Artur (Artek) Halpern (1908-1976) was born in Lwow, Poland and trained as a civil engineer in Czechoslovakia. He migrated to Melbourne in 1945 after a life interrupted by war and military service. In 1950, he and his wife Sylvia, who had trained as a potter at the Melbourne Technical College, set up a workshop at Huntingdale, employing a small team to make production wares under the name SYLHA. In 1958. Artur started exploring new ways of exhibiting and selling their wares and, with Gus McLaren, Reg Preston, Phil Dunn and Charles Wilton, set up the Potters' Cottage at Warrandyte. His individual work is marked with a painted 'A.H.' 'AH' (in two forms) or 'Halpern'.