The Fortune Teller by Sherwood

Perhaps the single most iconic piece produced in those early years at Waitakere - the experimental Sherwood years - was a large figurine called the Fortune Teller.

As with many things, there is more of a story here than initially meets the eye. The Fortune Teller was made in 1953, the year New Zealand became enthralled with everything royal. Cameron Brown modelled her on Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth II's grandmother. Elizabeth II's coronation was the happening thing at the time, and a Royal Tour of New Zealand was in the offing and much anticipated by the general public.

In New Zealand ceramic history, 1953 also saw the production of one of the most iconic (some say infamous)  pieces of Crown Lynn, also with a royal theme. At the time, the great Dutch designer Frank Carpay was employed by Crown Lynn, producing the now much sought-after Handwerk line of decorated art-house pottery. The design he came up with was a clean modernist line drawing on square plaque, of the young Queen wearing a shear silk gown through which one could distinctly make out a carefully rendered bosom replete with nipple. There is one in the Auckland War Memorial Museum's collection:
http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/image/dish-Handwerk-ceramics-61742-710744.jpg?730x530

By the standards of the day, Cameron Brown's royal gambit was only a touch more respectful, given that he was representing a dowager British Empress as an itinerant circus medium. Crucially, the style remains faithful to the potter's folk art style, eschewing the modernist take on the 1953 royal phenomenon executed by Carpay.

The colours of this object are among the best I've seen and the decoration among the most careful. It is said that Cameron Brown's wife, Dorothy sat for hours as he modelled the body, so he could get the posture and fall of the clothing just right (thanks newzealandpottery). This particular Fortune Teller can be identified as one of the first two or three produced because of the dainty ceramic earrings which were very fiddly to apply and apparently replaced on later models.

You can find images of a couple of later models from the collection of Manos at the website run by Ev and Heather, www.newzealandpottery.forumotion.net.

Sadly only about 20 Fortune Tellers were produced, making it one of the most desirable and collectable pieces of early Titian. The marks are shown below. The first is on the bottom and the second on the base around the back.

The Very Beginning: Sherwood Pottery, Waitakere

For the first post I thought I'd start at the very beginning -when Cameron and Dorothy Brown were setting up their first pottery in rural Waitakere in the late 1940s-early 1950s.

These first two pieces come from a time when production was still very small scale and experimental. The scope for giving free reign to Cameron Brown's sense of humour was therefore probably much greater - something implied in these two small objects.

These two ashtrays both have a bone china body with applied moulded decoration. The main body of the ashtray is a basic form that would come to be standard throughout the high years of Titian production. The mould later received the number S100 ("Souvenir 100"), though these ashtrays were made some years before the numbering system was put in place.

The Sherwood monkeys are so early that bits of grit have fallen onto the piece during firing and are rough when you run your finger over the top surface. The phrase "Oh What a Party!" has been inscribed in ghost sgraffito around the rim.

An interesting aspect of the applied monkeys' piece is the very early mark on its base.

The second ashtray is here because it is the first Sherwood piece listed, though not illustrated, in Gail Henry's 1999 book New Zealand Pottery, on page 165. This is the famous "Drunken Man" ashtray.

Well modelled given the limited tools and facilities Cameron Brown had at the time.

Other rare and early Sherwood pieces from the collection of Manos can be found online at the good website www.newzealandpottery.forumotion.net.

Blue Lustre Glaze c. mid 1960s

Mould number T103, second mould form (hollow base), 15x18 cm in size. This is a test photo.

Welcome to a blog celebrating New Zealand's Titian Studio Pottery

Titian Studio Pottery was a commercial pottery noted for its decorative ware, produced in the mid-twentieth century in New Zealand. For many years its repute in New Zealand was overshadowed by the work of the enormous company that would eventually take it over - the ubiquitous Crown Lynn. With the exception of a retrospective exhibition at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in 2004, little has been published on Titian's finer, interesting and sometimes, delightfully obscure aspects. To be sure, it received a reasonable treatment in both of Gail Henry (formerly Lambert)'s seminal books (1985 and 1999), which are currently the standard texts on the history of New Zealand commercial ceramics. However, much of the Brown family's work at Titian, particularly that of its late scion Cameron Brown, remains unknown to the wider collecting and potting community in New Zealand.

This blog aims to rectify, in small part, the gap that exists in the public's knowledge about this important pottery, its innovative glazes and the folk art aesthetic found in its important souvenir range, produced in the 1950s and 60s at a time when there was little tourism to far off New Zealand.

Some Crown Lynn forms, such as the Swan and the McAlpine fridge jug have become so iconic in recent years, that it scarcely seems possible to plug oneself into the New Zealand zeitgeist without possessing these two articles. For adroit interior decorators and design opinion makers they have become a symbolic shorthand for the essence of modern New Zealandness. This is an honour that some Titian forms could deservingly aspire to, were they but better known in this country.

I will post short articles occasionally, well illustrated with photos. As everyone knows, "pics" for a collector are the most helpful thing around. I'm not aiming to be comprehensive in my coverage of Titian. As at any pottery, much was produced there that was mediocre. Other pieces have been illustrated on the web elsewhere. This means that I'm not going to provide lists or photos of all the mould shape numbers, although there will be a bit of commentary on some aspects that are either hard to understand or a bit interesting. As all experienced collectors know, Titian's numbering system was not as simple or systematic as that at Crown Lynn.

In my view, Titian has two souls as far as a collector goes. The first is in its extraordinary range of good mid-century art glazes, the best of which are right up there with the best German and French art pottery of the same period. Therefore, photo spreads will concentrate on these glazes as exemplars of the work of Titian Studios.

Titian's second soul is to be found in its range of souvenir ware, produced as much for the domestic market as for overseas tourists. It was entirely different in character from the famous Wharetana Maori ware produced by its big competitor Crown Lynn. The style is much more that of the folk artist in its painted decorative and sgraffito work. Cameron Brown also designed his own transfers for use on ceramic articles, and these too are part of that story.

The aim is to compile a good resource for Titian and New Zealand pottery collectors, so here's hoping you enjoy the blog!