Crown Lynn : a New Zealand Icon

The Crown Lynn Story is an irresistible mix of business innovation, stunning products and vivd characters. In the late 1930s Tom Clark, barely in his early 20s, beagn making porcelain tiles and electrical fittings alongside his family's brick and pipe works in New Lynn. By 1970 Crown Lynn was the biggest pottery in the southern hemisphere, with 500 staff turning out 15 million pieces of china - cups and saucers, plates, bowls, mugs, jugs and vases - each year. Most New Zealand families used Crow Lynn dinner sets everyday, and excess production was exported, mainly to Australia, Canada and the Pacific Islands. Then in the 1980s the changing economic conditions undermined profitability and the factory was shut down in 1989. Crown Lynn is enriched by detailed research, including interviews with the late Sir Tom Clark and many other Crown Lynn staff. It has more than 100 photographs of Crown Lynn products, a comprehensive timeline and an illustrated catalogue of backstamps.