Summary

Porcelain tea cup and saucer made from Australian raw materials. Green, pink and gold formal decoration. Made by William Milner, Coburg, 1920.

Physical Description

White porcelain tea cup and saucer with edge painted scalloped green with pink detail and gold trim. Inside tea cup is painted a sun with 12 rays in gold. Inscription on base of both cup and saucer written in gold paint. Underneath inscription on saucer is painted, possibly a lyre.

Significance

These items were donated by William Milner to the Industrial and Technological Museum between 1915 and 1920, to show what advances had been made in porcelain production in Victoria. William Milner was one of the first ceramicists in Australia to successfully use Australian kaolins to produce household porcelain, and he was almost certainly the first to do so in Victoria. He first appears in the directories at Kerferd Street, Coburg, in 1913. In 1914 his address is the same as that of the Australian Porcelain Works Pty. Ltd. This firm was the first to successfully produce porcelain insulators in Australia. (The Pottery Gazette, 1.12.1914, held in the Powerhouse Museum.) In 1915 the Australian Porcelain Works moved to a site in Yarraville. Milner remained in Coburg, at Kerferd Street and at Webb Street, trying to market his new product through several businesses on two sites over 14 years, 1913 - 1927. He had the skill to produce high grade porcelain commercially from Australian raw materials when many Australian potteries were still coming to terms with earthenware production. Many of the items donated by Milner 'that survive are testament to the scope of his known skills which include casting, glazing, gilding and the use of transfers.' Gregory Hill: The Potteries of Brunswick. Shepparton Art Gallery, 2000, p. 124.

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