For Geoff and Kerrie Ford Australian pottery means the pottery of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Geoff Ford’s Encyclopaedia of Australian Potter’s Marks documents pre 1975 potters, potteries and their marks. When Australian auction houses use the term Australian pottery to describe the content of an upcoming auction they usually mean the slipcast works of pre-1975 potteries or the pieces described by Kevin Fahy et al in Australian Art Pottery 1900-1950. The subject of this blog is Australian contemporary pottery – starting with the work of potters influenced by the Leach Hamada tradition in the 1960s and extending to new work being created today. It will also deal with studio potters and potteries from the earlier period. There was no clean break in tradition. Potters like Klytie Pate, the only living artist in Australian Art Pottery 1900-1950 when it was published in 2004, worked up until 1998. Potters like Chris Sanders, Deborah Halpern and Ivan Gluch come from a family tradition of making pots. The works of mid-century potteries such as Ellis and Gunda (illustrated) surprise with their modernist forms and interesting glazes.
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