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Video clip from Shadow of Eden by
Rachael Romero on the Magdalen laundries of
Australia
(c) Rachael Romero
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Barsony
A Contemporary Australian Icon
of Ceramic Production
Very rare nodder hula girl
lamp in original mint condition sold for over $800.00 in 2006
Barsony Ceramics was a ceramics
manufacturing company, operated by George and Jean Barsony, from early '50s to
early '70s. It was located in Guildford, near Sydney. During peak production the
company employed quite a few people in their workshop and often ran shifts
to meet the demand.
Barsony Ceramics also produced items under the
Silver Cloud and Venice label. Apparently, Silver Cloud, was
the name of a horse that belonged to Jean Barsony's sister.
Barsony produced many forms of slip mould products, which
included candlesticks, figurines, lamp bases, ashtrays, wall hangings, bookends,
figures vases, bowls etc. Ashtrays were attached to ornamental figurines to
avoid a huge sales tax placed on ornamental items as utility items attracted
much less tax.
Barsony used prefix markings
on their products, for example, F, FL, GL, H, HL, L, U, T, V, followed by a
number. The letter marking identified the type of product e.g. H meant
head, V means vase, L means lamp, FL stands for figure lamp and HL stands for
head lamp, and so on, while the number that followed was the mould number.
Most Barsony products were marked, but an absence of a
mark does not mean they were not made by Barsony, as occcasionally the impression of the
mark was lost during firing. Some products were also mounted on a wooden
base, which was fixed to the figure by screwing the base into corks inserted in
the base of the figure, thus concealing the maker's mark.
Although better known for their matt black finish, Barsony
also created in lustre and brown and white finishes.
The plastic ribbon shade was definitely the most popular
shade that he used but there were also an assortment of shades wrapped with
raffia and trimmed with thin, velvet ribbon. white ribbon with gold fleck etc
etc. The original ribbon shades are from light plastic strips, similar to shower
curtain plastic, often with panels of printed plastic between solid
colour.
Many of
these shades have failed to stand the test of time, mainly due to the use of
higher powered globes that weakened and burnt the strips. The recommended
wattage should not exceed 40 watts.
The
tennis girl is highly sought after although the leaves and flower on this
example are not original as it is not in the style of Barsony who stayed true to
retro style as seen in the middle picture.
Ballet
dancer lamps came in a range of colours, white, pink, yellow, red, green and
aqua and in two sizes and styles, the larger being table lamps and the smaller
bedside lamps.
These
days Barsony products are highly collectable and fetch high prices at
traditional and online auctions sites, which unfortunately has led to
almost
any black ceramic being named as Barsony.
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Barsony figures have a smooth, gentle
roundness on all features. Facial features are never prominent, with lips
highlighted in red and occasionally subtle colour applied to the eyes.
Breasts are always rounded, never pointed, and the same with head shape.
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Barsony used only single strand brass
earrings (apart from pearl drops) - not the twisted style seen on some black
ladies.
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The unique feature of Barsony is the
clever use of brightly coloured paint to imply clothing and other floral
decorations.
Recently a number of Kalmar black lady
products have been mistakenly cited as Barsony and can usually be distinguished
by their white base and the mould numbering system, which separates letters and
numbers with a full stop e.g. m.x.2 - not the dash used by Barsony. Apart from
this it can be diffficult to discern the difference although Barsony products
have a brighter detail colour, where Kalmar has a faded look. Kalmar are highly
collectable in their own right and deserve to be recognised for what they are.
If the item is stamped Made in Japan
or any other country it is NOT a Barsony.
Many Barsony lamps and figures that were
mounted on wooden bases were usually painted black with white stripes along the
edge although some of the earlier pieces were left unpainted.
Mexican man and lady F 15/B. This figure is matched with separate lamps
featuring the man and woman, which are quite rare.
Barsony baby boys - set of three.
The standing boy is marked Barsony B1. The laying back boy is marked Barsony
and the boy laying on his stomach is unmarked. The Barsony girl is also one of a
set and originally had a raffia (grass) skirt on. It has no markings. This was
often the case with these small figures and they were sold with the Barsony
sticker.
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