Crockery was once about the ground on which we stand, Moira White.
Sitting in a display of Otago ceramics in the Otago Museum's Southern Land, Southern People gallery, a blue teapot brings together the strands of several stories relating to the early production of Otago pottery. On one side, the teapot is inscribed with the words ''W. D. Lambert'', while the other side reads ''Souvenir NZ SS Exhibition 26''.
''Made in Benhar'' is written in the same script on its base.
''W.D. Lambert'' refers to William Duncan Lambert (b. 1880, d. 1953), the son of James Hall Lambert who founded the Water of Leith Pottery in Northeast Valley, Dunedin. Water of Leith's main outputs were bricks and pipes, but in 1888 Lambert purchased William White's pottery business in the south of the city, which produced a broader range of products.
Following his death in 1906, James Lambert's three sons continued the business as Lambert Brothers. In 1917 Lambert Brothers established a business association with McSkimming and Son, who owned a large brick and pipe factory at Benhar, South Otago, and Thomas Todd and Sons' brickworks, at Waikiwi in Southland. W.D. Lambert was the accountant for Lambert Brothers and a director of the amalgamated group.
The New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition Dunedin 1925-26 was held at what is now known as Logan Park. Within the exhibition, the New Zealand Secondary Industries Court was described as ''unquestionably the most extensive and most impressive display of New Zealand-made goods collected under one roof'', and was organised by the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association.
The 165 exhibitors showed coal ranges, cardboard boxes and corsets; beer, boots and brushes; paper, pianos and, of course, pottery.
A photograph of McSkimming and Son's stand shows what could well be this teapot at the centre of a line of seven, with Charles Batt standing to one side. A card of recipes for blue glazes used by Lambert Brothers' Kensington factory, attributed to Charles Batt, is among the McSkimming papers in the Hocken Collection archives.
McSkimming and Son gained a number of awards at the exhibition: first place awards for their earthenware crocks and in the ''demijohns, basins, vases, etc'' section; a second-place award for their building bricks; and a special award for their earthenware sanitary appliances.
The teapot was donated to Otago Museum by Emeritus Prof Fred Fastier.
- Moira White is Otago Museum curator of humanities.
