Merric Boyd's Koala Jug: A Unique Australian Artwork

Merric Boyd pottery jug with hand-painted rural scene and two applied koalas perched on the branch handle, incised 'Merric Boyd, 1941', 14 cm high, 15 cm wide. Merric Boyd described his great joy in successfully throwing his first pot at Archibald McNair's Burnley Pottery in 1908, when he was just 20 years old. Boyd established a studio workshop at Murrumbeena and pottery kilns were established there in 1911 with the support of his family. He studied under Bernard hall and Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery school where he took up ceramics as a path to sculpture, but settled on pottery as his medium. He held his first exhibition of stoneware, fired in McNair Bros kiln, at the Centreway in Melbourne in 1912, and his second exhibition at Besant Lodge soon afterwards. Merric had begun making pottery at a time when obtaining the necessary equipment and materials was difficult. As a result, he largely made what he required himself. He built pug mills, grinders, throwing wheels and kilns, and made glazes from basic oxides. To obtain clay, he utilized the clay deposits in the Murrumbeena and Oakleigh areas, and prepared it himself. Boyd was fascinated and inspired by the natural world. For him, pottery was the perfect vehicle to express his affection for Australian fauna and flora and its landscapes, and the beauty he saw in the world. This, together with his deep spiritual beliefs and his certainty in the power of love, led him to create truly unique Australian works of ceramic Art. While he was not the first potter to use native fauna and flora in pottery, he raised its use to new levels of artistry and acceptance. He is recognised as being Australia's first studio potter and a pioneer in his field. [Adapted from 'The life and Art of Merric Boyd'.]