This small dish is one of the loveliest pieces of studio pottery I’ve collected. The colour hits all the right Mid century green notes. The shape shows the care and brilliance of a craftsman working with the purest intent. It’s an object that really speaks of its period.

Design in Melbourne at this time was being reborn post WWII. Modernism was embraced and experimentation with material and form were taking exciting new paths. Simplicity of form and purity or purpose were key goals. This little bowl was at the leading edge of that movement.

“Allan Lowe (1907-2001) was a ceramic artist. Born in Melbourne, he moved to Ferntree Gully in 1939, beginning to make pots for a living in 1944 after he was discharged from the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. Three years later, the National Gallery of Victoria purchased some of his ceramics; this marked the first acquisition of Australian studio work by a state gallery”. National Portrait Gallery online entry for Allan Lowe.

His work was featured in the Modernist home installation, ‘The House of Tomorrow’ by architect Robin Boyd in 1949 at the Royal Exhibition Buildings. The beakers pictured in our other Lowe listing date to that period and are in the same banded glaze style as Lowe’s work exhibited in that important exhibition. A reproduction of ‘The House of Tomorrow’ at the 2014 NGV exhibition Mid Century Modern: Australian Furniture Design, also featured Lowe’s pottery.

Images show one of the matching set of Sake beakers, listed separately.

DIMENSIONS

Height 3.5 cm

Diameter 11.7 cm

CONDITION

Excellent. No chips, cracks, breaks, scratches. As new. There is one firing flaw on the lip, shown in the final two images. One more image has been added, with inaccurate colour but to show size in hand.