The Reynella Pottery was established by Gladys Reynell, at her family home Reynella, a large winery about twenty kilometers south of Adelaide, South Australia, after she returned from Great Britain in 1919.

 

Gladys Reynell, born in Adelaide in 1881 first studied medicine at Adelaide University, but left to study painting with Margaret Rose MacPherson (later Margaret Preston). On 8 February 1912, Gladys Reynell, accompanied by Margaret Preston travelled to London. That year Gladys Reynell and Margaret Preston studied pottery at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London.

 

During the first world war Gladys Reynell taught remedial crafts including pottery at the Seale-Hayne Military Hospital in Devonshire, as did Margaret Preston. Upon their return to Australia in 1919 their joint first exhibition held in September at Preece's Gallery, Adelaide, included some pottery.

 

At Reynella Pottery, her assistant was George Osborne, the family's gardener, who also began making pots, from the clays he dug and prepared. Eventually George was making most of the pots and Gladys doing the decoration. In 1922 they married and moved to Ballarat, Victoria where they established the Osrey Pottery, an acronym formed from their surnames. Osrey wares enjoyed wide popularity and were sold in Melbourne, through the Primrose Pottery Shop, and in Sydney and Adelaide.

 

They ceased making pots after George contracted lead poisoning in 1926. Gladys died in Melbourne in 1956.