RARE SOUTHERN RHODESIA IAN DOUGLAS SMITH 11 NOV 1965 INDEPENDENCE TANKARD MADE BY SA GRAHAMSTOWN POTTERY
THIS IS A RARELY SOUTHERN RHODESIA IAN DOUGLAS SMITH INDEPENDENCE 11TH NOVEMBER 1965 TANKARD. WITH THE LAST LINE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY IAN SMITH ON ONE SIDE We have struck a blow for the preservation of justice, civilization, and Christianity; and in the spirit of this belief we have this day assumed our sovereign independence. God bless you all.
Ian Douglas Smith (1919-2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. As a fighter pilot in Britain's Royal Air Force in World War Two, he was shot down twice and had to underwent plastic surgery.
SIZE: 13.5CM WIDE UP TO HANDLE 12CM HIGH
CONDITION: ONE SMALL CHIP ON UNDERSIDE NOT SEEN FROM ABOVE. GOOD CONDITION.
GRAHAMSTOWN POTTERY (1922-1965, 1968-1985); DROSTDY WARE (1948-1965, 1968-1985)
GRAHAMSTOWN POTTERY was once a thriving local industry with market penetration nationally and internationally. Drostdy Ware was a later division of Grahamstown Pottery which was DOMESTIC CERAMICS THAT WERE DECORATED.WITH A DISTINCTLY SOUTH AFRICAN MOTIF.
ATTEMPTS BY THE MUNICIPALITY TO ENCOURAGE POTTERY MANUFACTURING IN GRAHAMSTOWN BORE FRUIT IN 1940 WHEN A POTTERY EXPERT FROM GERMANY, JURGEN HAMBURGER, WAS BROUGHT THERE WITH ASSISTANCE FROM THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. Previous negotiations with an English entrepreneur, R G S Chandler, to exploit Grahamstowns clay had failed partly because of the lack of an adequate supply of water. Hamburger bought ground from the Council on which he constructed a workshop and installed a kiln together with a Mr Cornforth who provided the capital. This was the beginning of Grahamstown Pottery at the end of Worcester Street.
Hamburger sold Grahamstown Pottery to Norman Steele-Gray in 1948, and established Hamburger's Pottery (briefly known as the Graham Kiln) situated in what is now Stockenstroom Village. It closed in approximately 1977 and Hamburger died in Grahamstown in 1996. Steele-Gray, originally from Staffordshire, was very experienced in the ceramics industry and after visiting Grahamstown to assist the management of Grahamstown Pottery he returned to Johannesburg, raised capital and bought the business. HE THEN BEGAN THREE NEW LINES; industrial porcelain for electrical components, promotional pottery which was used for corporate gifts and advertising purposes, and DROSTDY WARE, DOMESTIC CERAMICS THAT WERE_DECORATED.WITH A DISTINCTLY SOUTH AFRICAN MOTIF.
In 1948 the company employed between twenty and thirty employees. The Art Department, which was responsible for the hand-decoration of various wares, employed twelve paintresses.
Drostdy Ware was exported to New Zealand, Australia, Britain and the USA. Some famous names associated with Grahamstown Pottery/Drostdy Ware were France Marot (Head of Design); Hester Locke (Superintendent Art Department); Kay Duncan (Paintress); Kay Cope-Christy (Paintress); Jane Van Der Riet (Paintress); Margaret Scott (Paintress); Leila Simpson (Paintress); Annette Southey (Paintress).
IN 1965 GRAHAMSTOWN POTTERY WENT INTO PROVISIONAL LIQUIDATION BECAUSE OF ITS INABILITY TO COMPETE WITH INEXPENSIVE IMPORTS AND DUE TO THE REMOVAL OF IMPORT QUOTAS. In 1967 Continental China purchased the firm and cut down extensively on the range of wares produced in the Grahamstown factory. Still under the Grahamstown Pottery label they produced inexpensive coffee mugs, teacups and saucers, side plates as well as wooden coasters and paper plates but in 1985 Continental China closed down their operations in Grahamstown.
FROM SOUTHERN RHODESIA TO ZIMBABWE: Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was a statement adopted by the cabinet of Rhodesia on 11 November 1965, announcing that Southern Rhodesia who was a British territory in southern Africa that had governed itself since 1923 was to become an independent republic. It was the first unilateral break from the United Kingdom since the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Rhodesian Bush War a guerrilla conflict between the government and two rival communist-backed black Rhodesian groups, began in earnest two years later. Amid near-complete international isolation, Rhodesia continued as an unrecognised state with the assistance of South Africa. After several attempts to end the war Smith concluded the Internal Settlement with non-militant nationalists in 1978. Under these terms the country was reconstituted under black rule as Zimbabwe Rhodesia in June 1979, but this new order was rejected by the guerrillas. It was only after Rhodesia revoked its Unilateral Declaration of Independance that peace followed after the Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979. Following a brief period of direct British rule, the country was granted internationally recognised independence under the name Zimbabwe in 1980.
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