Australian pottery enthusiast extraordinaire, Sandra Van Zyl, will speak to us on 'Amusing and enthralling – my post-war Australian figurines'. Sandra’s talk will cover why she collected these figurines, which range from the 1940s to 2015, and include discussion about the potters, such as Hatton Beck and Sylvia Halpern.

The Circle’s Winter Seminar at The Johnston Collection will be about “Sleuthing, Rarity, Philanthropy: the Great Collector”. The presenters will be Felicity Marno,  Danny McOwan, Rob Robertson and Genine Wallinga. This year the seminar will be held on Saturday 27th June. This is a members only event, however you are most welcome to join the circle. Please use the 'membership' tab on the main menu. 

Elspeth Rowell, the winner of the Circle’s annual scholarship in honour of Patricia Begg OAM and Chris Begg, will present on THINGS. This award winning ceramics exhibition draws on the historical concept of the Cabinet of Curiosities to challenge the confines of Western classification systems through an installation of objects that defy taxonomic boundaries.  Elspeth’s work seeks to show how objects can embody and reveal histories of entanglement within physical space, and how the act of collecting itself might be re-imagined as a creative and philosophical practice of material thinking.

We look forward to hearing from Lee Bradshaw, on ‘Treason in a Wine Glass: The Romance of Jacobite Glass’. This will be a brief survey of the movement to restore the Stuarts to the Throne of England as expressed in engraved glassware of the period, its revival, and its imitators.

Our annual three speaker evening will feature:

• Merilyn Hoysted, who will cover ‘Chinese Kitchen Ch’ing, Mahn Yiuh/Minyao or folk ware: the underrated antique’

• Charles Terrasson, who will talk on ‘The theme of Arcadia, relating to porcelain and the arts in general’ and

• Elizabeth Golding, who will will present on ‘Swedish Glass Design’.