Stanislaw (Stacha) Halpern (1919-1969) trained briefly as an artist in Poland before migrating to Australia in 1939 and settling in Melbourne. He became interested in pottery while working as a mould maker in a commercial pottery in 1944-45. At that time he also met and was married for a time to Sylvia Halpern who later became his brother Artur's wife. He set up his own studio in 1946-47 and sold his work through the Primrose Pottery Shop. In 1951, he went to Europe for 15 years, leading a semi-nomadic life, mainly as a painter. He returned to Australia and pottery in 1966. He exhibited work at the Potters' Cottage at Warrandyte in the late 1960s, but died suddenly of heart disease in 1969. His entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography says that "his ceramics, derived largely from European peasant pottery, were wheel-thrown or hand-built from rough terracotta clay with bold, semi-abstract painted decorations." He signed his works 'SHalpern' or 'SH' with the S over and forming the crossbar of the H.

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