Crown Lynn
 |
|
| Industry | Pottery |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1854 |
| Founder | Rice Owen Clark |
| Defunct | Factory closed in 1989 |
| Headquarters | Auckland, New Zealand |
|
Key people
|
Tom Clark |
Crown Lynn was a New Zealand ceramics manufacturer.
The pottery's origins started with an 1854 land purchase at Hobsonville, near Auckland, by Rice Owen Clark. He had arrived in New Zealand thirteen years before and had previously worked as a school teacher in Wellington and as a clerk in Auckland. To drain his land, he made his own pipes by wrapping logs with clay and firing them with charcoal. This first production led to his making pipes for his neighbours, and his success encouraged the others to form similar small companies. In 1929 the various small producers merged to become the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company.
Clark's plant moved from Hobsonville to New Lynn, Auckland, in 1925. New Lynn offered better clay, more access to workers and a rail siding close by.
Tom Clark, one of Rice Owen Clark's great-grandsons, began working in the firm during the depression. He was responsible for the plant expanding in 1937 to produce items unrelated to the building trade such as electrical insulation equipment and moulds for rubber products such as gloves, baby bottle teats and condoms. Clark was an employer who always encouraged his staff to experiment with new products. As a result, an oil-fired continuous tunnel kiln was built in 1941, and tableware manufacture began the following year. The company had established a research department in 1938 to investigate the viability of producing tableware from New Zealand clays.
After the declaration of World War II in 1939, only essential goods were imported into New Zealand, and by December 1940 no imported crockery was available in the country. Under a directive from the wartime Ministry of Supply, the company produced thousands of coffee mugs and plates for the American forces stationed in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, as well as tableware for New Zealand military and domestic use.
One and a half million cups were made in the financial year from April 1943 to March 1944. Those early cups had a significant flaw: the handles broke off easily. However, the year's production reports said that 'the quality of the articles is steadily increasing'. This type of utilitarian tableware became central to Crown Lynn, and the company gained a reputation for supplying sturdy and reliable products. This reputation culminated when the company was also contracted to supply the New Zealand railways with tableware, and ultimately The New Zealand Railways cup and saucer became one of the most famous Kiwi icons of the twentieth century.
The Crown Lynn lines of military and Railways crockery were highly successful. However, because there was no crockery imported into New Zealand, the range had to be extended to suit the domestic market. A tunnel kiln was built in 1941, and the following year a new range of tableware was produced including pudding basins, casserole dishes and various sized chamber pots. However, due to shortages of material and labour, the decorations were simple. Alongside this extended range, the Railways cups and saucers continued to be produced in bulk. Clark continued to be innovative, founding a laboratory to test clay samples and a variety of other scientific tasks.
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Wikipedia