An example of an attractive, well thrown, decorated and glazed Australian pottery - when we first saw this it looks for all the world very much like something you would expect from a quality English potter, but this dish is "dinky di"
We could only assume that the Murray Gum Pottery, located in Mildura Victoria was a small operation and it does not appear to have survived the years as I cannot find any meaningful information about this potter online. Even the Google AI had a meltdown (a rather stupid AI in our opinion) and informed us all about the Murray Gum trees but nothing specific to this potter or the business.
My wife has a better memory than myself and she thinks this was "picked up" by us in the period 1980's ~ 1990's while travelling "bush"
MURRAY GUM POTTERY - Ceramic Bowl
This pottery was apparently located in the Mildura area, Victoria
Colouring: Overall a Bone White with an inside band of Sage Green colouring. No other colouring, no artwork applied - I have seen other pieces from this pottery which feature (naturally enough) Gum Leaves - nothing of the sort on this bowl.
NOTE: Yes, I know, the banding looks more like a Blue/Green in the photograph. It's me, not a great lighting person but in "real life" this band is much more similar to a Sage Green than any Blue!
Heavy Gold gilding has been applied to the top rim, inside the bowl and at the base foot.
Overall, the appearance of the bowl is high quality and "smart" looking.
It appears that some sort of mechanical assistance was used to apply the Sage Green band inside the bowl, the texture looks to be more of a "rolled on" colour than brushed. The Gold gilding is also very precise and evenly applied, no signs of "slips" that you often see with hand applied gilding.
Evenly applied glaze all over the bowl, inside and out, but the foot area has been left unglazed.
BACKSTAMP
Here is a photograph of the backstamp from the underside of the bowl
DIMENSIONS:
105mm (just over 4") diameter mouth
65mm (2.5") height
COSMETIC CONDITION:
NO cracks
NO discolouration
NO chips
NO marks or discolouration to the Sage Green banding
Gold gilding is in very good condition, I cannot see any wear to the gilding at all (in any area)
NOTE:
While inspecting the bowl VERY closely, I saw a very small (tiny) Green(ish) spot of colour on the outside down near the foot (just above the gilding). This looks to have been accidently applied by the potter, it is of the same colour as the banding and we are pretty sure it left the pottery this way.
