Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In the 1970’s, a small retail store — Ho-Ching Annesley, Inc. — in American Samoa — sold foodstuffs, but was well-known locally for selling affordable plates, bowls, cups & saucers. The Crown Lynn pottery was brought in by the company from New Zealand, in a container over the following years, as ‘seconds’ — meaning they did not make the mark to be sold by Crown Lynn Potteries, Ltd. due to a variety of imperfections during kiln firing. However, they were sold by as miscellaneous sales; and, they found a perfect market in American Samoa at the time.

When a container came in, the word would go out, and crowds of women of all ages would be seen sitting in front of the shelves that held the pottery, on the floor, cross-legged — hand sorting, mix matching their choices for their household plates, bowls, cups & saucers.

At the time of the Crown Lynn factory’s closure, a third of the workforce was from Samoa, according to the Te Toi Aku - Crown Lynn & Clay Museum that reopened the last brickworks kiln in Auckland, NZ recently, with a display space for ceramic and pottery artists.

The museum’s director Louise Stevenson told Culture 101/ RNZ- Life and Culture, that each handle and rim of Crown Lynn cups looks slightly different. “It makes you think about the fact that every single crown and cup that was made, we’ve identified, would have had 14 pairs of hands involved in the process of making.”

For American Samoa, Samoa News notes to this day, some local households still have remnants of their mother’s or grandmother’s collection of dishes that are pieces that hold memories of eating meals, and sharing food with your family and friends. [photo: RNZ/ Braydon Priest]