A Tiki Ashtray on Ooga-Mooga.com was made by Morlynn Industries

Fifth down on the right
http://www.ooga-mooga.com/cgi-bin/all/collection.cgi?mode=gallery&user_id=271&rep=yes&tag=&show=80

Why?  Well I saw a mould for this shape at the Crown Lynn Exhibition from Richard Quinn's collection.  There is a pic on the site but it's not very clear,

https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t1844p15-crown-lynn-exhibition-at-the-gus-fisher-gallery-auckland

so we will have to wait for the Portage Ceramic Trust to share their resources to find out more.

This one?

photo by mrnarna

Looks very similar to me.
Crown Lynn yet!
Or a copy thereof?

Paipo's one looks very well made.

Yes that's the one Jeremy. Richard Quinn had a massive Crown Lynn Collection which is now in the care of the Portage Ceramics Trust. There were several of these moulds and they were made from a modern medium, meaning they weren't made of plaster. I took a photo of one of them, but not this one. It looks very similar to the quality of Wharetana to my eyes ..... but it's not in the records that I can see.

There are 9 ashtrays in the Wharetana records and there are at least 6 shapes missing from the records, so that ashtray could certainly be one of those.
I wonder if it has a number on it as most of the Wharetana does ....?

It this the one? When we bought it around 15 years ago, it had this note on the back that said it was made by Reg Taylor at Crown Lynn. Since we had never seen anything like it from Crown Lynn before we were a wee bit dubious but bought it anyway. It looks and feels like it's from the triple/trickle glaze era.







There is also one on pg. 8 of this wonderful celebration of collections from Objectspace:
http://www.objectspace.org.nz/Downloads/Assets/2186/OB063+To+Have+%26+To+Hold_fa.pdf

How exciting to see that ashtray on the site T&C !!
I was hoping that there would be numbers that would put this in the Wharetana collection, but I would say that those numbers scratched through the glaze are something to do with the glaze.
Reg Taylor is a name that I've heard before, but I don't know much about him. Perhaps Val can help with that.
I found that I do have a good photo of the mould ....
https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t2153-wharetana-ware-moulds-from-the-richard-quinn-collection
The pieces in mrnarna's last photo on that link are of bisqued Wharetana made around 1983 that were also in the Exhibition and that would put the synthetic moulds into the right era.
The Portage Ceramics Trust are going to put their resources online soon and open their collection to the public next year. So this can be pursued further then.

Ev I have looked up my notes - I don't have a lot about Reg Taylor, but both Tom Clark and Alan Topham mention him. He was one of the earlier English experts recruited to Crown Lynn, an expert ceramic chemist. He worked at Crown Lynn for decades. This is what Alan Topham said about him:

"Reg Taylor ... was a ceramicist, in the laboratory, one of the strong silent types that was always doing interesting things. Had a bit to do with the cookware body (ie Cook n Serve). He was a very knowledgeable ceramicist. He had notes of all his experiments and said he would write them up someday but he never did."

In my notes there is a mention of him designing an ashtray, but I very much doubt if that was the Wharetana Ware which was always attributed to Harry Hargreaves. Tom told me that David Jenkin would have designed the actual Wharetana shapes, then Harry Hargreaves incised the Maori-pattern detail.

Oh dear oh dear, I need to go back to the museum and give them a big nudge about getting my interview notes available to the public! I gave them to the museum months ago and nothing has happened.

Portage have put a lot of info online and I won't be available for days/weeks, as I will be busy with their collection, but I came across this
http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3384/object/488927/Ram_press_cases_-_tiki_ashtray

Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: A fish!
(Old joke)

Q: How tall is a small Orzel Ti-toki bottle?
A: An early Crown Lynn tiki ashtray!
(Forum magic)

Sorry Jeremy, but I'm away with the Crown Lynn fairies and I don't get that joke.
Yes there is a small ti toki bottle credited to Hemara Hemara, but it has a screw top and a Crown Lynn number

This is great information guys. We have Wharetana pieces here as well and my *instinct* tells me this was designed by a different hand to that of the other Wharetana pieces. The body is thicker, the glaze more hard-wearing... a bit more cook&serve than handwerk you might say.

It certainly looks like your instincts are right T&C. Perhaps Reg had something to do with the glaze? It's great to know that it's definitely Crown Lynn though.
I was on the Portage site looking for info on the bisqued Wharetana when I found their collection was online.
All of the bisqued Wharetana in their collection say that these were cast by Bruce Yallop in the 1980's from moulds made in the late 1940's.

Ev,
The comparison with the surrealist joke was all about non sequitur. (It does not follow.)

Your discovery of the ashtray shape in Paipo's gallery, comparison of the shape with Richard's mould and teaandcoffee's subsequent posting of that same shape was triggered by haselnuss' query about a tiki condiment set, likened to the Ti-toki shape, and reference to another forum.

The forum magic is that when something is posted here we never know what convoluted paths it is going to lead us down.

Oh I agree indeed I do and I really love the magic that this site has where one thing leads to another and another and WOW happens.

Me too!!!!!

I had actually searched this site previously to try and find a match for my ashtray, thanks to my introductory post in the tiki mug thread and Ev's help I've finally got an answer. This ashtray had been bugging me for years! I had hoped it was wharetana given the look of the head but the colour and lack of numbers made that seem unlikely. Looks like mine is the same glaze as the one in the Pendergrast collection at Objectspace posted earlier in the thread. It does seem very odd that mine and the one above don't have the inscription on the underside that is included in that 2 piece mold?

When checking out some Modellers records just before lockdown I came across this record.

2.5.78 Bruce (Yallop) started the Tiki Ashtray

I believe that this is the same Tiki Ashtray as above, though I haven't been able to find a shape number for it.

Wow. Just the other day a friend gave me THIS. I have been meaning to post it on FB and try to find out who made it. Now I know.  I was thinking hmmmm heavy... well made, not hobby. etc etc. I am very surprised - and happy - to discover it's CL.

One sold on Trade Me last night for $370.65 !!!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=2712854059&archive=1

I was concerned that this ashtray didn't show up in the Crown Lynn records, so I contacted Bruce Yallop who was a modeler at Crown Lynn from 1971 to 1989 to ask him about it.

He responded that yes he did do the modelling for this Tiki ashtray for Morlynn Industries aka Crown Lynn Technical Ceramics Ltd which is another division of Ceramco.  They had a small ram press machine that could produce small items.  He said that they did a run when John Homer was the manager.

Technical Ceramics / Morlynn also made all of the Bathroom furniture, door knobs, road markers as well as endless insulators and sundries. Many of these have shape numbers and records.

Brilliant. Wonderful sleuthing Ev.
And thanks to Bruce Yallop for his excellent memory.

One of these ashtrays is up for auction at Webbs estimated $800-1200 https://auctions.webbs.co.nz/lot-details/index/catalog/720/lot/219198?url=%2Fauctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F720%3Futm_source%3Dmeta%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3DM%2526W%2B30%252B%2BMOF%2BAudience%2B%25E2%2580%2593%2BHighlights%2BCarousel%2B-%2BAuto_Placements%2B-%2BFC_no%2B-%2BTOF%2B-%2BN%252FA%2B%25E2%2580%2593%2BCopy%2B5%26utm_content%3DHighlights%2BCarousel%2B%25E2%2580%2593%2BCopy%26fbclid%3DIwAR3yiShDvtvQOLfNWcT3E8PGT41JRf0hOcbYmp9OQPUND-17pM8UeMumgcg_aem_n-3vGUnYjwPxQKpM7BhXLA%26utm_id%3D120209511136890006%26utm_term%3D120209511136880006&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0Mkhi8xLFNbdOtVSE3Dlx8K9pZksgXZi1v8OJrqOTVQldjyP0-eIW3WWs_aem_KR5BxoCYdfh7hEobyAzieA

Cripes. My friend donated hers to Te Toi Uku. I will let her know!

This one is a beautiful colour

I don't know how they come up with their estimates ....?

This one sold for $370.65 on Trade Me in 2020 ..

https://nz.pinterest.com/pin/147704062768618543/