Mashman Brothers history

Impressed mark from early 1930s: Regal Artware, Mashman Bros., Sydney

Impressed mark from late 1930s: Regal  Mashman

William and Henry Mashman, who were trained at Doulton’s in England, entered into partnership with James Sandison to form Mashman & Sandison Pottery at Willoughby (now Chatswood), Sydney, in 1885. It was basically a brickworks, but produced ginger beer bottles, jars, water filters, jugs and various other domestic pottery, closely modelled on English wares. A third brother, John, joined the firm in 1888.
      Mashman’s 1930s ware is known for its clever adaptations of Art Deco design elements, which could be surprisingly ‘venturesome’ (as Marjorie Graham put it in Australian Pottery). Mashman’s is almost certainly the only Australian commercial pottery of the time to feature a female form—chaste but discernibly nude—on a vase. (It is reproduced in William and Dorothy Hall’s Australian Domestic Pottery.)
   In 1957 Mashman’s merged with England’s Royal Doulton.  The Royal Doulton Chatswood Pottery at Kingsgrove is still producing hand-thrown pottery.

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