Gallery of Glazes - Crackle Lustre

The Bubble Glaze

PV.113 - Green, Blue, Purple Crackle Lustre

Crackle glaze was an accidental discovery by Cameron Brown in the late 1950s. A crackle agent was added to the glaze or applied directly to the warmed semi-matt vase. It makes the glaze crawl and crack. The thicker the crackle agent applied, the bigger the crazing. When it had ‘crackled’ enough it would be ready to go into the kiln. There are two types of crackle glazes. One is finished with a high-gloss lustre glaze, whilst the other is left as it is with the cracked surface such as leather and lace glazes.


T.103 and V.110 - green crackle lustre

Crackle Lustre comes in three colours - Green, Blue and Purple on a white slip body. Though all crackle lustres are hard to come by, blue is considered the rarest. To me, crackle lustre gives the impression of coloured soapy sud bubbles that have landed and popped against a beautiful array of vases. 

V.117, BNB.306, and an unmarked *Clam Shell vase - purple crackle lustre

The purple lustre glazes range from red to reddish purple. It has a thin copper sheen which was added to the crackling mix prior to being sprayed on before being finished with the lustre glaze. The green and blue examples don’t have the metallic sheen.

Unmarked wide lipped vase, V.116, and KV.101 - purple crackle lustre

I wonder if the wide lipped vase was part of the KV range. Just to confuse things the blue crackle lustre range of colours is from blue to purple. I only have the one blue example which is in the first photo. 


Unmarked handled jug and Classic Vase V.110 - purple crackle lustre

*So, why aren't some of the vases marked with Titian Studio product codes? The Browns sold to a large number of distributors. Some were specialty companies, like gift shops, lighting companies and florists. Others were wholesalers and distributors each with their own particular products they’d purchase. 


PB.104 - Pink/Green crackle lustre

Cam Jnr described Ross Presley as one of the best wholesale salesmen for Titian Studio. He drove around various retails with his van full of Titian pieces sitting on velvet for the owner of the shop to view. He and his staff sold many different pieces including many of the crackle lustre pieces. He purchased items from 1964 to 1970. The majority of the purchases were in 1966. The brand name was Presley Ware.

Presley Ware / Presleyware stickers found on the base of pieces.

For a photo of the Titian Studio products sold by Presley Products Ltd check out page 158 in Gail Henry's second edition book; New Zealand Pottery – Commercial and Collectable (1999 edition)

PV.113 Limoge design (ex Manos Sourris collection)

There are many specialist glazes made at Titian Studio including marble, ruby lustre, copper and gold, stipple/stone and feather. I'm working my way through them so make sure you 'follow' me for fresh posts. You can check out my Gallery of Glazes blog posts - Stardust and Aerograph.

Happy days,
Louise

B.102 and T.102 Oakleaf Trough

©Louise de Varga 2022 - Content and pictures in this blog

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