Mathew Nisbet with the Crown Lynn swans which many households in New Zealand would have owned, in the Eketāhuna gallery.
There probably wouldn’t be many in New Zealand who wouldn’t know the name Crown Lynn.
At least, those of a certain age.
The factory in New Lynn closed in 1989, but Mathew Nisbet is bringing it back.
It’s been a bit of a journey for the ceramist who says he started out thinking he would become a fulltime collector/dealer back in the heydays of garage sales.
But garage sales were drying up and those left were selling things that were available in stores like The Warehouse.
“The stuff that was good has pretty much gone,” he says.
Crown Lynn wasn’t that collectable back then and Mathew realised if he became a dealer, he would be going into a decreasing market.
So he got into making ceramics, at first thinking he could learn from the local schools but while they could teach him how to make them, they couldn’t teach him how to make money from it.
“So I decided to teach myself.”
Some of those who had been working at Crown Lynn went on to work for Studio Ceramics - Mathew knew many of them.
But some years later, the former Crown Lynn general manager, Chris Harvey, would close the business and the Crown Lynn moulds once saved from the factory would be passed on to the new owners.
Meanwhile, Mathew had gone on to making his own ceramics, before owning a gallery, then going to Europe to sell ceramics at various markets.
On his return to New Zealand, he moved into Ambrico Studio and spent three years there making ceramics.
He decided to move north for family and opened a gallery before opening Amazespace, which was a walk-through fantasy vision, in Kawakawa.
But a storm forced its closure.
“Amazespace was just starting to work really well, and then we had the storm and it wiped out part of the property.”
By 2015, Mathew had moved to Hawke’s Bay and his mother had suggested he study at university, but he didn’t feel he wanted to work all that time and then be competing with younger people.
“When what you’re doing collapses in your 50s it’s quite a challenge to reinvent yourself.”
Thanks to a partnership with his mother and the “auction of a lifetime”, he was able to get back into making ceramics.
Mathew says the people who had taken over Studio Ceramics had struggled and due to personal circumstances, had decided to liquidate.
The Crown Lynn moulds had ended up at the auction but while he managed to get a lot of them, he missed out on the iconic swans.
However, he was able to eventually get the swans from the buyer, at the same price they had bought them for.
Now the swans, among other moulds, are at the Eketāhuna studio.
Mathew was able to buy not only the moulds, but also the intellectual property.
He established a website, calling it crownlynn.kiwi and says he spent two years going through the Crown Lynn Museum, and approached collectors and the author of the books about the collection.
Even the family of the founder, Thomas Clark, knew about it.
“I made sure everyone knew I was doing it.”
While he will continue to use the moulds, he is hoping to generate fresh ideas and train others to work in the space.
“If I can train up a group of people, we’ll end up with people who can train other people.”
Mathew says the key to Crown Lynn ceramics becoming collectable is to create a place that has strong community input.
He’s excited by the idea of having a full production facility where those who work there can come up with new ideas, whether in design or in painting the ceramics.
He also has other ideas about how to bring in other people in the community and hopes to be able to use the Eketāhuna space so others can learn how to make the ceramics.
“This is the type of direction I’m looking at, but it all starts from this place.”
