The Potters Collection by Robert Gordon brings the tactility of Australian ceramic craft into the contemporary bathroom, now on display at the new Reece Bathrooms Rosebery showroom in Sydney.
In partnership with Reece
There is something compelling about an object that reveals how it was made. In a bathroom, where so much is engineered for precision, the subtle variations of a handcrafted ceramic basin introduce warmth, tactility and a sense of individuality.
Created through a collaboration between two long-established Australian family businesses, the collection brings together Reece’s expertise in bathroom design with Robert Gordon’s generations of ceramic craftsmanship. The result feels less like a purely functional fixture and more like a crafted object designed to be lived with.
A Meeting of Two Australian Traditions
For Bobby Gordon, Director of Robert Gordon, the partnership was a natural extension of his family’s relationship with clay, passed down through three generations at its Pakenham studio for more than 75 years.
“Robert Gordon has been making ceramics in Australia for many generations—it’s the backbone of our family. It’s truly in our blood,” he says. “It just felt like a really natural fit to take our ceramics into the bathroom with Reece. They’re both family-owned and run businesses, and I think that’s really special.”
Letting the Making Show
Each basin begins with raw clay, with much of the process still completed by hand. “A lot of the process is still made by hand, and it adds that unique tactile quality, that character, to each basin,” Gordon explains. Rather than striving for uniformity, the collection lets the evidence of the making process become part of the finished piece—including the thrower’s rings, the subtle concentric lines left behind by the throwing process, which could have been smoothed away but are instead left visible as a mark of the craft.
Gordon points to the final gloss firing as the defining moment: “It’s at this stage where the clay body and the glaze react, meet and bond, and where the integrity and beauty of the product is formed. That is really special.”
The Robert Gordon Potters Above Counter basin as part of the Potters Collection, now available in the Reece Rosebery showroom.
The Potters collection features 11 glaze finishes, from soft ivory to deeper olive tones—each basin made with raw clay, largely by hand, so no two carry quite the same surface or character.
Colour as a Point of Expression
Colour is where the collection finds its versatility, with 11 glaze finishes ranging from softer tonal shades to richer colours, including two developed exclusively for Reece—Dove and Sage. “This collection gives people the opportunity to choose finishes and glaze colours that they really love,” Gordon says. “Dove and Sage are absolutely beautiful, and they are heroes of the range.”
Experiencing Craft in Context
At Reece Bathrooms Rosebery, the collection can be experienced as part of a broader design environment rather than as a standalone product—seen alongside cabinetry, benchtops and tapware, where the relationship between colour, texture and form becomes clear.
The Potters Collection ultimately shows how traditional Australian craftsmanship can find a natural place within contemporary bathroom design: a meeting of material knowledge, practical expertise and a shared appreciation for objects made with intention. That same personalisation carries through to the collection’s two forms, semi-inset and bench mount, designed to suit different bathroom layouts. “You can really apply your own style to the bathroom, which I think is really important,” Gordon says.
Experience The Potters Collection
The Potters Collection by Robert Gordon is on display at Reece Bathrooms Rosebery, and can also be explored at Reece Bathrooms showrooms nationally.
"It just felt like a really natural fit to take our ceramics into the bathroom with Reece Australia. They're both family-owned and run businesses and I think that's really special and unique."
– Robert Gordon
A semi-inset basin from The Potters Collection by Robert Gordon in Speckle.
