“The origin of creative art is longing. Nature has given us all the incentive to mould, form, or create in one way or another. A child at play is employing the creative urge it feels within itself.” John Wolfgang Elischer November 1937
Elischer Pottery was started in Sandringham in 1947 by sculptor John (Johann Wolfgang) Elischer, who was born on 1st September 1891 in Vienna. He trained at the Academy of Vienna from 1908 to 1911, including under Rodin in Paris around 1910-11, and was an Associate of the Royal Academy Vienna.
He practiced as a sculptor in Vienna and won an international competition in 1926 to design a memorial in Pretoria, South Africa for General Botha. An excellent example of his early smaller work, the sculpture, ‘Foundryman’ is held in the Eckhart G. Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. This piece captures the intense concentration and skill involved in pouring metal.
John migrated to Australia in mid November 1936 with his sister Edith aboard the “Orama”. Elischer received commissions for sculptures including the King George V Memorial in Bendigo (1938) unveiled in September 1939 by the then Premier of Victoria, Mr Dunstan.
After seven years in Australia, John applied to become a naturalized Australian in 1943.
While living in Douglas Street Toorak in 1951, John won the 200 guinea prize for the medal given to the school children of Australia in 1951 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Federation of Australia.
Depiction of a man hand sowing wheat. The wheat represents the seven States of Australia on the other side of the medal, at left 1901, at right 1951 in tiny letters near ground right, J.W.E.