Although only working at Crown Lynn for 18 months the Bohemia Ware vases produced by Mirek Smíšek were of strong Modernist design and are now sought after by collectors.

Born in the Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic, Mirek Smíšek emigrated to Australia with his friend Milo after surviving imprisonment in labour camps and concentration camps during World War II due to their Anti-Nazi stance. It was 1948 and Mirek studied ceramics in Canberra before working at a pottery in Sydney. He then moved to Auckland and approached Crown Lynn for work in 1951. He ended up as an assistant to Ernest Shufflebotham, weighing out the clay for his hand potted ware. He would jump on Ernest’s wheel when Ernest was at lunch first making children’s ware for his own children.

Eventually Mirek was given his own workbench and started decorating a series of small vases which were thrown by Ernest Shufflebotham. They had a sgraffito decoration, which involved scraping away brown slip to reveal the white clay underneath. Tom Clark liked his vases and suggested he call them Bohemia Ware after his home country, and to put that on the base.

At that time Tom Clark was interested in producing top quality modern styled art ware and was keen for Mirek to stay on. But Mirek wanted to start his own pottery company and left to do so, settling in Nelson and later the Kapiti Coast. He received an OBE for services to pottery in 1990 and went on to make 700 pots for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He died in 2013.

Bibliography

Elliott, M. (2013, May 23). Mirek Smisek 1925-2013. Cone ten and descending. https://conetenanddescending.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/mirek-smisek-1925-2013/

London Gazette. (1990, June 15), p.30. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/52174/page/29

Monk, V. (2006) Monk, Valerie Ringer. (2006). Crown Lynn: a New Zealand icon. Penguin.

Ritchie, J. (2013, May 22). Pioneer’s creative drive. Nelson Mail. http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/lifestyle-entertainment/arts/8703630/Pioneers-creative-drive

Williams, Ev. (n.d.). Mirek chatted to John about his time at Crown Lynn. New Zealand Pottery. http://www.newzealandpottery.net/t790-mirek-smisek-chatted-to-john-about-his-time-at-crown-lynn