Page 39 - Constructing Craft

Daniel Pollen. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library.

Sometimes the craftsmen arrived in New Zealand after spending time in Australia.

Nathan Welham, for instance, arrived in New Zealand about 1870 and began
working at the Britannia Pottery in Tokomairiro near Milton in the South Island.

Welham had also won prizes for his pottery – most notably in 1862 when he won a
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prize at the London Exhibition for ‘colonial made’ pottery. Hand- made pottery was
a subject of great interest then as it was later. A reporter for the Otago Daily Times

described Welham’s performance.
‘The operator [potter] takes a lump of clay in his hand and
addresses the visitor – “Now, Sir, what article do you wish
made?” “A flower pot.” The clay is laid upon the revolving
wheel, and simply by manipulation of the naked hand the
desired article is perfectly formed in a very few seconds, and
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laid to one side. “What next?”

By 1872 he had set up his own pottery called Newcastle Pottery, named after a

business he had owned in Australia. His own business did not operate for long and
he became the manager of The Steam Pottery Works at Tokomairiro, owned by

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William White. While potteries such as these mostly produced pipes they often
had a small pottery production section where work was made on a potter’s wheel.

British craft traditionally dictated the types of pottery made. The Woodnorth Pottery
at Belgravia in Southland was established by Peter Woodnorth and was based on

Constructing Craft