Hyme Rabinowitz’s passion for pottery 1920 - 2009

Hyme Rabinowitz’s passion for pottery 1920 - 2009

Steve Kretzmann

To give up a potentially lucrative career as an accountant in order to follow a more precarious path of pottery is evidence not only of a passion for potting, but also of a willingness to defy convention in search of a fuller life.
It was a choice acclaimed ceramicist Hyme Rabinowitz made in his thirties, subsequently leaving us with innumerable beautiful and functional clay vessels.
And he certainly lived a life full of adventure and accomplishment.
Born in 1920, twin to brother Sol – who later settled in Kenya - he was nineteen years-old at the outbreak of World War II. His age, and being Jewish, meant there was little moral choice but to interrupt his articles and join the fight against Hitler.
Judging from the character that emerges from his memoirs, Hyme would have undoubtably been drawn to travel and an outdoor life of some sort, but three years in an anti-aircraft battalion trekking through East and North Africa (whereafter he fell ill, serving the rest of the war in the Saldahna region nearer home) likely whetted his appetite to experience more of the world.
He completed his articles after the war, but office life was not his preference, and, in a post-war decade marked by conservatism, he hitchhiked across the UK, Europe and the Middle East – starting his self-education in the arts along the way – and returned home overland across Africa 17 months later.
It was while making a living working at the Plate Glass Company that he “quite by chance” discovered his vocation. As often happens, there was an attractive girl involved, who was taking pottery lessons at the Frank Joubert art centre. Hyme joined in, and was given his first lessons by Audrey Frank.
“The penny had dropped,” wrote Hyme. He had a continental style kick-wheel built and took over a corner of Paul Boonzaier’s sign writing workshop on Long Street.
“Every Saturday afternoon after the office I went and practiced my throwing in Paul’s workshop till it was time to catch the last bus (around midnight) from the terminus to Camps Bay. Then I’d hike (with backpack) to Llandudno, land up at (a rough hut in the bay), and hike the next day with “Ginger” (Townley) Johnson to Sandy Bay and Oudeschip.”
His friendship with Ginger and a love of the outdoors led to the pair of them, with Percy Sieff, amongst others, documenting over 500 rock art sites in the South-West Cape in the ’50s and ‘60s, a book of which was later published.
Around this period he returned to the UK and spent time working at St. Ives with Kenneth Quick, who used to work at the famed Leach Pottery. He also worked with the “explosive” master potter Michael Cardew. He spent more time with Cardew in Abudja, Nigeria, who was running a training centre there, and also spent six months working with Esias Bosch in White River.
He set up what was to become his permanent pottery studio at Eagles Nest in Constantia in 1962 (thanks to the patronage of the Maggs family) originally working with a Cardew-Wenford Bridge wood-fired kiln for many years before changing to an oil-fired kiln.
He did a lot more travelling though, much of it through Africa, studying the continent’s ancient pottery traditions, before marrying Jennifer Rom when he was 56. Although a late starter in pottery, according to Leach, Hyme’s dedication to the craft resulted in his being awarded a National Silver Medal by Pretoria University in 1990, a Master of Fine Arts Honorary degree from the University of Cape Town and the ‘Master Potter’ title by the Association of Potters of South Africa (APSA) on his 80th birthday.
Yet his success never went to his head.
“He’s always been a great supporter of other potters. People at the top of their field are often snooty, but he always had time, and a word of encouragement, for everyone, says young potter John Bauer.
Although Hyme suffered from ill health again in his later years, having, according to Ceramics SA Cape region co-chair and “dear friend” Betsy Nield, “a few heart attacks in his time”, it appears he was more concerned with the well-being of his friends than his own discomfort.
Nield said he had his last heart attack a year ago, at around the same time she had to undergo an operation. She said whenever they spoke he used to enquire after her health, never mentioning his own problems.
She said Hyme was also very active in the pottery community. “He used to come to all our (Ceramics SA) workshops and was always at our AGMs and exhibitions.
He would be there, and at all the potters markets. At the last one, in June, Jenni had to push him around in his wheelchair.”
Tributes at his funeral repeatedly mentioned his warmth, humour, creativity, purpose, and interest in other people. And he seemed to be able to mix modesty and pride quite effectively. His son, Nikolas, said his dad’s response to being famous was:

“Well, I was the best, and most famous potter… on Eagles Nest!”