Coffee set comprising one lidded coffee pot, lidded sugar bowl, small jug and four mugs

Many potters were producing coffee sets in the early 1970s, when drinking coffee was becoming an increasingly popular pastime in New Zealand. Stichbury’s coffee set reflects the quiet influence of Bernard Leach and the standard-ware sets that featured in the Leach Pottery catalogue. Like Leach, Stichbury chose largely to make everyday items that people would enjoy using, rather than what he called ‘the pseudo-sculptural, “please-the-critic” type of pottery’. He wrote in 1976: ‘The domestic scene is fundamental and it is my belief that one gets through to a wider range of people with basic domestic ware of good design.’