Spoke to a Glen Afton supporter at the Antiques Fair today !!

Oh boy it was so exciting to have Alan Coates introduce me to Jim Pike today at the Antiques Fair.  Jim wrote a manuscript on Glen Afton about 20 years ago and gave it to the Huntly Museum along with Glen Afton Pottery and shards for an exhibition there in 2000.  The Museum 'lost' all of the pots and the manuscript, but eventually found most of the pots.  These and the manuscript are now in the hands of another collector of pottery who lives in Hamilton and I will contact him to see if I can view his collection and to take photos and work with them as much as possible !!!!!!

Jim was full of information as to what they made and he made it clear that everything they made was slipcast and fired in saggars.  Most shards were ground up to add to the saggar clay to make the clay strong.  (Saggars would have protected the ware from the fierce smokey fire of the kiln) They made their own slip from the natural clay that is at Glen Afton and it fires to an off white colour.  I asked if it was speckled but he didn't think so and said once you have seen it you will have no trouble identifying it again and I can't wait!!!.  They had trouble with the water there affecting the glazes which made them bubble, but this was sorted when they sourced their water from elsewhere, however there may be some pieces with bubbled glaze on them still around.
Vases that were supplied to Partridge to decorate were occasionally glazed and taken home by the workers, so there is a chance that some have survived.
They dug their own clay and ran it through the ball mill.  As it was difficult to obtain items for the ball mill, they made their own huge clay balls like cannon balls to use in the ball mill.

They made:
Toilets
Chamber pots that had a small handle and a skinny rim
Cemetery vases
Huge bread bins
Mixing bowls in three sizes
A Masonic Lodge commemorative ashtray
Hot water bottles
Toby Jug
Vases

He also mentioned the Pukemiro Brickworks and the Glen Massey brickworks that used a natural porcelain clay and made vases with it ......

Jim Pike is a mine of information about obscure and so far undocumented early ceramics producers in the greater Waikato. If you can sit down with him and get him to recall all the sites he's dug, knows about and wares he's seen, you will be doing a great service to the history of New Zealand pottery Ev.

The Glen Afton manuscript is mentioned in the bibliography of Gail Henry's "New Zealand Pottery". She used it as a primary source for the section on Glen Afton. Its good to know that its been found again.

Wonderful news and info. Ev can you try to persuade the manuscript holder to allow the museum to copy it. It is SO risky to have only one copy of a resource, esp in private hands where a house fire or flood can destroy it.

Yes I will do that Val, though it is my first intention to record everything they have in regard to Glen Afton.  I still have to make contact and ask if I can visit them.

Hey good luck... I was getting a bit ahead of myself.

Going down to Hamilton to view this collection on Wednesday and I'm rather excited about it.  They want the collection to stay in the Waikato which is understandable.
To see the clay is important to me and to touch and feel the weight is too.
I asked if the ware had numbers, but it seems that only some do.
My camera isn't working since the other day!  Buggar!
Mike says to take his video camera as you can take stills with it as well as videos.
Of course I will have my phone too, which takes wonderful photos.
Road trips are not my usual style, but I'm looking forward to this one!