Large bowl

Neil Douglas, decorator
Australia
1911 – 2003

John Perceval, decorator
Australia
1 February 1923 – 15 October 2000

Arthur Merric Boyd Pottery, Murrumbeena, Melbourne
Australia
1944 – 1962

Large bowl
1950
earthenware
Place made
Murrumbeena, Victoria
Medium
earthenware
Dimensions
11.2 x 39.0 cm (diam.) (overall)
Credit line
The Pauline Colley Bequest Fund 2015
Accession number
20158C38A
Signature and date
Signed and dated, incised on base "Arthur Merric Boyd/ Perceval/ Neil Douglas/ [illeg]/ Australia/ 1950".
Media category
Ceramic
Collection area
Australian sculptures
Copyright
© Estate of Neil Douglas/Estate of John Perceval/Copyright Agency
Image credit
Photos: Saul Steed

  • A landscape in the round, Large bowl, 1950, depicts jumping kangaroos, untidy xanthorrhoea grass trees, and eucalypts against distant hills, all of which are set on a red and cream ground. This is an early work by Arthur Merric Boyd Pottery (AMB), which was established in 1944 in the Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena by the artists Arthur Boyd and John Perceval and named after Boyd’s grandfather. The goal of AMB was to produce one-off items of ceramics for a growing local market interested in Australian art and ceramics in the post-Second World War era.

    This bowl is typical of the works produced by AMB Pottery at the time – joyful and vibrantly colourful and depicting distinctive Australian imagery. The decorators for this work, Neil Douglas and John Perceval, executed the designs with a simplicity of shape and strength of colour, the result of Perceval’s dedication to experimentation and development in the area of colour, glazing and firing.


    Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design

  • [Book] AGSA 500.