bright orange and red stuff in the 1970's. Cant remember if it was on this forum or not but they knew a bit about his work. I'll try and get more detail if I can remember.
This is what prompted the discussion.

EDIT 9 July 2015 - Eva and Sharon Beach of Beach Artware confirmed that both these jars are from the Beach Artware in the early to mid 1970s. Mike's orange salt pigs are also Beach. There was so much demand for the orange ware that the Beach family couldn't keep up.

Mike I love this orange stuff and I too have heard from more than one source that Peter Beach did some very successful orange ware.  There is a record on this site, but I am not sure where at present.  

This is my recently purchased kitchen jar.  I used to have another but I gave it away a couple of years ago.. why??????????  This orange jar is very similar to a couple of brownish jars which are very similar to Beach glazes. .... etc. I have just emailed some pics to a couple of people who might be able to help us with these questions. Here's hoping. For now I think we have to say that it is probably Beach/Clay Craft but no guarantees.

I emailed Ernie Cooper (who was closely involved with Clay Craft for some years). I sent him the pic of my orange pot and the brown one that is the same shape and style. Below I have pasted what he had to say.  We are now almost certain that these items are CC but as he says, he can't be certain unless he handles them.  But WHERE are all those orange lamp bases he talks about??

Hi Val, we are actually in Stoke-on-Trent at the moment so your question about ceramics is very timely!. These items look very much like Beech Artware or early Kiln Craft products, the pot  with the red glaze is particularly interesting. They are only two ways of getting a high temperature red colour, either a copper glaze five in reducing atmosphere or a uranium base glaze fired in oxidising atmosphere. I know that Peter Beech used uranium oxide as a colourant because I gave him the formula and he used it extensively on Lamp Bases, however, without actually handling the item I can't be 100% sure.

Beach Artware Sugar Bowl with lid.

I was talking to Deborah at Little Treasures about this stuff and how previously I had expected anything with this orange to be German.

"German is the next shelf up" she said.

Oh ...

The orange is not as dense as in Val's and Mike's examples.

I think it is near enough this shape:

Mike's photo left.

This is in the yellowy clay described elsewhere. There are no indications of it being slip so I'm assuming this was one of the many hand-potted Beach pieces.

My first piece of orange pottery I think.

Links added later ...

Mike's Beach Artware topic:
http://newzealandpottery.forumotion.net/t5341-beach-art-ware-for-gallery#20060

On Peter Beach and red pottery:
http://newzealandpottery.forumotion.net/t2466-stewart-pottery-ltd#9513

Steve Fullmer on hand-potting at Beach:
http://hrncirna.cz/en/galery_guest_fullmer_1.html

Some of Steve's work reminds me of the Beach shapes:
http://hrncirna.cz/en/galery/guest/fullmer/03.html

This is all very intriguing and rather exciting, even though I don't know if I'm supposed to add pieces to the appropriate Gallery or not. That last photo of Jeremy's lidded sugar reminds me of Steenstra lidded pots and I have to locate some of them in my files that I have for reference.

Ev i have a few px i will put on the site tomorrow that i am now 98% confident about. I will start a new "for gallery" topic under Beach/cc...

Val, could you start a separate topic just for the orange, or at least just for what appears to be hand-potted, so we can see it all together?

I have looked at this bowl and looked at my photo again and again and I really love it. After seeing your and Mike's pieces my thought were here do these people find this stuff, and then it just turns up!

I'm not going to go all out on this Beach stuff but I will dig out my other Beach pieces, and mix up the different glazes and see what it all looks like together. The orange is fun but the froth is amazing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you dig out.
We know there were a bunch of potters working at Beach Artware so I guess a bit of their own personality came through. This story has been fun so far and it'll be exciting watching it develop.

I don't know Steenstra's work but will look into it now.

Here we have two Steenstra pots and an orange hand potted Beach Artware pot without the lid and a flat base like already shown in this topic. It also has two letters embossed in the base but I can't make them out for sure.

My thought is Steenstra because of the round shape, the lip at the top and the hand potted lines inside the orange pot.

Val's orange pot with the higher base looks very much like the brown Steenstra pots in my picture.

A brown one with glaze dribbles

I weakened and bought this lovely pot, having previously said I wouldn't!  It is quite large at 13 cm high, with variations on a glossy brown glaze.  It is hand thrown.   It is a nice shape but the glaze flowing down the sides of the pot has bubbled into porous blobs - an interesting effect but the Beach Artware team avoided that sort of problem - Peter Beach was a very accomplished glaze chemist.  It is possible this pot was made after Peter Beach died and the business was sold to Don McKenzie, who had technical problems due to his lack of experience.

Today I bought 2 sparkly blue lidded jars that were definitely Beach, but the handle on the bag broke and they smashed onto the concrete. Booooo Hoooo !!!!
On the bright side I now have two perfectly good lids

That is a tragic story Ev. And also a crime against humanity! I have never found any sparkly blue jars apart from in that shape marked Traditional.

I glued one of the jars almost back together, not a very easy thing to do actually.

What size is this lids you have Ev?  I found same handpotted jar (tea) with no lid for $2 but didnt buy it, will go back & get it if you would like it.

Here's another damaged Beach Pot. I had to get it anyway. No lid, and glued together after a tragic accident. But look at the quality of the glaze and the textured work.

Kat & Co. wrote:What size is this lids you have Ev?  I found same handpotted jar (tea)  with no lid for $2 but didnt buy it, will go back & get it if you would like it.

I have found a few without lids, so will just hang out for a blue one thanks Kat