Linnware MUG
Linnware Pottery Studio.
The high quality of clay found at Olifantsfontein, prompted Sir Thomas Cullinan to start a company that would produce fine china. He had built a special "potters' village" and factory where he employed trained potters from Stoke-on-Trent. The first pottery was called Transvaal Potteries. The pottery closed in May 1914. This was succeeded by the Ceramic Studio, which was founded in 1926 and became known as Linn Ware in 1942. Audrey Frank, one of the artists working at the Ceramic Studio, remembers the pottery as follows; There were sprawling workshops surrounding huge coal-fired bottles and tunnel kilns of the Consolidated Brick and Pottery factory. A private railway with one engine, for the use of the factory, ran to and from the railway station. There was a large clay pit where the clay for the bricks and tiles was quarried. The railway station was about 1 mile away and the road to it was a sandy track, often ankle deep in sand. The dwellings at Olifantsfontein were single storied, low-roofed semi-detached cottages in a long row about a quarter of a mile from The Works. There was one little primary school and tennis court, and one small so-called hall wedged between The Green Gate and another cottage. One general dealers store supplied our groceries. There was a large compound for the African labourers who worked at the factory. Around us stretched open veldt with gum tree plantations in the distance. The Ceramic Studio was faced with closure during World War II, due to the loss of staff to the war effort and the unavailability of imported clays and glazes. Many of the Linn Ware glazes were developed locally because of the unavailability of imported glazes. After the Ceramic Studio closed, all the British potters were sent home and the workshops, kilns and special cottages were abandoned. There are different theories as to precisely when the Linn Ware studios closed. But according to Artefacts, the online resource pages; Patrick Cullinan, the last manager of the works, states that the pottery studio closed in early 1954.
Dimensions = 107mm rim to handle x 72mm top rim diameter x 83mm base rim diameter x 83mm high.
Condition = Good, has a chip on the rim as shown, could be marked as shown with scratching or on inner base rim edge, but not marked clearly at all.
Sold as seen in the images. Images form part of the description.
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