| The trend to simpler, squarer and more easily manufactured pieces continued into the 20th century. Cedar was becoming scarce and was rarely used except in cedar growing areas, like the Hunter; elsewhere, blackwood, pine and oak were used. |  |
| As a result of the gold rushes of the 1850s, Australia’s population soared to about a million by 1865. The new wealth created a demand for larger and more ornate furniture with large bookcases and telescopic extending dining tables. Carving and fretwork was common but the quality of workmanship suffered somewhat under the pressure to keep up with demand. |  |
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From around 1865, enormous changes in technology meant the virtual end of hand made furniture and the introduction of squarer lines more easily handled by machines. Cedar, which still predominated at the beginning of the period was gradually replaced by blackwood and pine. The period also saw a price war between European and Chinese cabinet makers who each tried to produce similar looking pieces more cheaply than the other by reducing standards of workmanship and using poorer quality timbers for linings.
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By the early 1830s, Australia’s white population (including convicts) was still only about 60,000. So any items from this time are rare and important remnants of Australia’s early colonial period. Pieces were usually made to individual order, often based on a proven pattern from the English Georgian period designers. Most items were made of cedar, or sometimes blackwood, to imitate mahogany. Surviving items are very rare.
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Between 1835 and 1850, Australia’s population increased from around 60,000 to about 300,000. The style of the furniture still reflected the simple, clean lines of the English Georgian, but the more sophisticated tools and techniques of the early Machine Age resulted in the production of some of the most outstanding pieces Australia has produced. Most Australian furniture of this period was cedar. |
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| The Premier Pottery was established at Preston, in Melbourne, by Walter Dee and Reg Hawkins, two potters who ere out of work as a result of the Depression.
At first, Premier Pottery produced functional pieces very similar to English wares. But Dee soon began experimenting with glazes and developed a technique of overlaying different coloured glazes which ran into one another and fused in a random manner. These wares were called "Remued" after an investor in the company, Nonie Deumer (Remued backwards) who later married Hawkins. |
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From about 1933, Premier Pottery began applying Australian flora and fauna motifs, such as gum leaves and koalas, which were designed by Margaret Kerr, to their pottery. These proved very popular in Australia during the Depression when it was often difficult to afford imported pottery.
Premier Pottery scaled down during the Second World War and, although it increased production again after the war, it never regained its earlier inventiveness. The Pottery closed in 1956. |
| George Guthrie, the founder of the Bendigo pottery, began his first pottery business, Camperdown Pottery, in Sydney in 1851. His most successful product was ginger beer bottles. Following a downturn in the market, Guthrie moved to Melbourne and then to Sandhurst (later called Bendigo) on the Victorian goldfields, where a superior white clay had been discovered.
In 1857 he established a pottery at Sandhurst. The Pottery made a large range of wares but, due to a small local population and poor transport to the cities, it closed in 1861. When the railway line reached the area in 1863, Guthrie opened another pottery at Epsom, a suburb of Sandhurst near the line. |
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When the first white settles arrived in Australia in 1788, one of the first things they did was send clay samples to England for analysis. Josiah Wedgwood examined the samples and declared them excellent for making pottery. (He used the clay to make the "Sydney Cove Medallion", a neoclassical relief depicting the figure of Hope addressing Peace, Labour and Art on the shows of Sydney Cove.)
The first potter in Australia was Samuel Skinner who arrived as a free settler (with a convict wife) in 1801. His work was extremely popular right up to death in 1807, reportedly from overwork.
Several potteries were established in the 1830s. Enoch Fowler established a pottery at Glebe in Sydney to produce pipes, tiles, chimney pots and items for industrial use. James King set up the Irrawong Pottery north of Newcastle to produce cheap earthenware and stoneware. He became a very successful businessman and was instrumental in establishing wine growing the Hunter Valley .Around the same time, James Sherwin established a pottery in Hobart and a number of potteries were set up in Brunswick, Melbourne. In particular, the Brunswick Pottery and Brickworks produced pipes, water filters, chimney pots and terra cotta. The Brunswick Pottery continued in production until the early 1950s.
The first glass maker in Australia was Simon Lord who began blowing glass bottles in Sydney in 1813. However an industry was not established until 1872 when Andrew Felton and Frederick Grimwade established the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works (later ACI).
Carnival glass was produced at the Crystal Glass Works in Sydney from 1924. Uniquely Australian designs were produced in order to compete with the cheaper American product.
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