Crown Lynn Design Awards 1959 to 1979

The Ceramic Design Awards were sponsored by Crown Lynn and ran from 1959 until 1979.  The competition was introduced by Tom Clark to foster good pottery design and to increase public interest in the work of New Zealand artists.

1959
1st - Otway Josling - Reflections
2nd - Don Mills - Narvik
3rd - Robert Ellis - abstract design
4th - Bruce Bryant - a simple Maori design
5th Arthur Sames - Tea Tree flowers
16 Consolation prizes of 10 pound each including Frank Carpay.

1960 -
1st - Brian Calcutt - Outline of pots
2nd - Otway Josling - Flower motif in blue, gold and black
3rd equal - Phillip Ham
3rd equal Brian Calcutt - Floral pattern in white on green
L A Lipanovic

1961
1st equal - Hank Freiday - Geometric star motif in black and gold and grey
1st equal - Mark Cleverley - Stylised leaves and ferns
2rd  -  Mark Cleverley
Emilie Beuth's entry did not win a prize, but was hugely successful as the Blue Tango pattern that ended up as the THC pattern in blue (Nth Island) and red (Sth Island).

1962
1st equal - Graham Percy - Nurseryware with a Lion in the design
1st equal - Robert Drake - A cross hatched design #
2nd - Mark Cleverley
3rd - John Bijl
4th - William Emsley

1963
1st - Mark Cleverley - Palm Springs
2nd - D.F. Donovan
3rd - Miss S.I Hitchcock
4th - Robert Chapman

1964
1st - Ken Chapman - won 400 pounds for a stylized fantail on black
2nd - Mark Cleverley - design of woven flax on black
3rd - Peter Gibbs won 50 pounds for a stylized sun face.
4th - Mark Cleverley
Mark Cleverley also won 3 Consolation prizes.
Colin Simon won a trip to the USA with 100 pounds spending money for a stylized pigeon awarded by TEAL Airlines.

1965
1st - Joycelyn Harrison-Smith - Maori motif design
2nd= Peter Gibbs - Diamond like pattern
2nd= Rita Blakeley
3rd - Mark Cleverley
4th - G Carpenter

Peter Gibb also won the special award of the Tourist Hotel Corporation.

1966 -

1st - ?
2nd - Rita Blakeley


1967
1st - Peter Gibbs - Novelle -
2nd - Keith Bryant
3rd= Peter Gibbs
3rd= Mark Cleverley
Highly recommended - Colin Simon - Carnaby

1968 -

1969
1st - Mr Kai Hawkins
2nd - Ian Town
3rd - Ian Town
4th - Max Tilley
Best design with a NZ flavour - Mrs Rita Blakeley
[oh dear .... the results say that this is the 9th Design Awards! So will have to do some checking!]


1970 -

1971 -
1st - Ian Town
2nd - Edward Fox
3rd - Colin Simon
Best design with a NZ flavour won by Miss Jane Boyes

1972
1st - Colin Simon
2nd - Mary Broadbent
3rd - Stanley Mauger

1973 -

1974 -
1st - Diann Cade - a flower design
2nd - Ian Town - many colourful flowers
3rd - Elspeth Williamson - Poppies
4th - Colin Simon - Plant leaves.

1975 ?

1976 as per Design Scape magazine:
1st. Mary Broadbent (Art Nouveau glass inspired design)
2nd. Tom Folwell (Art Deco inspired design)
3rd. Sophocles Simeonides [looks similar to Landscape from the earthstone range]
4th. Ian Town (colour floral border)
Junior Bursary award went to - Phillip Marquet
Consolation prizes
- Mary Broadbent
- Andrea Horsburgh
- M.R. Cox



1977 -

1978 - no competition held

If you know any of the prize winners names please hit reply and leave a message.

According to notes I took from the Summer 1977 issue of Ceramics New Zealand the first prize went to Mrs Broadbent a 31 year old Auckland mother of two. There was a picture of Robert Muldoon giving her the award on page 4 of the mag.

My notes say that Mark Cleverly won the award a few times before he started working for Crown Lynn.
One of his patterns was 'Palm Springs' though I have no idea when.

Edits* - Palm Springs won 1st prize in 1963

page 102 in Val Monks book mentions Echo designed by Mark Cleverly being unveiled December 1969.
This could be a lead

Auction 278611757 has stamped on it Designer Award 1972

Auction 279188583 has stamped on it Designer Award 1976 .... Ken Yau's winning year.

Kiwialan is kindly letting us use his photo of Ken Yau's design pattern.
servimg won't let me add pics at the moment... but I will try again later.
Just need the name of the pattern now

Mark Clapperton appears to have won a design award ....
for what and when remains a mystery to be solved

Edits: Just saw an auction for a plate - Form Pat.No.832 artist Mark Clapperton.
We have that pattern in the Gallery as d382 ? I wonder which one is right.
Still don't know what year ..... yet!

The 1976 results are a mystery to be solved .....

Ken Yau is mentioned in this article as being the winner in 1976
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/8/30/central/1891478&sec=central

and yet the Ceramics Summer 1977 magazine states that the winner of the 1976 Design Awards
was Mrs Mary Broadbent ????

Just by reading that back .... could it be that Ken Yau was the winner in 1975 perhaps and received his award in 1976?
Hmmmmmm

In the December 1968 issue of New Zealand Ceramics there is an article about the Rothmans Industrial Design Awards and shows a photo of Robert Drake's winning entry Yucatan and continues to say that he was a past winner of the Crown Lynn Design Awards.
So I gather that the Rothmans Industrial Design Awards were separate from the Crown Lynn ones....

I've been researching the New Zealand Herald looking for the Design Awards results.
The Auckland Museum Library has a couple of cuttings from the Auckland Star that has the results.
So I've been looking in the wrong paper!!

A give away pin box was made for the Design Competition in 1967....
Just have to find one now!!

mrnarna found a Blue Pacific plate that has Designed by Kenneth Chapman on the backstamp.

Ken Chapman won 1st prize in 1964 .... with a stylised Fantail

In one of the Ceramics magazines Tom Clark said that the names of the winners of the Design Awards would be added to the backstamp.

Peter Gibbs designed Time Out ...... his name is on the backstamp....
Just have to work out when and for which year?
I feel like I should know this already?
Maybe it will come to me in my sleep

I found on the NZ Museums site that Novelle, Carnaby and Time Out were released in 1967 ....
Just noting that here for future reference

Design Award entries from the Crown Lynn: Pottery for the People Exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery Auckland.

Colin W Simon -


Paul J Beadle -


plus an unknown artist -

Found this Colin Simon Design Award winning entry on Matapahi ...

Simon won a return trip to the States along with £100 spending money! The item is from 1964..

http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/image/Mao49TeA/Mao49TeAi.html

Thought you might like a picture of Novelle which I only bought today.

Came across a cutting about the 1959 Awards and noticed that Frank Carpay was one of 20 consolation prize winners! His prize was £10 .....
Alan Topham was one of the five judges, along with two chaps from the Auckland Society of Arts, David Jenkin and Stewart Hopwood.

Thanks to Val Monk for sharing her Design Award research, I've been able to fill in many gaps.

Hi Ev, thanks for the link showing Colin Simon's design for the 1964 Design Awards.. This cup is from that series. It is from the Auckland Museum's ceramic collection (K6300)

https://i.servimg.com/u/f74/18/20/75/81/k6300-11.jpg

Wow thanks Finn as that's such a lovely pattern !

Recently I won a very interesting two page article about the Design Award winners from 1965. It looks like it's from the Woman's Weekly as Jean Wishart is one of the judges. The winner was Miss Jocelyn Harrison-Smith and she won 400 pounds with a Maori motif design based on the rafter pattern from Maori meeting houses. It also shows the patterns by Peter Gibbs 2nd, Rita Blakeley 3rd and Mark Cleverly 4th.
When entries were called for it was stipulated that designs be suitable for the silk screen process which was established at Crown Lynn two years ago.
I haven't seen any of these patterns before.

Just going through my files and I came across a page from Designscape, Nov, 1976, p.12; I can update your entry for the 1976 design awards

1st. Mary Broadbent (Art Nouveau glass inspired design)
2nd. Tom Folwell (Art Deco inspired design)
3rd. Sophocles Simeonides [looks similar to Landscape from the earthstone range]
4th. Ian Town (colour floral border)
Junior Bursary award went to - Phillip Marquet
Consolation prizes
- Mary Broadbent
- Andrea Horsburgh
- M.R. Cox

(the articles has images)

This year attracted over 800 entries. First prize was $1000, second prize $400, third prize $200, fourth prize $100 and the Junior Bursary award $200.

Judges were
Maurice Askew, Senior lecturer in design, University of Canterbury
Ken Wright, General Manager of Minsons LTD, Christchurch
Geoffrey Nees, director of the New Zealand Industrial Design Council

Cheers,
Finn

Thank you so much Finn!
I will cut and paste your info to the 1976 Design Awards list as there is a lot of interest in the Design Awards with over 9600 views.
You got my attention for:
3rd. Sophocles Simeonides [looks similar to Landscape from the earthstone range]
Would it by any chance look like this?
https://www.newzealandpottery.net/gallery/Crown-Lynn-Tableware-Patterns/Crown-Lynn-Patterns-with-No-NamesYet/Brown-similar-to-the-Landscape-pattern-pic_3096.htm

Diann Cade who was a first prize winner of the Design Awards in 1974 is sending photos from a magazine of her receiving her prize of $1000 from Tom Clark. Hopefully we will see her design.
A friend of hers Tom Folwell won 2nd prize in the 1976 and went to Wellington to get his certificate and prize of $400 from Rob Muldoon. His design was a leadlight, which Tom Clark had made into a window for his house.
Exciting information and I will update when it all arrives !!

Photos courtesy of Diann Cade:

This is super Crown Lynn History that has been kept for 44 years and will be given to Te Toi Uku the Crown Lynn Museum.  Thank you so much Diann

Diann's winning entry is described as an abstract poppy design in pale pink and white.













Elspeth Williamson 17years old won third prize and $200 for her delicately drawn poppies in bright yellow, red and orange on Forma shapes.