Archive for the ‘Favourite Things’ Category

My Favourite Pieces #3 – Newtone Mugs

As I have discussed before on this blog my great love when it comes to Australian pottery has to be the Newtone Art Ware and Trent Art Ware lines produced by the Bakewell Bros’ pottery from the early 1930’s through to the early 1950’s.

Although my collecting of Sydney (and indeed most non Tasmaniann) potteries has slowed to an absolute trickle since moving to Tasmania I have still managed to acquire close to 200 pieces of Newtone/Trent over the past 12 years.

Among this almost 200 pieces there is just about everything from figural pieces, vases (way too many), advertising/salesman’s/souvenir  pieces, through to utilitarian domestic wares.

It is this last category of utilitarian wares though that I find most interesting as so little of it appears on the market. In fact the very idea that Bakewells would choose to produce utilitarian wares in their art ware lines is perhaps a little interesting if not puzzling in it’s self.

It is because of the both the rarity and the fact that they don’t really fit with the majority of Newtone and Trent marked pieces I own that these three mugs rank quite highly amongst my favorite in the 2 art wares lines.

The left most mug carries the Trent Mark and the other two the Newtone “Harbor Bridge” style mark of the mid to late 1930’s.

Although I am sure there must be more of these mugs from the Art Wares lines floating around I have only seen 4 of them (3 of which I now own and 1 of which I think lives in WA).

Curiously there are also Tea sets (teapot, sugar bowl, and milk jug) made by Bakewells under the Newtone banner, none of which match the glaze colouring of the mugs I have seen.

If you have any Newtone or Trent Art Ware mugs or other interesting pieces I’d love to hear from you.

My Favourite Pieces #2 – Remued 173 Jug

One of the few old pieces of pottery I have purchased in my first year living in Tassie. This Pamela/Remued 173 jug with a strap handle is certainly a stunner and an easy inclusion in my list of favourite pieces in my collection.

Standing just 9cm high and measuring 16cm from spout to handle this jug has a substantial look and feel despite it’s proportions. Displaying early Pamela colouring and an unusual strap handle it certainly doesn’t go unnoticed on my packed sideboard.

This piece is unmarked and unnumbered, which is not unusual for early Remued. The absence of a shape number along with the distinctive colouring and less pronounced spout seem to point to a 1933/4 manufacture date. This variant with a flat strap handle is not recorded on www.remued.com but a quick e-mail to Peter Watson revealed this is not the first he has seen. In fact he had seen several all of which are unmarked and unnumbered which is why he is hesitant to make the call at this stage. For me, however, there is no doubt especially given that other shapes appear on the website in the exact same colour scheme (see bottom left image on unnumbered PPP shapes).

My Favourite Pieces #1 – Newtone Koala