Collection: Ellis Ceramics (Australia)

Ellis Ceramics was established in Melbourne in 1953 by Czechoslovakian migrants Dagmar and Miloslav Kratochvil. Beginning as a small backyard pottery in Abbotsford, it developed into a commercial workshop whose output combined practical domestic forms with expressive mid-century decoration.

The Kratochvils arrived in Australia in 1951 and spent their first two years in Newcastle in assigned labouring work before moving to Melbourne. Their growing pottery later occupied premises at 86 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford. By 1967, a profile in the Port of Melbourne Quarterly described a business employing more than fifteen people, selling to department stores and exporting to Japan.

Across these decades, Ellis developed and adapted a variety of forms to meet demand for Australian-made functional and decorative ware. Its history belongs to the post-war growth of commercial pottery for an expanding domestic market.

Much of the work was slip-cast earthenware, but hand decoration and carving gave individual examples their own character. Sgraffito designs were scratched through the surface to reveal the clay beneath, while other ranges combined bright orange or yellow glazes with dark, heavily textured surfaces. The workshop also experimented with stoneware and produced some wheel-thrown bowls and plates.

The range included tableware, vases, lamp bases and stylised animal figures, including bulls, cats and rams. These objects bring together commercial mould-making and hand-finished detail, with natural forms and European decorative influences interpreted for the Australian home. Shape numbers and documented marks are useful starting points when comparing surviving pieces.