Historical information

Raynham (Ray) Cook started his pottery in 1946 in the garage in the back yard of 218 Murrumbeena Rd East Bentleigh Victoria and moved to a factory in North Rd East Bentleigh in 1948. The company was named Raynham Ceramic Pty. Ltd. after his first name and produced all sorts of light weight slipware. some speckled lustreware vases. He had a second pottery at 237 East Boundary Rd East Bentleigh and also operated from Carey St East Bentleigh after buying out Guy Boyd. Ray was a pioneer in Australia of the electric pottery kiln which was very novel in the 1940's
Ray's greatest attribute was probably his design skills. All Raynham pottery was his designs. One of his key employees was "Paddy" McDonald who undertook the majority of the thrown pottery. Ray Cook sold the company to Bendigo Pottery in the early 1970's who continued to use the Raynham brand for a short time. Most examples by that company have the same form but are unmarked.

Physical description

A small cylindrical vase. The external surface has a pink metallic shimmering finish (lustreware) with an indentation of a flower and a small, damaged cream coloured stick-on label - Raynham. The inside is pink smooth gloss surface and a small red stick-on label - GUARANTEED Raynham PRODUCTION AUSTRALIA The vase is slightly wider at the top than its base. Markings on the base - Raynham 27, From Marge & Rex Sa.... Birthday 1962