Museum calls for surviving pottery pieces

GOT any antique jars or pottery gathering dust in your home?

If so, you might be housing a piece of Ballarat history that staff at New South Wales’ National Museum of Australian Pottery are keen to add to their collection.

For roughly seven years, the museum’s owners Geoff and Kerrie Ford have been searching for one of many stamped pottery pieces commissioned by former Ballarat mayor and businessman Charles Shoppee at the turn of the 20th century.

The potentially surviving item is one of more than 100 pieces to feature in the Fords’ book depicting the first century of pottery merchants in Australia.

With a chapter dedicated to Shoppee including a photograph of one of the items courtesy of a private collector, Mr Ford said they’re calling out for an item for themselves.

“About seven years ago, we realised we had more than 100 pieces in our collection that were double stamped, that is stamped with the potter’s mark then stamped with the merchant’s name,” he said.

“Very little from this piece survives that we can identify. There aren’t that many merchants who were big enough or wanted their firm impress on their pieces of pottery.

“Charles Shoppee definitely was.”

The surviving pieces will be stamped with the impression ‘C C SHOPPEE STURT, ST BALLARAT’ and were commissioned by the Bendigo Pottery for Mr Shoppee to sell at his import store originally founded as Biggs and Shoppee in 1857.

Mr Ford said his fingers are crossed someone in Ballarat will have a double-stamped Shoppee piece lying dormant.

“There’s bound to be one or two maybe in a pantry, cellar, or a back shed,” he said.

“Quite often the jar might get damaged and kept in storage. We’ve picked up pieces like that. You just don’t know.

“They were storage jars. He may have sold them with pickled onions or jams, or he would have had them for sale by themselves.”

The Fords can be contacted with information on any surviving pieces on 02 6036 3464 or through emailing [email protected].