Page 218 - Constructing Craft

The shops and galleries prepared New Zealanders for the higher prices overseas

craftspeople expected to sell their work for. The price of the imported work also
helped New Zealand studio potters establish a market that distinguished their work

as different from the pottery produced by machines – and thus more expensive.
Wright noted the high cost of the imported pottery – a piece of Rie’s pottery could

cost as much as a week’s wages – and while New Zealand studio pottery was
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cheaper, it too increased in price as the public became more accepting.

Craft versus Industry and Government: The Sales Tax Question

During these first tentative ventures into the commercial world studio craft was

largely ignored by manufacturers operating in similar fields. By the 1970s, however,

craftspeople such as studio potters were beginning to sell work in sufficient
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quantities to draw the attention of pottery manufacturers and politicians. As studio
craft and industry attempted to protect their place in the market or boost their
importance in society – culturally and economically – the debates on these issues

became confusing.

Manufacturers such as Crown Lynn, as will be seen in the next chapter, had done

very well from government protection policies. In 1958 the government introduced a
range of protection measures as a means of dealing with an exchange crisis caused

by falling export prices and the rising cost of imports. Import licensing was also

introduced to encourage local manufacturers using local raw materials and to
reduce the flow of money overseas. Some industries that competed in the same

field as craft continued to be protected into the 1960s and early-1970s, long after
the crisis was over, in part, because of the political influence of their influential

owners and lobbyists. The growth of studio pottery during the same period showed
that there were benefits for studio potters as well. Ceramic manufacturers, for

example, had initially appeared to be, if not supportive of studio potters, then at

least indifferent towards them. By the late 1970s however, it appeared that a level of
animosity had developed between studio potters, particularly those producing

pottery designed for the table, and manufacturers of dinnerware over the issue of
sales tax.

Constructing Craft