Early history

The pottery's origins started with an 1854 land purchase at Hobsonville

Hobsonville

Hobsonville is a former Royal New Zealand Air Force airfield which are currently being redeveloped as a new suburb of Auckland, in the area of the former Waitakere City, New Zealand...

, near Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, by Rice Owen Clark, who had arrived in New Zealand thirteen years before. He had worked as a school teacher in Wellington and as a clerk in Auckland before achieving his ambition to work the land. To drain his land, he made his own pipes by wrapping logs with clay and firing them with charcoal, which led to his making pipes for his neighbours. Clark's success with pipe making led to other small companies in the area forming an industry, merging in 1929 to become the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company.

Tom Clark, one of Rice Owen Clark's great-grandsons, began working in the firm during the depression. He was responsible for the plant expanding in 1937 to produce items unrelated to the building trade such as electrical insulation equipment and moulds for rubber products such as gloves, baby bottle teats and condoms. Clark was an employer who always encouraged his staff to experiment with new products. As a result, an oil-fired continuous tunnel kiln was built in 1941, and tableware manufacture began the following year. The company had established a research department in 1938 to investigate the viability of producing tableware from New Zealand clays.

Government supply

After the declaration of World War II in 1939, only essential goods were imported into New Zealand, and by December 1940 no imported crockery was available in the country. Under a directive from the wartime Ministry of Supply, the company produced thousands of coffee mugs and plates for the American forces stationed in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, as well as tableware for New Zealand military and domestic use.

One and a half million cups were made in the financial year from April 1943 to March 31, 1944. Those early cups had one serious manufacturing flaw: the handles broke off easily. However, the year's production reports said that 'the quality of the articles is steadily increasing'. This type of utilitarian tableware became central to Crown Lynn and Crown Lynn gained a reputation for supplying goods that were sturdy and reliable. This reputation culminated when the company was also contracted to supply the New Zealand railways with tableware. The New Zealand Railways cup and saucer became one of the most famous Kiwi icons of the twentieth century. It gained almost mythical status as being unbreakable.

The Crown Lynn lines of military and Railways crockery were highly successful. However, because there was no imported crockery being brought into New Zealand, the range had to be extended to suit the domestic market. A tunnel kiln was erected in 1941, and the next year a new range of tableware was produced including pudding basins, casserole dishes, and various sized chamber pots. However, due to shortages of material and labour, the decorations remained simple. Alongside this extended range, the Railways cups and saucers continued to be produced in bulk. Clark continued to be innovative founding a laboratory to test clay samples, check on kiln temperatures, and a variety of other scientific tasks.

Diversification of designs

After the War Crown Lynn began to experiment and diversify. Employees were encouraged to develop different styles. Artist Dave Jenkin came from the Elam School of Art in 1945, and later helped in setting up the design studio. He began by applying glaze effects to slipcast ornamental wares - all Crown Lynn pottery was slipcast at the time. A trickle glaze technique was developed that had a '. pleasing and varied effect'. (1) These trickle glazed pieces are still highly sought after by collectors. In 1948 the 'specials department of Amalgamated Brick and Pipe' became Crown Lynn Potteries Limited.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s Tom Clark recruited designers and artisans from England and Europe to work in the newly formed Crown Lynn Specials Department. New equipment was purchased which enabled a more extensive range to be developed. This new range included tea sets, art pottery and salad ware, and utilised a variety of innovative decorative techniques such as monogram printing, band brushing and lining. At the same time the factory laboratory discovered that certain clay, known as Matauri clay, consistently burned white when mixed with five special ingredients. This enabled Crown Lynn to mass-produce tableware decorated with transfers, and coloured tableware. This discovery virtually saved the firm, as the recent revaluation of the pound had made it very difficult for companies to export overseas. The intent of the "Specials Department" was to produce more upmarket works from Crown Lynn's existing commercial production-line wares in order to compete with the Royal Doulton

Royal Doulton

The Royal Doulton Company is an English company producing tableware and collectables, dating to 1815. Operating originally in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries, where it was a latecomer compared to Spode, Wedgwood and Minton...

 works that were being imported into New Zealand at that time. Tom Clark

Tom Clark

Tom Clark is a Canadian television journalist. He has been a substitute anchor for CTV National News, and host of Power Play, a political program on CTV News Channel...

 hired among others Frank Carpay

Frank Carpay

Frank Carpay was a New Zealand designer.He was born in the Netherlands and was trained at the Hertogenbosch Technical School in Holland....

, Mirek Smisek, and Ernest Shufflebotham

Ernest Shufflebotham

Ernest Shufflebotham was born in England. He was a ceramic potter and designer active from the 1930s - 1950s.-History:...

.

In 1961 the purchase of a Malkin pattern stamp machine and a Murray Curvex colour printing machine enabled the company to produce variations of popular overseas china patterns. "These machines bring pottery decoration to as near automation as is presently practical," said production manager Colin Leitch. "With only one operation on the machine itself, plus those engaged in bringing up and removing the ware, the Murray Curvex will put through 200 dozen pieces a day. The Malkin will do even better - 400 or more."

At the time, Crown Lynn was the Southern Hemisphere's largest producer of household pottery and in 1978 Crown Lynn was still the largest producer of ceramics in the Southern Hemisphere, exporting to Australia, the Pacific Islands, South East Asia, the USA and Canada. The factory employed 650 staff and produced about 17 million pieces annually in its natural gas-fired kilns.

Change of name to Ceramco

Crown Lynn became Ceramco in 1974 and diversified into a series of new interests, including electronics, appliance wholesaling and making acquisitions including Bendon lingerie. Ceramco announced the Crown Lynn factory closure on May 5, 1989. By then staff numbers had fallen to between 180 and 220, and many amongst the largely female workforce believed that the Government had sabotaged the company by allowing cheap imported tableware into the country. Crown Lynn's share of New Zealand's domestic tableware market was then less than 20% in value, despite the company's successful move from the lower end of the market to a more middle ground.

Ceramco blamed the closure in part on union inflexibility in a pre-Labour market reform economy. Although Crown Lynn was showing signs of recovery after years of trading losses, the company simply could not compete with the advanced manufacturing technologies of Asia and Europe. All of Crown Lynn's assets, including plant, designs and brand name, were sold to GBH Porcelain Sdn Bhd of Malaysia in September 1989.

Postscript

Since the early nineteen eighties artists Rudolf Boelee and Robyne Voyce
have been collecting ceramics, glass and furniture from the immediate
postwar period. Their interest led in 1994 to the accidental acquisition of
the Crown Lynn New Zealand name, which was the former trade mark of Crown
Lynn Potteries Limited. From 1995, Boelee started to use images of Crown Lynn wares as
paintings, e.g. the New Zealand Railways Cup, the Crown Lynn Swan and the Ernest Shufflebotham Modernist Vase. During the 1970s Crown Lynn was carried by David Jones Ltd in Australia. The Buyer for Basic Table ware was a Peter Reedman who extended the range that was introduced by Mr Jacques Uljee and his predecessor Mario Cukeric

In 1996 a series of collaborative projects commenced with
"Crown Lynn New Zealand' - A Salvage Operation" a
collaboration with graphic designers Brian Shields and Craig Stapley that was
exhibited at the High Street Project Gallery, Christchurch and City Gallery,
Wellington.

In 2005 a small group of collectors started an online resource guide of Crown Lynn shapes and patterns. The Crown Lynn Shape Guide is now considered a vital resource by many Crown Lynn collectors. Images include Crown Lynn Shapes 1-886, Wharetana, Frank Carpay, Shufflebotham, Steenstra, dinnerware and specials department examples.

Now (2009) there is the Robyne Voyce and Rudolf Boelee run Pug Design Store in Christchurch. This new store has developed a range of Crown Lynn wares: tea towels, cushions and cards depicting the company's most famous products.

External links

• Works in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• The golden age of Crown Lynn pottery (NZHistory.net.nz)
• The Crown Lynn Shape Guide
• http://www.opshop.co.nz
• http://www.opshop.co.nz/pages/crownlynn/crownlynncover.html
• http://www.pugdesignstore.co.nz