Ceramic Collectors Society

24/10/2026

From our Archives. The story of art potteries in post-war Australia is both rich and varied.

24/10/2026

A few spaces still available to our Sydney followers!

18/10/2026

‘The Midday Rest’ by Charles Vyse (1882-1971). A Chelsea Pottery Figure, modelled as a mother seated with sleeping child, incised mark C VYSE CHELSEA, 20.5cm-height. Circa 1910-1920.

Charles Vyse, the talented sculptor and potter, was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and studied at the Hanley Art school and then the Royal College of Art. He showed at the Royal Academy in London and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. He achieved considerable success at the Doulton factory.

Vyse would became an influential figure in the development of British studio pottery in the first half of the 20th-century. Vyse’s studio pottery that he made with his wife at their pottery at Cheyne Walk in Chelsea from 1919, is amongst his best work.

A member of the Chelsea Arts Club for many years, he finally settled in Deal, Kent.

17/10/2026

‘The Melrose Art Pottery 1931-1942’ touring exhibition of 2012 was curated by Gregory Hill and told the story of this Australian pottery during the Depression years and afterwards.

Gregory Hill has curated several important exhibitions of early Australian pottery, and published several books on the topic. This is his description of the 2012 Melrose Art Pottery exhibition. Gregory is our October 2026 speaker, his topic is William Ferry and the Victoria Art Pottery 1896-1912.

17/10/2026

‘October society meeting and talk by Greg Hill.’

William Ferry (and his brother Graham) both trained as potters in Yorkshire, and emigrated to the colony of Victoria to set up their own potteries in Melbourne’s Brunswick in the last two decades of the 19th-century. William is especially noted for his sculptural domestic wares and colourful majolica wares.

Greg Hill will make the case in his talk to members and guests on the 26th of October at Roseville that William Ferry be recognised as one of the first art potters to operate in colonial Victoria and then early Federation Australia, from 1896 to 1912.

Left: Victoria Art Pottery mantel vase with incised decoration, glazed in Burgundy and olive green, late 19th- century, 32.5 cm-high.

Right: Victoria Art Pottery ‘Grotesque' pottery spoon warmer glazed in Burgundy by William Ferry, late 19th-century, impressed stamp 'V.A.P., W. F.', 14 cm-high.

Credit: Leski Auctions, Melbourne.

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The Victoria Art Pottery commenced operations in Albion Street, Brunswick in 1896; until 1912 under the inspirational guidance of Brothers Graham and William Ferry, as well as a collaboration with Richard Sturrock. The Brothers learned their trade at the Linthorpe Pottery in England under the direction of the master designer Christopher Dresser. Although a successful firm in its day, the Ferry Brothers could not compete with the mass-produced English wares that began to flood the Australian market in the early 20th-century. As a result V.A.P. Pieces are scarce and highly desirable.

16/10/2026

“Crested China Souvenir Ware goes to War.”

Crested china consists of small souvenir wares decorated with the arms of towns, resorts and institutions, produced in the United Kingdom in large numbers from the late Victorian period into the early twentieth century. Goss and competing firms used distinctive backstamps and shapes, while First World War novelty models and civic crests widen the collecting interest.

15/10/2026

Beware of Panthers at the fair!

Royal Haeger Seated Panther – Model 6048
Circa 1986, United States
Glazed ceramic.
An unusually large glazed ceramic figure of a seated panther, its stylised Art Deco Revival form finished in a lustrous black glaze. The angular facial features, elongated forelegs and curled tail give the figure a strong architectural presence. Retaining its original Royal Haeger label, dated 1986, and numbered 6048.
Excellent original condition, with no chips, cracks or repairs. A minute blemish from manufacture at the tip of the tail is scarcely noticeable.
H52.5cm W26cm D15cm (width includes tail)
$1,995

CHINEUR ANTIQUES

Discover. Explore. Experience.
AAADA Antiques & Decorative Arts Fair Sydney
5–8 November 2026
Paddington Town Hall
Tickets online or at the door
Discover exceptional antiques, art and decorative arts from leading dealers across Australia - presented by the AAADA.

15/10/2026

“In an Australian Country Garden.”

‘Daisyware Pottery cream jug with Roses and Daisy Decor’, the Daisy Ware Pottery by Irene Daisy Lucas. 8.5cm-tall. 11.5cm wide from spout to handle. Marked to base.

This delightful cream jug is decorated with colourful Australian Wildflowers and a myriad of other flowers popular in Australian gardens. The iconic daisy motif is incised on the base with ‘Daisyware Australia’.

15/10/2026

‘Daisy Ware floral candle holder’, by Irene Daisy Lucas, Sydney, circa 1960s. Australia. 5.5cms-tall and 6cms- wide at base.

The hand-thrown candle holder depicts a hand-painted rose flower and foliage on a white ground.

Irene Daisy Lucas (1908-2000) was born in Canley Vale, Sydney in New South Wales. She took up pottery in the mid-1950s, late in life, working for a time at the Koala Pottery in Oyster Bay before setting up her own pottery studio in her home in the Sydney suburb of Sylvania in 1960. Helped by her husband Ron, who was in the construction business, she started making a range of slipcast functional wares underglaze decorated with Australian flora in vivid colours or with lustre glazes. She also made a a few wheel-thrown and sculptured pieces.

In 1962, Daisy opened a shop in nearby Blakehurst and began selling her work under the name “Daisy Ware”. In 1967, the family relocated to a 20-acre property on the Hume Highway just south of Mittagong, attaching a pottery to the house and selling work through an A-Frame shop on the Highway.

When Ron died in 1977, their daughter Irene returned from overseas and helped in the pottery. In 1980, the daughter and her husband built a cottage next door. Lucas continued making pottery until her death in 2000.

Her work may be incised 'Daisy Ware', 'Daisy Ware Australia' (until 1967) and then 'Daisy Ware Mittagong Australia', each also with a small incised daisy, and she also signed significant works 'Irene D. Lucas'. Work made by her daughter has the stem of the daisy underneath.

13/10/2026

“Snail’s Pace!”

‘Hard-paste porcelain Vase’, made by Léon Kann for the Sèvres Manufactory, 1900. France. 19.7cm-high. Incised signature ‘L Kann’ on the vase. Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, New York. USA.

At the end of the nineteenth-century French potters were strongly influenced by the naturalistic forms and glazes of Asian ceramics. In 1900, at Sèvres, Léon Kann designed a number of gourd-shaped vases like this for a discerning European market. The swirling lines and subtly graded colouring of this example merges an Asian style with the Art Nouveau style. A gentle spiral movement is sustained by the curve of the The curve of the applied flowering vine and the artful placement of two snails creates a very attractive naturalistic scene.

Khan was a designer at the Sévres Porcelain Manufactory from 1896 to 1915 and was a master of artfully incorporating the different parts of a plant on to a ceramic vessel to create curling tendril-like handles on naturalistic forms. He also worked with Bronze to produce pieces.