Preston, Reg

Designer	Reg Preston
Maker	Reg Preston
Marks	Painted “P” To base in black.
Material	Glazed Slip
Description	Wheel thrown, hand moulded conical bowl with indented tab handle.  Grey semi gloss glaze with white glaze to handle.  Unglazed foot ring
Condition	Very good
Number	No number
Production Date	Late 1960s
Width at rim	111mm
Width at Base	63mm
Depth	60mm
Length (with handle)	157mm
Weight	185gm
Volume	375ml
Acquisition	Purchase Mill Antiques Ballarat 27 November 2014.
Rameking Reference Number	PRE 001

Reginald (Reg) Preston was born in Sydney, New South Wales on the 18^th of March 1917.  In his early years, he travelled to London in 1937 after a meeting with Ola Cohn (Melbourne Fairy Tree) where he studied sculpture at the Westminster School of Art in 1938, a private college located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans yard, Westminster, the school was part of the old Architectural Museum.

He returned to Australia at the beginning of the Second-World-War.  He was attracted to pottery after watching Alan Lowe.  Although often cited as being self-taught, Reg spent a short time potting at the Melbourne Technical College under John Barnard Knight and Klytie Pate in 1944.  He then began working at Cooper and Cooke (Ceramics) Pty Ltd pottery at Glenhuntly, Melbourne in 1945-1946.  This company produced mostly ceramic insulators during the war but switched to producing Ceramic electric jugs later on.  Reg had also set up a studio in his home in 1945.

In 1947 he moved to the bush area of Warrandyte and began working full time as a potter, making a range of domestic and decorative wares, although he claims to have set up his own studio in 1945.  In the early 1950s, he and his first wife Joan, along with Katie Janeba and Alex Goyda were operating and selling in the “Parsons Gully Gallery” making and selling a range of earthenware.  He held his first solo exhibition in Melbourne in 1958.

In 1958, Reg married his apprentice, potter Phyl Dunn.  After a talk from Alan Lowe, they set up the “Potters Cottage” at Warrandyte, along with Gus and Beth McLaren, Charles Wilton and Artur and Sylvia Halpern.  The group began in Osbourne Road in a shed on Meg Nicholas’ property.  Reg and Betty Hipwell had organized the purchase of a potters wheel and moved in from Ferntree Gully.  Reg was also now doing some work in English Slip.  During this early peiod, Reg & Phyl were using the brand name “Ceres” on some work.  Ceres is the name of the Roman God of agriculture.  Some of their work at this time was made with pseudo-aboriginal motifs. 

Phyl had been studying painting with Daniela Vasieleff. Painters Elizabeth and Daniela Vasilieff were working there along with other artists Harry and Marie Hudson, Wally Manders and Inga and Graham King.  Originally Phyll had seen Merric Boyd working at the Primrose Pottery Shop in Melbourne, and seen a film on African pottery.  Michael Cardew had been working in Africa around this time and had influenced several English potters who had traveled there, later returning to England.

Reg once said of his work: "I quite simply make pots that please me. They are derived from a number of factors, the clay itself, the firing, other pots from other ages; these factors have over the years of work been gradually assimilated and become unconscious. The best ideas for me come from pots and from long bouts of continuous work. I find continuity of thought about the pots that I'm making day to day to be the time that is most fruitful. Occasionally when all the thought about the process, the technical knowledge merge and become one, then days later you might get from the kiln one or two pots that stand as it were 'on their own legs' detached and quite apart

Reg began making stoneware with vitreous or metallic glazes in 1967.  Stoneware is fired at a higher temperature to earthenware.  Many of these pieces have striking abstract patterns.  He continued well into the 1980s making larger decorative pieces.

In 1982, they moved to Woolamai on Phillip Island with friends Mr & Mrs Edna Witt.  Charles Wilton and Eric Juckert were also working there at the time.  They continued to work there until 1995.  Phyl died in 1999.

Reg is an acknowledged master and has pieces in collections such as the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Powerhouse Museum, Queensland University of Technology museum and many smaller regional galleries.  Many pieces were donated by Reg’s Executor, potter John Dermer.