The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 48 No 3 November 2009

Watched by Hermia, David applies a 'fin' or profile implement to spinning day at their Greenwich pottery, 1953
photo: The Pottery and Ceramics of David and Hermia Boyd by John Vader, page 46
have no ties to the business being conducted, in this case David's expatriate novelist uncle.
In the period between David's initial contact with the business in 1946 and his return to Sydney in
1947, Guy had employed several fellow students from the National Art School to help in the workshop.
One of these was Hermia lloyd-Jones, a young and precociously talented artist who came from a family
background that bore some similarities to that of the Boyds.
David and Hermia soon became a couple in life as well as in ceramics. In addition to the successful
commercial ware, they began work on a group of ceramics primarily intended for exhibition and, in
1949, these works were shown at the Little Gallery at the David Jones department store. The Daily
Telegraph's art critic wrote:
'It is rare to find produced in this country works of art which may, in both technical and aesthetic
achievement, be judged by world standards. In the pottery of David and Hermia Boyd, that distinction is
reached ... It is a show not to be missed by collectors and those who are interested in the beginning of
an epoch in Australian art.'8
In 1950, David and Hermia Boyd, as so many other Australian artists had done before them, travelled
to Eng land . Having obtained a licence to sell their pottery from the Board of Trade, issued 9 through the
Crafts Council of Great Britain, they soon found a ready market for their pottery in many fash ionable
London outlets. The British trade journals Pottery and Glass and Pottery Gazette featured their work,
as did several lifestyle magazines and they were able to obtain a lucra tive licence to produce items for
the 1951 Festiva l of Britain.
26 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2009