Posing the Pottery
Posted: August 28, 2012 Filed under: Ebay Watch, West German Pottery | Tags: Carstens, Ceramic glaze, Ebay, keramik, pottery, Scheurich, West German Pottery 1 Comment »Aidan’s been getting more elaborate with his West German Pottery displays over the last two weeks, thinking up more unusual ways to show off the items for sale on his Ebay listings:
West German Pottery ending 29th August
From L-R starting at the top: Hutschenreuther, Italian Bitossi style vase, Jasba N Series ‘Moon’ vase, Scheurich 267 Prisma, U Keramik, Scheurich 231, 1950s Jasba, and Bay Keramik
West German Pottery ending Wednesday 5th September
From top to bottom then L-R: Carstens plant pot, unknown black and red plant pot, unknown ‘drippy’ plant pot, Winterling bamboo porcelain vase, Jopeko vase/plant pot, unknown red and brown plant pot, Scheurich 238-18, Schlossberg 270-15, Schlossberg 259-11, Carstens, Scheurich 284 ‘Balloon’ vase, ES Keramik, Italian Pottery Studio piece.
There are some particularly stunning glazes and designs on the latest batch, showing off once again the scope and diversity of West German pottery. None of these would fit into the so-called ‘Fat Lava’ style, but there are many stunning shapes, colours, forms and glazes to be seen here.
Weekly Sales: West German Pottery
Posted: August 14, 2012 Filed under: West German Pottery | Tags: Carstens, Ceramic glaze, Ebay, fat lava, keramik, pottery, Roth, Scheurich, West German Pottery, West Germany 2 Comments »The latest batch will be ending tomorrow night. I say this every time, but there really are some gems amongst this lot. See if you can spot what they are:
One of my favourites ending tomorrow night is this unusual Roth pot:
Roth 8304
Despite what it says in the listing ( I did it…) it is actually quite a rare form; we’ve not seen one of these before. I used Aidan’s previous listing to help me write it and kept ‘a well collected form’, thinking it was a piece of his sales patter… apparently, it’s quite unknown so a more accurate description might be ‘a well searched for’ form. Oh well… the collectors will know their stuff well enough to appreciate it! The glaze is amazing: vibrant, bold and striking. Roth are a company who produced such a plethora of different forms, glazes and colours. Usually, I’m not such a fan, but I do find this one quite appealing.
Just to show my erratic taste, I also love the colours of the glaze on this Scheurich 238:
Scheurich 238
Look at the turquoise and silver against the pale grey of that Scheurich pot! We’re in the process of doing up our house, and we’ve got a few old decorating books from the 1950s to use as inspiration. In one of them, it advocates using unusual things to inspire your colour schemes, such as flowers or favourite pictures. This pot would be a brilliant colour palette for a room! Or nails! I might have to paint my nails in something resembling this pattern tomorrow. I should explain that I’m a little bit obsessed with nail varnish, so I should have the colours to create this somehow.
One of the most exciting pieces we’ve put up for sale for a long time is this Otto Keramik piece:
Otto Keramik
Now, for quite a while I was adamant that we couldn’t possibly sell this one. The shape! The colours! The ridiculously drippy, metallic red glaze! But, as all obsessive collectors know, eventually you have to make choices about what to keep and what to sell. Sadly, it has been usurped by other pretenders to the West German crown. At least the beauty of Ebay – and the field we are working and collecting within – is that you know that when it does sell it will be going to someone who will love it, cherish it and hopefully give it pride of place in their homes. Otto are a pretty stupendous company, with pieces brimming with originality and individuality and this one is certainly no exception. The founder of the company, Otto Gerharz, was very interested in the technical development of glazes and I think you can see this in the complexities of the glaze here.
So, those are my picks of the pottery bunch – which ones do you rate? Or even, which do you hate? WGP is an exciting field that divides opinion and can spark an extreme reaction one way or another. What does it provoke in you?
Items Ending Wednesday 15th August:
Items ending Wednesday 15th August
Items Ending Wednesday 22nd August:
Items ending Wednesday 22nd August
Just in case you missed the links scattered throughout, you can view the entire collection for sale here.
New pieces of West German Pottery are listed every Sunday evening between 7 and 8pm to end 10 days later.
The Allure of the Scheurich Lora
Posted: July 14, 2012 Filed under: West German Pottery | Tags: Ceramic glaze, ceramics, fat lava, lora glaze, Scheurich, West German Pottery 2 Comments »The Scheurich ‘Lora’ is one of the most recognisable glazes in the company’s range. There are a few variations, but the basic theme is a shiny red base overlaid with thick, crusty black and white glaze that has been cut away to reveal the red underneath.
The ‘Lora’ glaze is one of consistently best sellers of West German Pottery. There’s just something about the colours and the pattern that seems to attract many buyers. I wonder how many ‘serious’ collectors dismiss the glaze as being too common, too mainstream as a Scheurich best-seller? However, there is no denying there is a certain allure to it.
The pot in the top left of the picture above is a perfect example of a stereotypical piece of the Scheurich ‘Lora’ glaze: classic colours and design. There are variations though as can be seen from the other pieces; changes in colour, length and width of the incisions down the sides, one layer of ‘cuts’ or two, a more yellowy or grey tinge to the base and so on. There is a slight imposter on the bottom row, however, the second in from the left that I’ve included in my montage, but I believe this one had a slightly different glaze construction to the others. It seems to stem from the same root though in terms of design.
One of my favourite variations here is the gigantic 279 piece with the two-level orange incisions, middle row, last pot above. The 279 is the daddy piece to my beloved Scheurich 414s and I love the orange version of the glaze here. I have never seen anything other than red, green or orange on the ‘Lora’ glaze; a purple or blue could have worked fantastically against the cooler, whiter-tinged glaze variations.
So, what is the charm of this glaze? The contrast? The range that can be collected in the glaze? I’m not sure… but what I am sure about is that this Scheurich glaze is one that will remain popular within the West German Pottery market for a while yet. Prices for these pieces remain steady, and as the market for mid century ceramics continues to expand, it is striking and collectable pieces of Scheurich such as these that will help to bring WGP further into the mainstream design aesthetic.
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Big Pot, Little Pot: Scheurich and Jasba
Posted: October 8, 2011 Filed under: West German Pottery | Tags: 50s, Ceramic glaze, fat lava, Fifties, glaze, jasba, pottery, Scheurich, west german ceramics, West German Pottery, West Germany 1 Comment »It’s been a little while since I’ve done a ‘Big Pot, Little Pot’ post, but thanks to the powers of my wonderful other half, I’ve got not one, but two sets of BPLP to share with you.
Scheurich West German Pottery
He’s even made these lovely pictures for me to show off the vases in their best light. These two are not exactly matching, but they are both of the same glaze. It’s a gorgeous 1950s Scheurich glaze: mottled grey background with incised stripes of yellow, pink, turquoise and the black with a zigzag detail. The smaller one is a 271 by Heinz Siery, whilst the larger is a whopping 270-50. We found the big one in Germany; it’s the first ’50s piece that Aidan has really liked – it was him that actually bought the 271 in the same glaze!
Jasba West German Pottery
These two are a bit of a cheat BPLP really: I’m going off the pattern being the same rather than the same pot in different sizes. The smaller, blue one is a Jasba 1640-28 and the larger, red one is 1641-45. Interestingly, the form numbers for both the Scheurich and the Jasba are only one different, and it appears to be the handle on each one that shows a variation. We only noticed that the Jasbas were matching this afternoon as I was hoovering up! It’s not surprising that we don’t spot these things with the amount of stuff we have.
We’ve been to Romily and Hyde this afternoon for a charity shop hunt. Not much found in either place really, a couple of books, a retro 80s Jacques Vert top for me and a retro spaghetti tin. The weather is utterly horrendous, but I am getting a little bit excited about the potential for snow and -20 degrees weather in a few weeks’ time. We’re going to Devon at half-term and I would love an early snow week! Tomorrow, it’s Ghostpoet with some friends from work and, if I can persuade Aidan, the Vintage Village at Stockport in the morning. He’s making us homemade pizzas at the moment so maybe if I pronounce them delicious (which they will be anyway!), then I’ll be able persuade him to take me to the VV in the morning… we’ll see.
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Glorious Glazes
Posted: July 21, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 60s, Carstens, Ceramic glaze, colour, fat lava, glaze, Jopeko, pottery, retro, Scheurich, texture, vase, vintage, West German, West German Pottery, West Germany 2 Comments »I’ve just been looking at our vast collection of pots and thinking about how varied the glazes can be. Now, these pots are not necessarily my favourites (though some of them definitely are!) – it was more a case of what was close to hand!
Like I said, not all of these are favourites but they do show the variety and breadth of glazes that can be created. I’m no expert, but some of these look incredibly tricky to produce. Many people in the West German Pottery world can mock Scheurich, but some of the most striking glazes here were produced by that particular factory.
We’ve finally booked our holiday this evening – we’re leaving on Sunday! – so I’m a bit excited by that. If I get time tomorrow, I’m going to scour my Woman’s Own magazines for holiday related pictures, articles and adverts. That depends on if I can get packed in time though. Wish me luck!
New Carstens Ankara Pottery
Posted: May 8, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized, West German Pottery | Tags: ankara, Carstens, ceramic, Ceramic glaze, fat lava, glaze, pottery, retro, vintage, West German Pottery, West Germany, Wordpress 3 Comments »This is take two for this post. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I tried to write about my gorgeous Carstens Ankara earlier in the week. Unfortunately, the WordPress gremlins were out to play so it all messed up. Fingers crossed for this time round!
These are all new ones bought on the last trip. I really do love the Ankara glaze. It was Stuart at Bygone Times who first introduced me to it. It’s not as showy as other WGP but there’s something refined and elegant about it that really appeals to me.
I’ve never seen an Ankara plant pot before. I just wish it was a bit bigger so that Vernon – the world’s largest Aloe Vera plant - could fit into it.
Now I have another pair:
You must know how happy that makes me by now…
Here’s the whole collection:
I need a new shelf for them!
There are a few variants of the Ankara glaze: I like them all! Still haven’t seen a red or… gasp… a yellow one in real life yet. But there’s still plenty of time yet. Hope you’re having a good Sunday. I’ll be offline for a couple of days until Ofsted have been and gone… wish me luck!
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Carstens ‘Ankara’ Pottery
Posted: March 12, 2011 Filed under: West German Pottery | Tags: ankara, black, Carstens, Ceramic glaze, pottery, retro, vase, vintage, West German Pottery, West Germany 5 Comments »One of my favourite pots from previous trips is my black Carstens Ankara. I was thrilled to find another one on the last trip in a different form:
Carstens 1520-25
And with the original find:
With the 698-23
I love the bright, turquoise glaze inside.
The Ankara glaze seems quite fragile on these vases. We’ve got a couple of the blue and black ones and there are a couple of nibbles out of some.
It is a gorgeous glaze though:
Bumper to bumper...
This is a collection I’m definitely keeping!
Unfortunately, I’ve got up at an ungodly hour today to do some work on my Masters course. I’ve got to give a presentation in a couple of weeks’ time about a planned scheme of work that is ‘Creative’. I haven’t yet planned this scheme of work… Hmmm. Ideas, ideas… anyone got any?
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