Page 77 - Bulletin 9 2005

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Thelma Currie as 'this little studio amidst a large factory in the veld' ) makes their
achievement even more remarkable. (Figs 2.12 & 2.13.) The enterprise operated as the
Ceramic Studio until 1943, whereafter its products became known as Linnware.

An important influence in Short and Methley's artistic development was John Adams, head of

the Durban School of Art from 1915 to 1921. He had introduced ceramics into the
curriculum, and through him they were exposed to the tradition of studio pottery and to the

ideas of good design and sound craftsmanship which had originated in the Arts and Crafts

movement in England. Adams had worked for a tile manufacturer and in the studio of the
famous potter Bernard Moore before winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in

1908, joining the teaching staff after completing his training. It was on the recommendation

of Augustus Spencer, head of the RCA, that he was invited to take up the post in Durban in
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1915. There is a clear continuity of style and technique between the rare surviving examples
of his South African work and the Ceramic Studio’s characteristic double-glazed domestic
ware, its so-called Della Robbia work, and its decorated maiolica.

While on leave in England in 1921 Adams and his wife Truda decided not to return to South

Africa; instead, they joined Harold and Phoebe Stabler and Cyril Carter in Poole to establish

Carter, Stabler and Adams, one of the most significant firms in the history of 20th century
British ceramics. His contact with South Africa did not end there, however, as he was

instrumental in securing for the firm the contract to design and manufacture the Durban War
Memorial, an enormous (and at the time highly controversial) art deco structure made of

brightly-glazed ceramics and stone.

Writing in The Common Room Magazine in 1926, Joan Methley discusses Adams’s

contribution to South African ceramics, specifically mentioning the Della Robbia war