We are delighted that Gregory Hill, a leading authority on both Australian Colonial Pottery and Australian Art Pottery, will be delivering a lunch-time lecture on Victoria’s Earliest Potteries.

The lecture is based on Gregory’s latest book which resulted from seven years’ primary research and covers the period from colonization to 1875. The book provides an intriguing history on the founding and operation on Victoria’s first potteries. More than thirty pottery works are listed, most of which were previously unknown. Their geographical sites have been found and many examples of what they made will be displayed. Gregory Hill has concentrated on their household wares and not the heavy industrial wares like pipes and tiles. The story behind our pioneering potters makes for fascinating reading.

Gregory will also be mounting a small exhibition of early Colonial Pottery in our Cabinet of Curiosities to accompany his lecture.

Gregory Hill’s interest in Australian pottery and decorative arts in general began with the clearance of his grandparents’ home in the early 1960s. As a young child he was intrigued by its rooms which had been closed for decades, with their original interiors and masses of Victorian furniture and clutter.

As an adult he worked for ten years in the building industry and then taught for twenty years in technical schools. He has been an antique dealer for twenty eight years and a collector of Australian pottery for forty-four.

Collecting stimulated detailed research and a program of interviewing potters which included artist potters, employees in the commercial pottery industry and their descendants. It resulted in a huge accumulation of original research.

He drew on this research to compile extensive catalogues for several touring exhibitions including: The Potteries of Brunswick, Gumnuts and Glazes: The Story of Premier Pottery Preston, F.E. Cox – Enigmatic Art Potter, Excellence of Ware: Bendigo Pottery Majolica /1879-1911 and Melrose Art Pottery /1931-1942.  Greg also curated these exhibitions and sourced the exhibits.

Today he is recognized as a leading authority on both Australian Colonial Pottery and Australian Art Pottery. His most recent book, Victoria’s Earliest Potteries is unprecedented in covering the first years of pottery manufacture in the colony of Victoria.

Gregory’s book, Victoria’s Earliest Potteries, will be for sale on the day. 

Refreshments are served before all RHSV lectures.