Joe Sartori was production manager at Studio Dybka Tichy in Parramatta, NSW, from 1972-1980. The studio had been set up by Rudolf Dybka and Vladimir Tichy in late 1969 or 1970. Tichy, who had trained in Prague as a ceramic sculptor and worked in Czech porcelain factories, was head designer. He commissioned George Snape, an industrial chemist at CESCO, to produce several clays for different uses and imported a range of brightly coloured glazes from Germany. Snape tried to develop similar glazes in Australia and succeeded with red and orange, although they proved difficult to control. Under Sartori's direction, the studio produced architectural murals, handmade tiles and a range of distinctive and colourful decorative and functional pottery, mostly supplied to the Grace Brothers and Waltons department stores. When the Studio was taken over by Norbrick in 1980, Sartori moved to Queensland and set up his own pottery there, continuing to make work in a similar style. His signature is an incised or painted JS or J. Sartori.

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