A pot to put near the start of the Steenstra timeline

As a timeline and good background story for Daniel Steenstra develops here, a picture of one of our vases might add to the story. Its the best marked piece of 'Handcrafted' I've seen. It has the Handcrafted stamp and is incised (by Steenstra himself I suppose) 'Handthrown Crown Lynn'. The cherry on the top is that it is also initialed under the glaze by the decorator.  

The question is, does the big 'D' stand for 'Dan' or 'Doris'? Maybe Val will know. Pots from Beach have been found marked with a D to indicate Dan Steenstra was the potter, so I myself lean towards thinking this is his first signature; and that it means this particular pot is quite early in the Handcrafted story (mid 1950s). Its also oversized at 282 mm high. The usual height for the big ones is between 23 and 24 cm isn't it?

Wow. That is a splendid beast!  Unfortunately with my limited knowledge I can't attribute this work to any particular person.

The inscribed 'hand thrown' mark is probably the best clue. But who did that???

From my research, this vase is unlikely to be decorated by Doris Bird. She was more an English style decorator - small flowers etc was more her style.
You don't often see things signed by Doris Bird - the only record I have is on this blog post - which also gives a couple of examples of her work.
http://valputaruru.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/early-days-doris-and-harry-bird.html

The Dan Steenstra marked pots from Beach have a very small "DS" pressed into the clay with a metal tool, so they are not a signature as such.

Eileen Machin is the other well known Crown Lynn painter, and she did do bolder work.  But remember there were other hand decorators, who worked at Crown Lynn from time to time.  And there were other hand throwers, though Dan Steenstra was by far the most prolific and consistent through the 1950s-1960s. He went to work for Beach in the early 1970s.

So, in summary. Hmmmmm. Sorry! Ev might have more info.

Thanks Val. We like to dream here that we have a real fully signed piece of Dan Steenstra Handcrafted. But as you say there are alternatives for its creator(s).

WOW that is one fantastic piece not only in the throwing skill, but also in the decorating skills.

Ev yes, the decorating is done quite well but it does not seem to have a woman's lightness of touch. It feels more like a big man's hand at work here...

I have some more vases that have been attributed to Dan Steenstra and I agree that the brush work doesn't look feminine and the two with the figure decoration don't look very professional in my eyes if I may say so.

May be the vases with the letters on the base have been thrown by Dan for purchasers at his shop demonstrations and then marked with the purchasers initials by Crown Lynn for identification as described in Valerie's blog. Has anyone come across any of these vases? But I would have thought that those vases would have had two initials, first and last name.

http://valputaruru.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/daniel-steenstra-hand-potter.html

This one also has a B on the base which is interesting because of teaand coffe's D. May be it is as simple as finding vase A and C as well because they might have used an alphabetical system.


Here we have either an incised .L or a number 7.


This time it is an incised number 2.


And nothing other than the green C/L stamp on the blue one and also on the flower decorated vase below. All three of my flower decorated vases just have the stamp.




All my four flower pots have the green C/L stamp also two of the bases.




The other two have the Royal Oak back stamp.


These that are already in the gallery both have the number 9 incised which could indicate that there is an incised number shape range for the hand crafted vases too. Any thoughts?


There should be 8 in this series that is also attributed to Dan. They have Crown Lynn No.5 or 1 etc incised above the stamp.



This series of vases is not marked at all. At least all that I have seen.


Again unmarked series of containers with lid.


Ev's base from a container in this series. I hope it is ok to use the photo.

Well, I just had a look on Google and found this possible hand crafted Steenstra vase on the Te Papa website. It is also marked 7 and the shape is similar to my brown hand crafted 7 or .1 vase above.
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/902598

My one.