Pot ID Help Please !!

Hi Everyone,

I have just aquired a pot here in South Africa that I am trying to find the origins of. It is about 20 x 20 x 7 cms in size and has a "stonegreen" glaze. The glaze covers the entire pot excluding only the inside, the stamp and the feet. The pot is made from a fairly course clay and the material is thick (10 to 12 mm). Looking at the stamp, the upper left symbols appear to read "bonsai", but I don;t know what the rest are. I think I have photographed it the right way up. The pot appears to be hand made, as it does not have the characteristics of a moulded pot. It is hell of a heavy as well.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi Andrew.

Are those the initials "GH" in the circle? If I were you I'd start asking around about who was making bonsai pots in South Africa, or who did the traveling and may have brought it home. I remember meeting Derry Ralph at conventions here in the 80's.

Anyway, I think it's a great find. Shallow, square pots aren't easy to find and it's quite pretty.

Russell

OK People - Mystery Solved!

Russel is the closest so far!

The pot was made by Stan and Ilse Holroyd in South Africa. Here is their mark:



I guess this makes perfect sense as they make pots locally. In a way, I am a bit disappointed as I thought I had an old Chinese antique, but either way, I still really like the pot, so there you go! Crazy thing is that people all over the world are now trying to figure it out, and the pottery is about 30kms from my home!!!

Cheers

That's great Andrew!

Yes, it would be nice if were an antique Chinese pot, but I think you have a real treasure on your hands. My guess is that it was really hard to get good pots in South Africa so people like the Holroyds started making them out of necessity. What you have ended up with is part of your country's bonsai heritage. I'd love to have it for that reason alone, but it's also beautiful too. Like I said before, shallow square pots are hard to find. I stumbled across an old Yamaaki one a few years ago and it's the only one have.

When was it made, are they still making pots??

Russell

Hi Russell,

I think they are still making pots, but I can't be sure. They seem to be very isolated from the bonsai community. Not sure why, but everyone knows of them, but says they don't really know them - if you konw what I mean. I must make the effort to go and see their place one day and see what it is all about.

Talking about bonsai heritage, what you say is so relevant. We all seem to get so hung up on Japan and China etc, that we seem to forget that we are all making a contribution to bonsai in our own little way. Every person has their role to play in the bigger picture. South Africa has been practicing the art of bonsai for just over 40 years now, and althought their are very few of the beautiful old trees that one sees in the East, there are still some stunning examples of younger bonsai that have been developed in this time. A true testament to the capabilities of those more practiced than myself. I guess what applies to trees applies equally to pots. We may not have acces to Tokoname style clays here, but as you say, it does not stop someone from producing lovely pots. The same could be said for potters the world over!

Cheers