A short history of Westminster Fine China Australia
Stanley Rogers ran a wholesale cutlery, glassware and crockery business in Queen Street, Melbourne. On 6 October 1950, a new business, Stanley Rogers and Son Ltd, was registered to take over the previous business and was listed with a capital of 100,000 pounds. Directors were listed as S Rogers, W Rogers ( presumably his son William), and three other unamed persons.
Westminster Fine China Australia started in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham at 7 Arnold Street, in 1954 by Stanley Rogers and Son Ltd. They moved to 228 Bay Road, Sandringham in 1977 into a 60,000 square foot ( about 5,500 square metres) building that housed the factory, warehouse, office and showroom. They initially used imported blanks from Japan, which were made to their specifications, and which were then decorated locally. They produced a standard range of shapes for souvenir ware, later expanding into a wide range of tea sets, dinnerware and many other styles of china ware.
In the early days, skilled staff were brought into Australia from both the United Kingdom and Italy and the focus was on the souvenir and giftware trade. In the late 1960s they introduced to the Australian market a range of medium weight porcelain hotel ware under the Fineceram brand and later registering another brand, Duraceram, in 1984. By this time, Westminster was part of a wider organization called Badgin Nominees Pty Ltd, presumably a holding company for the Rogers family interests. The 1980s also saw the production of a large number of limited edition plates for other companies.
Westminster had an in-house art department that put together the designs, and used computer generated designs in the later stages of the companies life. These were placed onto the pieces by ceramic transfer printing and fired to seal them onto the items in large capacity electric kilns .In the late 1980s and early 1990s there are blanks made in both Japan and Taiwan and marked with the last of the Westminster markings.
In the late 1980s they regularly produced items for other suppliers and by the mid 1990s, most of the companies work was for the hospitality industry. There was also a large part of the business making corporate coffee mugs, and there was a smaller continuation of giftware featuring Aboriginal designs and Australian flora and fauna. Some of these are for C R Hose and Isaacson Catering & Hospitality Supplies, and no doubt many more will turn up. Badgin Nominees, including the Westminster brand, was sold to Oneida Ltd, New York, USA in June 1998 by Stanley's son William.
If you have any other information, please pass it on so that I can add to this history.
Some Family History Notes
A recent search of the National Archives of Australia for any files about Westminster Fine China revealed a file about statistical returns, and buried in the file were a number of folios referring to Stanley Rogers' early history in an application for Australian citizenship in 1932. The following is a summary of that information.
Stanley was born Szejel Rogowaj in Festow in the Ukraine on 15th January 1890. His father was a Russian named Berke Rogowaj and his mother was also Russian. He resided in Poland during late in WW1. By the time he arrived in Melbourne from Warsaw aboard the 'Esperance Bay' on 2nd July 1926 his nationality was shown as Polish, no doubt due to the great changes that occurred in eastern Europe and Russia following WW1.
He was married to Lucy, who was born in Warsaw about 1893. They had two children, also born in Warsaw; Irene born about 1918 and William born about 1921.
In 1932 they were living at 97 Park Street, East Brunswick and Stanley was employed as the manager of Thos. Pickett Pty Ltd of 195 Lennox Street, Richmond, and was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, brown hair and brown eyes. Further in the application he is described as tobacconist on his own account, and also in the wholesale tobacco trade, so this will require some further investigation.
In 1938 he is supporting the application for two families of refugees to come to Australia. One family is Raoul Wasservogel, his wife Elsa and their daughter Gerti, who were manufacturers of knitting goods. They were in Vienna and had 200 pounds capital. The other is Marcel Wasservogel, his wife Clara and daughter Dorrit aged 16, he a maker of leather fancy goods and who also had 200 pounds. Both families were shown as being friends of Stanley.
At that time, Stanley's address was given as 163 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, C1, which I believe was his business address, and was then shown as being a hardware (cutlery) merchant and had recently been abroad.
Source: National Archives of Australia, Archive series B741 V/9448, record barcode 1138692
A recent trawl of the Argus newspaper of Melbourne revealed the following snippets about the Rogers family.
Friday 27 March 1936. New Companies Registered.......Stanley Rogers Cutlery Manufacturers Pty. Ltd. Capital 20,000 pounds. Subscribers, Kenneth Campbell, Douglas Mather, Stanley Rogers. Edward Kuehn and Ernest Barkley Edwards are also directors.
Saturday 31 October 1936. Homes raided. Thefts at Brighton. Raiding four homes within a mile of each other at Brighton on Thursday night, thieves stole property worth 140 pounds. They gained entrance to the houses of Mr. Stanley Rogers, Middle crescent, Brighton and Mr. John Edward Stanton, Binnie street, Brighton by forcing windows with an axe. At Mr. Rogers house the thieves, after drinking half a bottle of wine, stole a fur coat, a suit, and a gold armlet, worth about 65 pound...........
Wednesday 27 March 1940. Many Marriages After Holidays. Wertheim-Rogers. A French silver lame gown and tulle veil were worn by Miss Irene Rogers for her marriage to Mr. Israel Wertheim celebrated by Rabbi Dr. H Freedman at the Toorak Road Synagogue yesterday afternoon.
The bride, who was given away by her father, is the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Rogers of Broadway, Elwood. She carried a bouquet of lily of the valley and gardenias. Four bridesmaids - Misses Anne Fink, Hala Gelman, Mary Krause and Miriam White - attended her, wearing full-skirted frocks of ice-blue net. They carried muffs of Cecil (sic) Brunner roses and wore sprays of the roses in their hair.
The bridegroom, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. S Wertheim of Peel Street, Windsor, had Mr. Joseph Wertheim as best man and Messers William Rogers, Theodore Wertheim and Phillip Rothman as groomsmen.
A reception at the Caulfield Town Hall followed the ceremony.
Friday 20 October 1950. American relatives are coming by air to attend the wedding of Miss Rita Kalb and Mr. William Rogers in the Melbourne Synagogue on Tuesday. The bride's grandmother, Mrs. S Blaser, and her uncle, Mr. M Blaser, are flying from New York. A reception will be held at Ormond Hall.
Wednesday 25 October 1950. Bride's grandmother flew from U.S. The bride's grandmother, Mrs. S Blaser, flew from new York to attend the marriage yesterday of Miss Rita Kalb and Mr. William Rogers in the Melbourne Synagogue, South Melbourne. (Details of photograph of bride and grandmother) The bride, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. J Kalb of South Yarra, wore a pure silk gown with a white satin bertha collar and a fingertip tulle veil held in place with a satin cap. She was attended by Misses Irene Rogers and Minnie Kommesarook. The groom is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. S Rogers of Elwood.
Westminster Fine China Australia started in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham at 7 Arnold Street, in 1954 by Stanley Rogers and Son Ltd. They moved to 228 Bay Road, Sandringham in 1977 into a 60,000 square foot ( about 5,500 square metres) building that housed the factory, warehouse, office and showroom. They initially used imported blanks from Japan, which were made to their specifications, and which were then decorated locally. They produced a standard range of shapes for souvenir ware, later expanding into a wide range of tea sets, dinnerware and many other styles of china ware.
In the early days, skilled staff were brought into Australia from both the United Kingdom and Italy and the focus was on the souvenir and giftware trade. In the late 1960s they introduced to the Australian market a range of medium weight porcelain hotel ware under the Fineceram brand and later registering another brand, Duraceram, in 1984. By this time, Westminster was part of a wider organization called Badgin Nominees Pty Ltd, presumably a holding company for the Rogers family interests. The 1980s also saw the production of a large number of limited edition plates for other companies.
Westminster had an in-house art department that put together the designs, and used computer generated designs in the later stages of the companies life. These were placed onto the pieces by ceramic transfer printing and fired to seal them onto the items in large capacity electric kilns .In the late 1980s and early 1990s there are blanks made in both Japan and Taiwan and marked with the last of the Westminster markings.
In the late 1980s they regularly produced items for other suppliers and by the mid 1990s, most of the companies work was for the hospitality industry. There was also a large part of the business making corporate coffee mugs, and there was a smaller continuation of giftware featuring Aboriginal designs and Australian flora and fauna. Some of these are for C R Hose and Isaacson Catering & Hospitality Supplies, and no doubt many more will turn up. Badgin Nominees, including the Westminster brand, was sold to Oneida Ltd, New York, USA in June 1998 by Stanley's son William.
If you have any other information, please pass it on so that I can add to this history.
Some Family History Notes
A recent search of the National Archives of Australia for any files about Westminster Fine China revealed a file about statistical returns, and buried in the file were a number of folios referring to Stanley Rogers' early history in an application for Australian citizenship in 1932. The following is a summary of that information.
Stanley was born Szejel Rogowaj in Festow in the Ukraine on 15th January 1890. His father was a Russian named Berke Rogowaj and his mother was also Russian. He resided in Poland during late in WW1. By the time he arrived in Melbourne from Warsaw aboard the 'Esperance Bay' on 2nd July 1926 his nationality was shown as Polish, no doubt due to the great changes that occurred in eastern Europe and Russia following WW1.
He was married to Lucy, who was born in Warsaw about 1893. They had two children, also born in Warsaw; Irene born about 1918 and William born about 1921.
In 1932 they were living at 97 Park Street, East Brunswick and Stanley was employed as the manager of Thos. Pickett Pty Ltd of 195 Lennox Street, Richmond, and was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, brown hair and brown eyes. Further in the application he is described as tobacconist on his own account, and also in the wholesale tobacco trade, so this will require some further investigation.
In 1938 he is supporting the application for two families of refugees to come to Australia. One family is Raoul Wasservogel, his wife Elsa and their daughter Gerti, who were manufacturers of knitting goods. They were in Vienna and had 200 pounds capital. The other is Marcel Wasservogel, his wife Clara and daughter Dorrit aged 16, he a maker of leather fancy goods and who also had 200 pounds. Both families were shown as being friends of Stanley.
At that time, Stanley's address was given as 163 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, C1, which I believe was his business address, and was then shown as being a hardware (cutlery) merchant and had recently been abroad.
Source: National Archives of Australia, Archive series B741 V/9448, record barcode 1138692
A recent trawl of the Argus newspaper of Melbourne revealed the following snippets about the Rogers family.
Friday 27 March 1936. New Companies Registered.......Stanley Rogers Cutlery Manufacturers Pty. Ltd. Capital 20,000 pounds. Subscribers, Kenneth Campbell, Douglas Mather, Stanley Rogers. Edward Kuehn and Ernest Barkley Edwards are also directors.
Saturday 31 October 1936. Homes raided. Thefts at Brighton. Raiding four homes within a mile of each other at Brighton on Thursday night, thieves stole property worth 140 pounds. They gained entrance to the houses of Mr. Stanley Rogers, Middle crescent, Brighton and Mr. John Edward Stanton, Binnie street, Brighton by forcing windows with an axe. At Mr. Rogers house the thieves, after drinking half a bottle of wine, stole a fur coat, a suit, and a gold armlet, worth about 65 pound...........
Wednesday 27 March 1940. Many Marriages After Holidays. Wertheim-Rogers. A French silver lame gown and tulle veil were worn by Miss Irene Rogers for her marriage to Mr. Israel Wertheim celebrated by Rabbi Dr. H Freedman at the Toorak Road Synagogue yesterday afternoon.
The bride, who was given away by her father, is the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Rogers of Broadway, Elwood. She carried a bouquet of lily of the valley and gardenias. Four bridesmaids - Misses Anne Fink, Hala Gelman, Mary Krause and Miriam White - attended her, wearing full-skirted frocks of ice-blue net. They carried muffs of Cecil (sic) Brunner roses and wore sprays of the roses in their hair.
The bridegroom, who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. S Wertheim of Peel Street, Windsor, had Mr. Joseph Wertheim as best man and Messers William Rogers, Theodore Wertheim and Phillip Rothman as groomsmen.
A reception at the Caulfield Town Hall followed the ceremony.
Friday 20 October 1950. American relatives are coming by air to attend the wedding of Miss Rita Kalb and Mr. William Rogers in the Melbourne Synagogue on Tuesday. The bride's grandmother, Mrs. S Blaser, and her uncle, Mr. M Blaser, are flying from New York. A reception will be held at Ormond Hall.
Wednesday 25 October 1950. Bride's grandmother flew from U.S. The bride's grandmother, Mrs. S Blaser, flew from new York to attend the marriage yesterday of Miss Rita Kalb and Mr. William Rogers in the Melbourne Synagogue, South Melbourne. (Details of photograph of bride and grandmother) The bride, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. J Kalb of South Yarra, wore a pure silk gown with a white satin bertha collar and a fingertip tulle veil held in place with a satin cap. She was attended by Misses Irene Rogers and Minnie Kommesarook. The groom is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. S Rogers of Elwood.