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Hoffman Brick & Potteries |
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Click
image to enlarge. |
The streaked majolica-glazed vase at left was produced in various sizes from 1917 right up to WWII and therefore is not truly representative of 1930s artware. It does seem, though, to have left its mark on what was to follow. Known as a ‘gum’ vase, its maker was the Hoffman Brick and Potteries Company, Ltd, founded in 1870 in Brunswick, Melbourne. |
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Hoffman’s was known
primarily as a maker
of bricks and tiles,
with a sideline in
domestic pottery, but
in the early 1930s the
company introduced a
line of slip-cast art
pottery, labelled ‘Mel-rose
Australian Ware’. |
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The green gloss glaze has an aqua halo around its edges, as can be seen in the detail at left. In combination with the celadon-hued frosted matte glaze on the lower body, these colors and textures evoke the silver-green look of many Australian eucalypts. The careful feathering of the upper glaze where it runs into the lower is similar to techniques found on Remued wares. The obvious link between Hoffman and Remued is David Dee—one of the founding partners of Premier Potteries (makers of Remued), who had been at both Hoffman and Campbell’s before striking out on his own. |
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Here are two examples of the Mel-rose line without moulded decoration; a triangular vase in the glossy green glaze and a small vase in the matte and gloss combination. |
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Two more Mel-rose vases: one with two cobalt blue glazes (gloss above and a rough-textured matte below), and another in a bright green and chocolate combination. Mel-rose also appeared in white, pink and yellow glazed slipware, in stoneware with moulded and applied Australian flora and fauna, and with hand-painted enamel glazes. |
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There
is an active community
campaign to conserve
for public use the
former Hoffman
Brickworks site.
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