Titian's Stonehenge and Lascaux caves decoration

The Stonehenge glaze was used extensively in conjunction with a design Cam Brown adapted from prehistoric art found in the Lascaux Caves in France.

Foreground, B116 (Bowl number 16)

To my knowledge Titian only used ONE cave art stencil, which was derived from the image in the following link: http://i33.tinypic.com/1zf61au.jpg

Un-numbered Titian lamp base

These designs are so redolent of the 1960s and it is such a high quality art glaze that I am certain they will be sought after by collectors of New Zealand pottery and mid-century design for years to come.

The above tennis sets are said to have been experimental and therefore un-numbered, according to the antique dealer in Auckland from whom they were bought years ago.

As with any topic, it you write a blog aiming for comprehensive coverage, occasionally you'll strike something that is a little bit controversial - even with Titian pottery!!! At the risk of getting into trouble with some collectors, I'm sticking my neck out here: The thing that needs to be said is that there are quite a lot of vases with cave art decoration sold as Titian, which are not. Even Gail Henry was caught out when she illustrated a vase as Titian, which I think is likely to have been made in Japan in the 1960s. You can find this mistake on page 11 of the colour photography section of her book (between pages 192 and 193 of the main text of her 1999 work). There are often vases from this foreign manufacturer sold as Titian on Trademe. The confusion is understandable because of the similar themes. However, the foreign vases have shapes that Titian didn't produce, along with different brown tones, and an attempt at producing a Stonehenge glaze that does not measure up to the quality of the effect Titian got. I have yet to see a Titian Lascaux pot with a stencil decoration different from those illustrated above.

Titian's Stonehenge Glaze

Another highly successful innovative glaze achieved at Titian was what they called "Stonehenge". It was reportedly Cameron Brown's personal favourite. It looks like coloured, worked and weathered granite.

On the right, PJ101; center, SV202, left PV110

The vase with ram's head corbel handles is numbered and PV110 (Paramount Vase number 10), and works particularly well with this glaze giving a real prehistoric effect.

The genius of the glaze effect is that it produces the optical illusion that it is a textured rough surface, when in fact, it is completely flat. Look closely at the glaze sample photos below and you will find yourself looking at peaks and troughs with shadows cast.

Brown Stonehenge glaze sample

Blue Stonehenge glaze sample

This is an optical illusion - it is actually completely smooth and flat. I don't know how this effect was produced. No doubt there are experienced potters on the web who could explain the chemistry of how this might have been achieved. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them...
The blue Stonehenge is harder to find than the brown, and seems to have been used on only a very limited range of articles, including B115 (Bowl number 15) below.

In semi-profile:

Vase lucky number 13

Some shapes saw interesting evolutions and adaptations in design over Titian's life time. One such was the large  V113 (Vase number 13), one of which can be found in the previous post in its guise of a lamp base. However, it can also be found as a normal vase, and even more uncommonly, as a lamp base with all the whistles and bells including a beefed up square base and monumental handles. Below in a line-up of the three forms, all derived from the same basic shape. The smallest is 31 cm tall, and the largest, a mighty 50 cm to the top of the light fitting.

The middle lamp base is done in the stonehenge glaze, with the very well executed profile of the fourteenth century BC Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.

Titian's Woodgrain Glaze: Oak & Mahogany

One of the most successful of Titian's art glazes has to have been the wood grain glaze. More specifically, the Mahogany glaze, because they also tried to emulate an Oak wood grain too.
As Gail Henry (page 64) writes: Woodgrain [was] inspired by Teddy Rennie (a mould-maker and decorator employed by Titian) whose father was a decorator of coaches and stately homes in Britain. 
On page 157 Henry continues, Teddy Rennie was an English employee whose background was in commercial art... Teddy specialised in airbrushing and unusual finishes and also in printing.

This glaze gives such a close appearance of highly polished mahogany that it is hard to believe it is a hand-finished ceramic glaze effect. They look like the type of thing you would find in a very palatial house.

Titian Mahogany Glaze sample

 The large urn at the back of the top photo is numbered B109 (Bowl number 9) and is 17 cm tall by 22 cm from handle to handle. It was one of the biggest bowl forms Titian produced.

The urn is unusually well marked. First it has Titian Studio B109 impressed into the mould. It also has a "b" inscribed into the base and it has "A1" painted on under the glaze. I surmise that the "b" represents the name of the glazer of this work, and "A1", means that as far has he was concerned, this was going to be a superior quality piece. And so it is.

The large lamp base is a variation on the vase that was numbered V113, and is 40 cm tall, from base to light fitting.

The Oak glaze is slightly less common than the Mahogany although I do prefer Mahogany.

Titian's Oak glaze sample

It is lighter in colour and as can be seen in the below example, was glazed in a way that suggests the krater form was made of 2 pieces of turned wood that were then joined together.

This vase is numbered B 107-2 (Bowl number 7 size 3). The "2" is, counter-intuitively, actually telling us that this is size three (the largest) of a form that comes in three sizes.

 B107-2 is 22 cm tall; B107-1 is 18 cm tall; B107-0 is 14 cm tall. The middle vase is in the grey marble finish which will be the subject of a later post.

Experimental innovation: Use of glass enamels on Ceramics

One of the most simple yet elegant Titian glazes was the cobalt blue. This was often finished with gilt highlights. Less often, a very interesting transfer was applied, resulting in a fine two toned cameo-relief effect.

This transfer was in fact originally designed for used on glassware, so its application to ceramics was somewhat innovative for Titian.

The above vase is 27 cm tall and is numbered V 118 (Vase number 18).

Titian's Wedgewood experiment

As far as I know, Cameron Brown only ever once tried to emulate the famous powdered eggshell blue Wedgewood body. Gail Henry (page 169) describes this product:

Fluted shape in Wedgwood blue vitreous body, not glazed, about 10" tall, made at the request of Ken Lord, approximately 200 made. Body produced by Cameron Brown Sr by trial and error using an old recipe book bought by his grandfather for one pound from William Bourne, a Burslem potter noted as being the first to produce bone china.

The interesting thing about this vase is that it is not numbered KV*** as you would expect for a vase designed and made for Ken Lord. It is actually numbered SV 201 (Sargoods Vase number 1). Does this mean that Gail Henry's information about this vase was incorrect? Maybe Cam Brown just mis-remembered who he made it for?

Fantails: An iconic Titian motif

Over the years, Titian Studio produced a number of products with flora and fauna motifs. One of the most popular of these motifs appears to have been the humble fantail which appears on a number of different forms, some of which are harder to find than others.

The two small scraffito-decorated dishes in the centre were mainstays of Titian's souvenir range. The ashtray on the left was numbered S 100 (Souvenir number 0), and the pin dish on the right was numbered S101 (Souvenir number 1). There are two interesting points to remember about these small dishes. First, both forms went though two generations of mould, and secondly, the Bluff Oyster Shell form was given two other numbers depending on its decoration, without any alteration of the mould. This may have been for excise tax reasons. If you find a shell pin dish decorated with painted colourful native flowers like kaka beak or kowhai, these were given the number S106. If you find one decorated with a colourful painted native bird (including a fantail, a kiwi and a wood pigeon), these have the administrative number S107.

The fantail wall vase is a gorgeous piece of kiwiana design, and is one of the earliest of Titian wall vases (1950s). It was made before the numbering system was introduced.

 Interestingly, these fantails are only found in an early mould form with three raised dots on the reverse. Other wall vases, such as the famous Titian "Swoose", are found in both early three-pointed forms and a later second generation mould form, where the whole rim of the reverse is raised.

Reverse showing first gen wall vase mould with raised dots

Perhaps the rarest fantail themed pot put out by Titian was a modelled pond looked over by an applied fantail. This was conceived as an ashtray and is numbered A 11 (Ashtray number 1). As many Titian collectors will rightly point out, Titian numbers were almost always letters followed by three digits, and this leads some to question whether this one really is Titian. However, if you have a small Swordfish ashtray you will see that that was numbered A 12, putting the fantail ashtray in this range. It is however, much harder to find than the small swordfish.

The words "New Zealand" were inscribed in the mould and can be seen around the front rim of the dish.

  These are quite kitsch, but do evoke a folk arty, post war New Zealand like nothing else.

Lustre Glaze - 1960s Modern

The second glaze I want to highlight is the near psychedelic Lustre Glaze produced mainly for the Presley Ware range in the 1960s. Some vases also received a Paramount sticker. According to Gail Henry's book, this glaze was introduced by one of Titian's skilled crafts-people - Mary Baillie. Mary Baillie had learned these techniques at, of all places, Royal Doulton in the UK.

Photo

The glaze came in three main colours - Cerise Red Lustre, Blue Lustre and a wondrous Avocado Green Lustre

Deep Cerise Red Lustre Glaze sample:

Blue Lustre Glaze Sample:

This glaze is hard to photograph. It looks grey here but is a
much more vivid blue in the flesh

Green Lustre Glaze sample:

The vitrification properties of this glaze seem to give it a tendency to
 have yellow/gold highlights which makes it  exceptionally attractive

This glaze range lends itself to being collected in threes of the same shape, giving a pleasing interior design effect in certain contexts.

The above shape is numbered T 103 (Titian article number 3).
The largest vase in the range displayed above is the Large Urn with fluted sides numbered ***.

As can be seen, the size of the oil-on-water like effect of this glaze can vary considerably. Some prefer a finer texture to the glaze (as above) and some a bigger globual coverage as in the following example.

Numbered V 117 (Vase number 17).
Or:

A very elegant and it seems popular shape at the time, numbered PV. 113 (Paramount Vase number 13)
My personal favourite of the glazes it the avocado green, which is just beautiful.

Titian's Iconic Tiki Dish S 105

This is one of Titian's more iconic pieces of folk-art kiwiana. This sits alongside the famous Wahine Toby Jug as perhaps the most well-known of Cameron Brown's souvenir ware with Maori themes. When considering these pieces, these days we need to point out that they were produced with minimal Tangata Whenua input. They are products of their own time (1950s and 60s) and hopefully can be enjoyed for what they are - joyful, though unreflective celebrations of New Zealand's important Maori dimension by a Pakeha craftsman who liked and admired Maori culture.

The three on the right are all Titian tiki dishes, and the one on the left is the Crown Lynn Wharetana equivalent, put here by way of comparison. I will mention a few more interesting facts about the second lives of these objects, and the greater cultural significance they have assumed, when I put up the post on the famous Wahine Toby Jug. The latter is now used in New Zealand schools as a teaching resource for cultural appropriateness. 

Here I just want to highlight a couple of points for collectors about these tiki dishes. Firstly, the moulds come in two different forms - first generation and second generation. They can be distinguished by the first generation products being slightly smaller and not having the in-mould makers mark and number on the reverse (only a mark Titian or Titian Studio scratched into a slash of green or black). The air hole on the back is smaller and in a slightly different position as can be seen here:

First Generation mould on right c.1950s; second generation moulds centre and left c.1960s

The interesting thing about the second generation tiki dishes, which were given the mould number S 105 (Souvenir number 5), is that at some stage they began receiving their own special black underglaze stamped marks. The Maori Mere form also had its own special mark similar to this. 

These are pure Kiwiana whatever complex cultural baggage they carry these days. Iconic and again, very much in a folk art tradition. Enjoy!  

The Mystery of the Marine Plate

Several years before Cameron Brown's death in 2002 (see the following link to read his NZ Herald Obituary:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=2848145 ), Mary Morrison interviewed him a number of times. Mary is the probably the expert on Titian. Among her aims was to establish what some of the earlier and rarer objects he produced may have been. Cameron Brown tantalisingly recalled making a plate with a nautical theme in very small numbers. Is this it?

This small dish is moulded in relief, airbrush decorated and the details hand finished in fine black lines. The border takes the form of a ships wheel. It has the feel of the mid-1950s about it, although I can't be sure. Until recently I was in little doubt that this was the plate Cameron Brown was referring to. However, a larger relief decorated and painted plate has come to light and was sold at auction in Auckland not long ago. A picture of this on can be found here: http://img.carters.com.au/164019.jpg 

What do you think? I think both of them are probably Titian. This is one of those numerous interesting obscure details of Titian production that is so rewarding for the collector. Again I want to emphasis the folk art character of these souvenir pieces of Titian - so different from what Crown Lynn was all about.

Lace Glaze/Crackle Glaze

The first post on Titian's excellent art glazes deals with what Cameron Brown called his "Lace glaze". Other people know it as a crackle glaze. However, because Titian's "Leather glaze" is also a crackle glaze, we'll continue to call this glaze "Lace".

The production of this distinctive glaze involved first applying a colour glaze slip and then a thick white overglaze that hardened, shrank and cracked when fired, while the underglaze became molten, ideally producing an even all-over textured effect. These pots are a joy to hold because of this textured, tanned stingray skin-like result.

This glaze is most commonly found as white on black. For a reason not known to me, these white on black pots were most commonly given a rose-pink interior glaze. This may have been because the contract for the production of these pieces stipulated that they should have this pink interior, although this is only a guess. It is much more difficult to find white on blacks with a plain white interior.

Oddly, the other lace glaze colours, which are much less common, were all given plain white interiors, with the exception of the blues, which were also glazed blue inside. These colour schemes include a delicious white on rhubarb-red, white on cobalt blue, white on sage green, and white on lemon yellow.

GLAZES

Rhubarb Red: Glaze sample

Example: Form V.109 (Vase number 9)

Sage Green: Glaze sample

Example: Form KV. 102 (Ken Lord Vase number 2)

Lemon Yellow: Glaze sample

Example: Form KV. 100 (Ken Lord Vase 0)

Glaze Sample: Cobalt Blue

Example: Form S 202. (Sargoods Vase, number 2.)

Note that vases designed for Sargoods seem to have all been numbered in the 200s 

Some pots with Lace glaze were converted into lamp bases and can be seen in the following photo, where this has happened to a KV 100. In this case the fittings are polished copper which goes very well with the lemon curd glaze.

The other pot in the above photo is a large PV 111 which is 29.5 cm tall. (Paramount Vase number 11)

My personal favourite glaze is the White on Cobalt Blue.

The large vase in the above photo is one of the largest regular production vases put out by Titian, being 31 cm tall. Numbered V 113 (Vase number 13).

This is a glaze that for sheer decorative effect compares favourably, and is sometimes mistaken on Trademe, for mid century German art vases. However, many of these colour combinations and moulds were unique to Titian.

These are 60s mod glazes that are the product of New Zealand genius. Not European or American. Crown Lynn did nothing like them. They are so good they deserve to be as iconic as CL art vases, yet they still don't attract the interest CL products do.