Titian Studio Pottery Blog

 Let's start at the beginning. Front L to R: Brown brothers, Cameron (Snr), Neil and Jack with Vivien (Jack’s daughter)  and Cameron Jnr perched behind them. Neil's dog is a Scottish Terrier named Sandy.  Cam Jnr believes this photo was taken in the summer of 1950 before he started school. He thinks it was a Sunday because Jack, who was very religious, was dressed in his Sunday best. Coming home from the war in 1947 with wife Dorothy and baby Cam, Cameron Snr briefly worked at the Waitakere Brick Works with his father and two brothers before joining Crown Lynn. He managed to get jobs for brothers, Jack and Neil there. In about 1949 Cameron left Crown Lynn, briefly working at a timber yard. He, along with Dorothy and little Cam Jnr moved a couple of old army huts from Waitakere Brick Works to a piece of land on Bethells Road opposite the old school house. One hut was for making the moulds and casting them. The second was where they displayed the finished products for sale....

  The fragile nautilus shell is carefully cradled in coral. Sherwood Nautilus on Coral vase  from Cam & Bev's private collection The original hand-painted Nautilus on Coral vase was modelled by Cameron Brown Senior, and decorated by Dorothy in the Sherwood era from 1950 until 1953/1954, at Waitakere. This was prior to their name change to Titian Studio, which I believe is around this time. This example, photographed by me, is from Cameron and Bev's private collection and was included in the Auckland Museum's Titian Exhibition in June 2004.  Sherwood Nautilus on Coral vase  (base) from Cam & Bev's private collection Bisk fired blanks were supplied by Sherwood Pottery to Owen Salisbury's Royal Oak Pottery. It was at his factory that they were painted gold or a dark cream then a shellac clear coat to seal the paint. You'll find many of the Sherwood supplied Royal Oak pieces, like this vase, the fish with bubbles toothbrush holder, and the wall moth vas...

 Which Titian Studio pieces were sold in 1961? (Auckland Museum - a photo taken off a photocopy) I was thrilled to come across a 1961 G R Newgoods Distributors brochure when I met the lovely curator from Auckland Museum's ceramic department earlier this year. The brochure proudly states, 'Sole N.Z. Distributors of Titian Pottery.' This post focuses on one column in the catalogue. I promise I'll write about the other columns of products in future posts. Excuse the blurry photo. As the Auckland Museum only has a photocopy, I've taken a photo from that. Maybe the owner of the original brochure will get int touch to let me get a better image. Wholesalers G.R. Newgoods Ltd were based at 60 Hobson St, opposite the big Farmers Trading company in Auckland's CBD. The company started in 1949 and were the first distributors of Sherwood and Titian products. It was Newgoods who gave the English Beswick catalogue to Cameron asking him to replicate some of the designs for them...