The Old Jar Pottery
Set of eleven herb and spice jars with cork lids
About the SessionFrom early Cape furniture to mid-century classics and contemporary pieces, this selection of furniture, ceramics, glass and bronzes, traces a journey through more than two hundred years of South African design.
About this Item
painted 'HANDMADE IN S.A' T.20. on unglazed base
Notes
The Old Jar manufactured a wide range of domestic crockery for the South African market.
This set of storage jars with their geometric and floral bands of pattern is a hallmark of the studio's style. In the early years, the founder, Henk Jacobs, did all the decoration himself, but was soon able to employ decorators. He would paint an eighth of the surface and the decorators were obliged to complete the wares.
The Old Jar Pottery (TOJ) was founded in 1953 in Benoni, Johannesburg. It was named after De Olde Kryk, a Dutch pottery located in Milsbeek, where the founder did his apprenticeship.
The factory closed in 1984 as a result of the importation of cheap, mass-produced Taiwanese wares that looked very similar to TOJ wares.
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