29 November, 2024

Ceramics of yesteryear ignite collector’s quest

A childhood connection helped spark Louise de Varga’s fascination with ‘art ware’ made
by a small West Auckland manufacturer in the 50s and 60s. Helen Vause reports.

Collectible… Louise de Varga at home in Belmont with some of her many examples of Titian ceramics

Louise de Varga was always a collector, but a holiday in Nelson put a whole lot more fire in her passion for ceramics.
When a little vase in an antique shop called for closer inspection, the mark of its maker triggered childhood memories. The vase had been crafted at Titian Studio, a mid-century ceramics maker in Waitākere – and a family enterprise etched in de Varga’s memories.
On that Nelson holiday in 2017, as an adult with a finely honed appreciation for ceramic art, de Varga quickly recalled the connections.
Titian, among a number of other thriving little ceramic studios in the 1950s and 60s, was a producer of ‘art ware’ before being swallowed up by Crown Lynn.
She decided she had to have more pieces of Titian’s finest. “So that’s the way the rest of the holiday went. We were on the hunt for Titian ceramics”, de Varga says.
Her husband Danny, a collector himself, happily took up the hunt. What followed took them on a fascinating and tireless quest for treasures – around the country, online, to auctions and into a whole new world.
It also led ultimately to the self-funded production of a large, hardcover book with hundreds of colour photos of Titian ceramics that the intrepid de Varga hunted down.
She’d written two children’s books a decade earlier – so the prospect of a writing project was not inconceivable, even if the associated costs were daunting.
While the story of Crown Lynn china had been well documented, she realised the story of Titian could disappear. “I wanted people to know that our story in New Zealand ceramics is not all about Crown Lynn. When I found my first pieces I realised there was a story to be told and that it should be told and that it would be a substantial undertaking to do it justice.
“I wanted to give the founders Cameron and Dorothy Brown the recognition for the artistry of their pieces and glazes that their pottery deserves.”
When she was about five years old, de Varga’s family had sometimes visited close relatives of Cameron Brown in Waitākere.
Afterwards there’d be a hearty lunch, where grownups would be distracted exchanging their news. “I’d sneak around the house peering at the pelmets lined with beautiful china.

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“When I found my first pieces I realised there was a story to be told and that it should be told.”

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“The pieces were so colourful and glossy. A sun-shaped vase with a palm tree clinging to it was my favourite. In old Mrs Brown’s bedroom there was a galleon with billowing sails. The opening of the kitchen door would send me scuttling outside to the rundown barn where my sisters were playing,” recalls de Varga in the preface to her book. “The barn was a smelly, dusty old building The broken windows allowed sunlight to illuminate the back room. It was enough to see the dust-encrusted spider webs, a borer-eaten pottery jigger and a tumbled pile of old plaster mould halves… it wasn’t long before our dresses were covered with plaster dust. We didn’t know what we were playing with, but it was good fun.”
In September 1967, her parents Ron and Jean had made headlines when they became parents of quadruplets – Louise was one of those four baby girls.
The family outgrew their home and relocated across the harbour to Beach Haven. Although newspaper photographers came regularly to record to lives of the little girls, the children didn’t understand how their lives were different. “You always had a mate or two to play with. Mum always dressed us in the same outfits. We were a little team together. And when we started at Beach Haven school there was a set of triplets and a set of twins in our year too.”
As a young woman, she decided she wanted to learn to swim, and shortly after taking the plunge she says a chap she liked the look of, Danny de Varga, popped up in the lane next to her. That was nearly 30 years ago.
“When we got together and we opened the boxes of things we’d both collected over the years, we found we had pretty much the same stuff. I’m lucky that Danny understands my collecting and that he’s been totally supportive of this project.”
The de Vargas live in a 50s house in Belmont, which has an original retro feel, with many china cabinets. Wall space is taken by an amazing array of their favourite things.
There’s a staggering selection of Titian pieces, sometimes three deep in those cabinets, and Danny’s assorted kiwiana, signs, Crown Lynn china and more are also on show.
Louise de Varga says in 2019 she began writing in earnest about Cameron and Dorothy Brown, and the work they sold through department stores or the china shops around New Zealand.
She eventually found 600 examples to have photographed. It meant going to auctions, searching daily online and becoming an identity herself in the world of china collectors through her blog and as word of her book project spread. Collectors lent pieces for photography and also contributed to the cost.
She never had a number in mind, but says she just kept buying and buying pieces until she felt she had enough for a wide representation in her book.
From the late 50s the little Waitākere studio had produced decorative vases, toby jugs, butterflies, flowers, figurines, butterflies, birds, leaping fish and lamp bases.
Some had a nod to the china coming from Britain, but other pieces had a Kiwi feel and are very collectible.
Some is now rare and valuable, such as the fortune teller figurine made to mark the royal visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1953. As they gained experience, the Browns produced unique glazes.
De Varga cared for her father Ron at her home until he died last year at the age of 93. Intensive writing and research were fitted in around this commitment.
The pieces to be taken for photography were individually wrapped and transported across the city by Danny for safe delivery and collection.
Shining a light on the story of a small but significant maker of ceramic art ware has been a labour of love for de Varga and she’s delighted with the book she’ll be launching in Waitākere in early December.
As the story of Titian Studio spreads, she expects more pieces will be unearthed. It would be great to spark a resurgence of interest, she says, and maybe a surge in their value too.