Page 94 - Bulletin 9 2005

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the age-old technique of ‘pouncing’, which involved drawing the design for each tile on

paper or card (the Ceramic Studio used tracing paper), pricking holes through the outlines of
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the drawing, then brushing carbon through the holes onto the surface of the tile. The
resulting lines were then followed by the decorator, the carbon burning away during the firing
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process. Before the in-glaze designs were painted, “a type of gum” was applied to the
freshly glazed tiles to create a non-powdery surface suitable for painting. Audrey Frank also
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refers to “a transparent clear glaze used to spray over the tiles” , which might indicate that
the studio applied a second glaze (similar to the Dutch ‘kwaart’) over the unfired white glaze

to achieve a more lustrous finish.

Domestic tableware accounted for a major part of the studio’s production up to 1943, and

comprised virtually its entire output during the Linnware period. Most of it was decorated
only by means of glaze over a dark earthenware body. The rich, glowing colours, with shades

of green and blue predominating, and the special effects achieved by techniques such as
double glazing, are the most distinctive features of Olifantsfontein domestic ware. Except for

slabbed vases and occasional moulded items, the pots were all made on a kick-wheel by one
or two potters employed specially for this purpose. Apart from various unskilled assistants,

the throwers were the only men involved in the entire operation up to the 1940s.

The detailed studio diary kept between 1928 and 1941 is a fascinating though sometimes

cryptic document that reveals much about the day-to-day activity of the enterprise, the hard
physical labour involved, and the wide range of architectural items produced. It carefully

documents the times of each firing, the successes, failures and disasters, the frequent contact
with architects, the marketing of the products, the problems with staff, and the constant

stream of visitors. Among these were representatives of the large department stores in

Johannesburg and Pretoria, architects, officials from the Public Works Department (who
came out, for example, on 14 July 1932 to oversee the packing of the tiles commissioned for

South Africa House in London), and many individuals who travelled to Olifantsfontein to buy

seconds or simply to see the studio, their curiosity having been aroused by newspaper or
magazine articles. There were also VIP visitors such as General Smuts’s family, Gracie

Fields, Lady Oppenheimer, and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the wife of the
Governor General, who placed an order for blue and white tiles with South African scenes for

Kensington Palace in London (these are no longer extant, though the tiles in South Africa
House still survive).