Tour of Olifantsfontein

Vince and I joined the Archaeological Society of South Africa on a tour of Olifansfontein near Pretoria. Led by Professor Alex Duffy, the talk and tour focused on the history of the ceramic pottery industry which flourished in this area. The highlight of the tour was an opportunity to visit the house and gardens of Sunlawns at Olifantsfontein, the home of Roland Cullinan who was the founder of the Ceramic Studio and the Linnware Studio.

Mistress of Sunlawns Pauline Cullinan with Professor Duffy and the resident pets

Professor Alex Duffey is an Art Historian, who completed his PhD in History of Art at the University of Pretoria in 1982. He became Professor in Art History in 1984 and lectured at the University of Pretoria until his retirement in 2012. He has published extensively on South African art, Chinese ceramics and Ancient trade with southern Africa, for which he received the Stals Prize from the South African Academy of Science and arts in 2010.

Professor Duffy brought an example of Transvaal Pottery creamware

First, a little background. Sir Thomas Cullinan (of Cullinan diamond fame) started a pottery at Olifantsfontein called the Transvaal Pottery in 1905. He imported potters from England and they produced a variety of household crockery until 1914, when the pottery closed. Sherds of this type of pottery are still found at archaeological sites that date to this era.

In 1924, Sir Thomas Cullinan's son, Roland Cullinan allowed three potters from Natal to start up a new pottery at Olifantsfontein called the Ceramic Studio. Between 1925 and 1942 they produced a variety of ceramic wares, including tile panels for Governmental Buildings and Post Offices in South Africa.

Roland Cullinan had the house Sunlawns built in 1931 and it houses every type of architectural pottery they produced, including examples of the many types of building bricks which the firm Conrand produced. In 1942 Conrand took over the Ceramic Studio and renamed it the Linnware Studio, which produced similar ceramics to those of the Ceramic Studio until 1962.  

Since Vince and I collect Linnware, we couldn't resist this rare opportunity to visit Sunlawns!

Irene Post Office

We met our group at the Irene Post Office which has a beautiful example of the ceramic tile mosaic panels produced by the Ceramic Studio. According to Professor Duffy, there are only about 100 examples left in South Africa and they are very vulnerable to destruction and decay. They are seriously in need of some kind of heritage protection.

The building was erected in a typical Department of Public Works style with the emphasis on using only South African materials where possible. The post office was completed in 1940.


 

ceramic tableau on the side of the post office

The extraordinary ceramic tile tableau depicts the Symbolic Ossewatrek's in Pretoria on 16 December 1938. It was painted by Rose Hope.

Since it was a Sunday, we couldn't go inside the post office but Professor Duffy told us that in the entrance hall there are tiles similar to Delft Blue. The tiles portray Van der Bijl as well as various historical buildings from the Western Cape like Tokai and Groot Constantia.




We were allowed to wander freely around the first floor and gardens and see the details Professor Duffy described during his talk.

the patio had many ceramic jars and flower boxes

 The Cape Dutch house was designed by Vivian Sydney Rees-Poole ...

the roof tiles were all made with Transvaal clay

The drawing room ...

Relief panel on lower portion of large sloping hood over fireplace

the relief  depicts the people of South Africa

Boers and Zulus

Bushmen, Xhosa and Englishmen

ceramic fanlights

ceramic switchplates

The hallways ...

the staircase riser tiles with depictions if Kirstenbosch flora

detail of the riser tiles

ceramic umbrella stand

The kitchen and skullery ...

the kitchen stove

The dining room ...

 The first floor bathroom ...

more Kirstenbosch tiles

ceramic mirror

pretty ceramic switchplate

The gardens were designed by Gertrude Jeckyll ...

Patio brickwork with the local clay brick factory stamp ...

Professor Duffy has just completed a new comprehensive book on the pottery of Olifantsfontein. It is at the publisher now. We have a copy of the first seminal work on the uniquely South African ceramic pottery which we bought at Collector's Treasury. We're looking forward to Professor Duffy's book launch soon!