Overview
In 1951, H.D. Skinner, the Director of the Otago Museum, approached Robert Falla, Director of the Dominion Museum (forerunner of Te Papa), with a proposition. For almost three years, Skinner had been working with English craft advocate Muriel Rose to build a collection of contemporary ceramic work representing the best English potters of the mid twentieth century. When the collection came together, though, Skinner decided that it exceeded Otago Museum’s display requirements, and he therefore offered to share it with the Dominion Museum and free up funds for other acquisitions. Falla agreed to purchase a selection worth £25, and the Dominion Museum acquired works by Leach Pottery, Michael Cardew, and William Gordon, among others.
Muriel Rose
Based in London, Muriel Rose was the Crafts and Industrial Design Officer at the British Council, tasked with demonstrating to the world ‘the nature and vitality of contemporary crafts in the UK’. In the 1930s, Rose had managed an influential crafts space in Chelsea called the Little Gallery, and in the 1940s she curated exhibitions of British craft which toured internationally.
Rose acquired approximately 100 pieces for Otago Museum from a variety of sources. She purchased ceramics by Michael Cardew from an exhibition of his work, and many other pieces came from the London gallery Dunbar Hay, Ltd.
Mid-20th century British ceramics
The ceramics Rose selected included both one-off and commercial pieces, demonstrating a range of handmade and factory-produced work. As Moira White notes in her article on the collection, it ‘represented the first generation of 20th century British studio potters, and their students, many of whom reinvented traditional forms for a modern aesthetic, some inspired by traditional techniques, others more experimental’. It also showcased the output of factories such as Wedgwood, who were increasingly working in a modernist style.
Once in New Zealand, the collection was divided relatively evenly between the Otago Museum and Dominion Museum, with each getting examples of work by key artists.
Reference and further information
White M (2022) Mid-20th century British ceramics in Aotearoa. Tuhinga 33: 33-46. https://doi.org/10.3897/tuhinga.33.82337