By MARY MORRISON
Potter. Died aged 79.
The Brown family are New Zealand's version of the great British pottery families.
Cameron Brown was a third-generation potter who was given a 19th century Stoke-on-Trent hand-written pottery recipe book by his grandfather. His grandfather and father had both managed and consulted to
potteries in Scotland, England and America.
Brown was born in Dunedin, where his father was a shareholder and technical director of McSkimming Industries at Benhar, Wingatui Brick and Tile Factory and Abbottsford Tileries.
At the close of World War II, Brown had returned to New Zealand a war hero, with a young English wife. He had been presented with the Polish Cross of Valour, the equivalent of the Victoria Cross, for his service in the submarine alley supply line.
Brown and his wife, Dorothy, joined the ceramics community in West Auckland and began their new venture - a pottery, initially known as Sherwood then Titian Studio, which produced 'arthouse' slipware.
Their experimental approach and Brown's love of painting led to the development of glazes that have not been surpassed in New Zealand and Australian ceramics, and the production of more than 30 porcelain bodies.
He was also involved with advances in oil, gas and electric kilns, and automated ceramics machinery.
Titian was awarded the Department of Trade and Industry's first grant for a postwar business most likely to succeed.
The Browns maintained close professional relationships with other potters, especially members of the Crown Lynn staff, like head designer Dave Jenkins. Titian Studios, at its peak, employed 50 staff and exported internationally. In the 1950s and 1960s New Zealand's ceramics industry was noticeably more advanced than its Australian counterpart.
Titian Studio operated in Auckland from 1947 until it was taken over by Crown Lynn in 1970.The Browns and their sons, Cameron and Chris, reinvented themselves as Aquilla, and later Orzell Industries in Drury. Their respective families have since joined them, and the family pottery tradition continues.
