Reginald (Reg) Preston (1917- 2000) was born in Sydney, NSW. In 1938, after meeting the Melbourne sculptor Ola Cohn, he went to London to study sculpture at the Westminster School of Art. The war forced him to return to Australia, where his interest in pottery was aroused by seeing Allan Lowe at work. He took pottery classes at the Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University) in 1944. From 1945-46 he worked at Cooper and Cooke's Pottery in Glenhuntly, then set up a studio at Warrandyte, Victoria. In 1953, he and his first wife Joan opened the Possum's Gully Gallery to showcase local work. In 1958, he married his apprentice Phyl Dunn and, in the same year, they both became founding members of the Potters Cottage at Warrandyte. Initially he worked in earthenware, but he migrated to stoneware in 1967. In 1982, the couple set up a studio at Woolamai in Victoria, where Preston continued to work until 1995.He has entries in the 1974 potters' directory and in the Encyclopedia of Australian Potters' Marks (2002), which contains a full history of his marks.
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