Steenstra vases made at Crown Lynn

These pieces were made by Daniel Steenstra to demonstrate hand-throwing techniques. He made them for Ernie Cooper who was a CL cadet at the time. (early 1960s). Recently I had the good fortune to be there when Ernie donated the vases to the CL museum in Auckland - so I had to take some photos!  These pieces would normally have been destroyed but Ernie kept them and glazed them.  They are between 10 cm and 15 cm high. Note the texture. This is what Ernie told me about the  items in a previous email.

"There are three pieces which were hand thrown by Danny Steenstra, I spent a day with Danny getting to know the intricacies of hand throwing and the likes of “pulled handles” . These three pieces demonstrate many techniques that Danny used so rather than throw them away I fired them and have them to this day.... In 1964 Danny Steenstra had all sorts of odd jobs around the factory as hand throwing was no longer a manufacturing technique used much at all. One of Danny’s jobs was to visit the Crown Lynn shop in the 246 building in Queen Street and to demonstrate the art of throwing. His speciality was to throw small bud vases “off the block” which he could do in just a few seconds. At other times he was working in the Casting department. Coloured slips and terracotta were not used at the Crown Lynn factory when I was there due to the fear of colour contamination with the earthenware and porcelain bodies. The three pots Danny made for me to demonstrate throwing techniques, the body he used to prefer was a groged pipe clay which held its shape much better than the earthenware, hence the distinctly buff-colour and rough appearance. This clay was never meant to be glazed but I decided to bisque fire and glaze the pots to preserve them."

Great info Val!

Great stuff Val !!
All three pieces have the 'notched cotton reel' decoration and this is consistent with the Beach ware and Lowrie ware too.
Also the handles have that strong almost upright springy start to them that is very noticeable on the Lowrie wine bottles and jugs.
I wonder where Dan threw these pots if the they were not to contaminate the white earthenware?
It looks like the same clay that was used on the 'Rhodes' vases, as this is very insipid where it just has a clear glaze.
I got my first 'Rhodes' vase today, so will compare the bases, but you really need to see things like this in the flesh.

Wow, wow, wow !! That first piece, without the lid looks just like a taller version of the Rhodes ashtray - very interesting ...

Finn McCahon-Jones at the Portage Museum, showed me that these were made from the same brick/pipe clay that Pipes were made of. I took close ups of the decoration to see if there was any comparison between Dan Steenstra's pots and the Rhodes ashtray.

The photos are not conclusive unfortunately !!! Bah Blardy Blah Blah
However it is easy to see that the same method has been used to achieve this effect.
The same clay too ..... so there is still has a big question mark hanging heavily !

This small 50 mm tall pot has the same DS inscribed as the small milk and sugar I posted in the Beach thoughts topic a year or so ago. This pot has a little in common with the ware in this topic??
https://servimg.com/view/18790902/305
https://www.newzealandpottery.net/t5744-beach-artware-thoughts#22922

This looks like the same DS potter that Mike posted.