McHugh Brothers Pottery history

John McHugh, founder of a pottery on the so-called Sandhill in Launceston in 1873, was born around 1830, and is usually described as a Scottish immigrant potter, though his actual birthplace seems to be in question. There is a record of his marriage in Launceston in 1857, and he was mentioned in newspapers of  the early 1860s as a Launceston-area farmer who operated a pottery on his property. But where John McHugh learned his craft, how he occupied himself in early years, and whether there were potteries active in the Launceston area before McHugh’s and the neighbouring Cornwell’s (which started in 1876 and was later taken over by John Campbell)— these facts do not seem to be recorded. Few pottery specimens survive from McHugh’s early period, and those that do are unmarked.

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McHugh advertisement


Typical ‘H McHugh’ incised mark on 1930s artware

    McHugh senior died in 1892 and the business was carried on by his sons Hugh and James in partnership with James Jackson. Another son, John, may also have been associated with the business. The McHughs’ long-successful pottery turned out pipes for the city of Launceston as well as domestic and agricultural wares including tiles, bricks, and sanitary equipment until the mid-20th century.
    There are at least three important names mentioned in connection with McHugh artwares of the 1930s. Henry Travena in 1926 was placed in charge of a new ‘fancy wares’ department. He was assisted by Danny (or Denny) Beckett, a mould-maker and glazer, with whom he had previously worked at Bendigo and at John Campbell’s. Both were from families prominent in the Australian pottery industry.  Francis Manallack, also of a family firmly entrenched in the industry, had spent an illustrious career in various Brunswick pottery works and technical schools when in 1930 he was recruited by McHugh’s. It was Manallack who had supplied new glaze recipes to Hoffman pottery for their successful Mel-rose line.
    It is probably to all three of these men that we can attribute the fine visual sense and the perfect mastery of ‘simple’ glazing and firing techniques so evident in McHugh’s 1930s artwares. 

Cobalt-blue glazed vase

   According to Gregory Hill’s The Potteries of Brunswick (Shepparton Art Gallery, 2000), Manallack’s signature shapes and glazes can be identified in the McHugh output. For example, Manallack was known to have perfected a deep, pure, glassy cobalt blue glaze, and such a glaze is seen in several McHugh vases here (see example at left) and a similar glaze can be seen here in a Mel-rose vase as well.
    In 1936, Francis Manallack and the McHugh management had a falling-out, and there was a now-legendary parting scene involving harsh words and overturned tubs of glaze mixes for which Manallack refused to hand over the recipes.
    The McHugh pottery stopped making domestic pottery in 1945 and continued as pipemakers until the 1960s, when PVC replaced earthenware pipe.

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