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CeramicsOn her return from America in 1906, Ellis Rowan began working towards a major selling exhibition, eventually held in August 1910 at Angus and Robertsons Sydney store. At the exhibition, 65 gouache paintings were purchased by the Technological Museum (now the Powerhouse Museum) under the guidance of Richard Baker, its curator, economic botanist and lecturer on timbers. Perhaps as a result of the success of this exhibition, Rowan also began providing similar paintings, under commission, to the Sydney jeweller and importer of fine china, Flavelle Brothers. The Flavelle brothers, Henry and William, sons of the founder John Flavelle, were holders of the Vice-Regal appointment in 1910, and were by then the established jewellers in Sydney. Flavelles forwarded the paintings to the Royal Worcester Porcelain Co. Ltd of London as the artworks for a commissioned series of hand-painted porcelain ceramics. The aim of this enterprise was to commercialise the contemporary interest being shown in the use of Australian flora in applied art, as a result of the pioneering work of Lucien Henry.
It does not appear, from surviving pieces, that Flavelles ordered any more expensive blue ground plates, cups and saucers, or large dessert services after the outbreak of World War 1 on 3 August 1914. An order placed in 1913 was for properly identified tea and coffee services with the Ellis Rowan Flavelle mark in full. This arrived, but as sales must have been slow throughout the rest of the war, there was no incentive to order more.
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