Linn Ware: Celebrating the Ceramics of Olifantsfontein

Timed Online Auction, 2 - 13 May 2025

Session One
About the Session

This sale features a broad selection of Linn Ware that celebrates South Africa’s rich ceramic traditions highlighting a key moment in the country’s artistic development — during a period when industrialisation and mass production were rapidly transforming the design landscape.  The Ceramic Studio, renamed Linn Ware in 1943, was founded on Sir Thomas Cullinan’s farm Olifantsfontein, outside Johannesburg which had rich deposits of clay and lime. It was staffed mostly by women students from the Durban School of Art, several of whom studied further at the Royal College of Art, London.  The Studio closed in the late 1950’s but left behind a beautiful body of work that is highly collectable today.

 


Current Bid

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Lot 25
  • Linn Ware/Ceramic Studio; Bulbous jug with flared neck
  • Linn Ware/Ceramic Studio; Bulbous jug with flared neck
  • Linn Ware/Ceramic Studio; Bulbous jug with flared neck
  • Linn Ware/Ceramic Studio; Bulbous jug with flared neck


Lot Estimate
ZAR 3 000 - 3 500
Current Bid
Starting at ZAR 3 000
Location
Cape Town
Delivery
Additional delivery charges apply
Shipping
Condition Report
May include additional detailed images
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About this Item

Olifantsfontein, South Africa 1925 - 1955
Bulbous jug with flared neck

impressed dish stamp

blue-glazed earthenware
18,5cm high, 18cm wide over handle

Notes

This particular piece, with its beautiful balance of form, has the characteristic blue colour palette, achieved using cobalt oxide in a transparent glaze. This, together with the signature innovation of double-glazing, resulted in the rich colour and the luminosity for which these pieces became renowned. The Studio used two different impressed marks, one mark superficially resembles an African hut but actually represents a profile view of a dish with a lid.

View all Linn Ware/Ceramic Studio lots for sale in this auction