The cups and saucers that conquered New Zealand

Crown Lynn: Crockery of Distinction
City Gallery, Wellington
Until April 25th

The Crown Lynn exhibition finishing this month at City Gallery Wellington is a celebration of design and culture as well as being the story of a great New Zealand business.

For nearly sixty years Crown Lynn produced vast amounts of tableware for New Zealand households. In the 1950’s it was supplying half the sales of cups, plates and other crockery to the domestic market and by the mid 1960’s was producing ten million units a year.

As well making use of many basic designs the company experimented with new designs and shapes, employing a number of prominent designers who helped shape the design landscape of New Zealand.

Designers such as Dorothy Thorpe, Ernest Shufflebotham and Keith Murray created new and novel forms which have influenced generations of local designers. The connections between artists is most obvious in the display case featuring the work of Shufflebotham and Murray along with the contemporary ceramic artist, John Parker.

The exhibition traces the evolution of the various Crown Lynn products which have been developed, outlining a history of the gradual changes and influences of the designers as well as showing how these objects are indicators of social change.

The exhibition reveals the wide range of products and designs which they produced, many of which are still in use in households around the country. Other pieces will bring back memories of former times when the ware was in use, such as the NZ Railways cup or the Air New Zealand crockery.

There are examples of the extraordinary work of American designer Dorothy Thorpe whose sculptural designs were a major advance in terms of local design. They were intended as suitable for an international audience when the company moved into the American market. These designs which included cups with ball shaped handles and her other designs and colours were an important milestone in the company’s development.

There are also examples of the figurative works the company produced including the large swan vase range and the Wharetane range featuring Maori designs which were intended for the tourist market.

Other unique series are the plates featuring the road maps of the major NZ cities and Bellamy’s dinner ware for the NZ Government.

There are several hundred pieces in the exhibition which allows even those without any knowledge of Crown Lynn or design history to spend an intriguing hour or so piecing together the way that designers, artists and astute business people developed a unique New Zealand enterprise.