Man Gave Name To All The Animals

When I started collecting West-German Pottery, I was solely focused on vases. They are of course easily recognizable by the W.-Germany markings on the bottom. Then one day I was at a local church sale and I spotted a little rhino bank that had the same markings on the bottom. What??? In addition to crazy coloured and textured vases, these Germans also made pottery animals? My interest was piqued.

I picked up the Rhino, which I sadly don't have in my possession anymore - I just have too many stuff, and this had to go - and did more research.

Some internet trawling landed me on the fabulous website http://www.ginforsodditiques.com/ where I found old images of a Ruscha catalogue, including a lot of animals! 

WOW, so many animals!

This was the first time I saw an image of the famous Ruscha Bull, and I just needed to have one. At the time I worked for an auction house, and I was very much into checking out the catalogues of all the medium and smaller auction houses in the neighbourhood for West-German pottery.

And lo and behold, after a few months a bull turned up. IN VULKANO GLAZE. Luckily for me, it wasn't described as being Ruscha, and although it was slightly more than I wanted to pay (auction fever!), I got it for a good prize.

The bull on the left started it all

I still find it absolutely stunning. It is such a strong design. This vulkano glazed bull has pride of place in my living room.

Thanks to my husband and parents, my collection has now grown quite a lot. It's quite the zoo!

Bull on the left and right are not Ruscha, bull in the middle is.

Some of my favourites are the beautiful blue bull that was gifted to me for Christmas a few years back, and the stunning Vulkano elephant.

I still don't know why Ruscha made so many of these animals. But they definitely seem to have the largest zoo. I know that some other factories like Bay (bull, elephant, some animal shaped money banks), Karlsruhe (bulls), Pan (bird, kangaroo), and Steuler (animal shaped money banks) have made animals, but they always seem a minor part of the overall production. For Ruscha they seemed to be an important part.

The catalogue on Ginfors odditiques also shows a statue of the Three Wise Monkeys. I would love to add this to my collection, but I have never seen it in real life or online. A few weeks ago I thought that it finally happened, but it turned out to be this cute version by Goebel. Although this is also very pretty, I still hope I'll find the Ruscha version one day. Any leads would be  appreciated ;)

Ceramic Lava

A while ago I showed you two of my favorite pieces from my own collection, two beautiful Ruscha bulls. The bull with the amazing blue/purple glaze was a gift from my parents, the other orange glazed one was actually the first bull in my collection, which I bought in a local auction. This orange glaze is one of my all time favorite glazes ever produced on West-German pottery.

The glaze was produced by Ruscha, designed by Otto Gerharz in 1959. Ruscha called the decor Vulcano; a very apt name indeed, as it reminds me of real lava and vulcanoes, especially because of the fiery orange glaze that is divided by rivers of darker greens. Most examples of this glaze have a lovely organic look and feel, as this isn't a smooth glaze, which contributes even more to the idea of lava.

The "West-Germany historians" often see this glaze as the turning point for West-German pottery. The pre-volcano glazes were typical of the fifties, mostly with pastel colored decorations. They were very pretty, but also a bit meek. 

Vulcano was one of the first daring glazes, which would be the start of two decades of innovative and experimental glazes and forms. Many people say that the dripping of the Vulcano glaze is the first step onto the road of the real Fat Lava glazes that marked the 1970s.

In addition to being the first step on the road to the future, I also feel that the glaze has roots in a long tradition of pottery. The glaze reminds me of the Japanese Raku wares, but also of Chinese oxide glazes.

The glaze isn't in production anymore, as heavy metals were added to make it. I do think that is a good thing, and I hope it will stay that way, because it makes the life of collectors so much easier!

Personally, the thing that draws me to this glaze is the diversity. Every single piece of Vulcano in my collection is different, and all are beautiful. The glaze is so tactile, and organic. The pieces that have a lot of green are stunning, they look like something that could have come from nature. 

Over the years, I was lucky enough to encounter several pieces of Vulcano glaze, and although they are getting more difficult to find, I managed to pick up this great pocket vase this winter. My other current favorite items are the extremely elegant 339 shape, the large 315 and, of course, the bull.

Although I love my collection, there are still two pieces on my wishlist that I hope to add in the coming years: a deer, and the classic 313 pitcher. A girl can hope, right? 

Catching a Christmas Bull by the Horns

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Mine was lovely, with good company, and obviously way too much food! And gifts! As I already mentioned in my previous post, I was giving some vintage gifts, and I also received a stunning vintage gift from my parents: a Ruscha bull!

As I might have mentioned before, most of the West-German pottery pieces that I sell on Etsy come from my own collection. As I live in a smallish apartment in the middle of town, and my collection is rather large, there is no room to display everything (in fact, most of my collection is kindly on show at my parents house), but I still have a  small part of my favorite pieces on view in our own house.

My all-time favorites are still the famous Roth vases, which I will show you another day, but the ceramic bulls, made by Ruscha come at a very close second place.

Ruscha was founded by Rudolph Schardt in 1948, the name is a combination of the first few letters of his first and last name. The factory has been existence from 1948 until 1996, when the name and all the designs were bought by Scheurich. I'm not a 100% if they still do this nowadays, but Scheurich produced the Ruscha designs in the late 1990s and 2000s under the name Ruscha Art.

Two of the most important names (and especially relevant to the bulls and this post) are Otto Gerharz and Kurt Tschörner. Otto Gerharz was the production designer for Ruscha from 1951 until he started Otto Keramik in 1964. He is the man responsible for designing the famous and very desirable 'Vulcano' glaze. Most people see this glaze as the first step towards the later Fat Lava glazes that make West-German pottery so desirable today.

Kurt Tschörner was a designer for Ruscha, who created many of the shapes, including the famous 313 model in 1954. In the 1960s Kurt Tschörner designed a line of animals for Ruscha, including the magnificent bulls, that came in three different models. The model that I have in my collection also came in two different sizes, mine being the larger version.

The catalog, that has been generously made available by Forrest Poston on http://www.ginforsodditiques.com/rus.cat.cover.html shows that a large bull originally cost 45 Deutsche Mark, which was a lot of money back in the days. In comparison, the most expensive décor on a 313 vase was 10,90 DM. In 1966 the average yearly income in Germany was just under 10.000 DM, so spending 45 DM on a ceramic bull, must have been a luxury. Hence, these were probably not sold in large numbers, making them rare nowadays.

So can you imagine how happy I was when I unpacked this gorgeous bull? It has the most beautiful blue and purple shades on a gray background. It's absolutely the prettiest one in my collection. It'll sit very pretty next to my Vulcano glazed bull, that I bought at an auction house a few years ago.

One note of warning when you are thinking about collecting these: I think Ruscha have made these bulls from the 1960s up until they closed in 1996. As they aren't marked, it is (as far as I know) impossible to know if your bull was made in 1969 or 1996. Obviously certain glazes were only used during a certain period (I think the 'vulcano' glaze was only used in the 1960s for example, but I would have to do some more research to verify this), making it possible to date a piece. In addition to that, I have seen some bulls online with the Ruscha Art sticker, meaning they must be post 1996, and made by Scheurich with the original molds (the only other explanation is that Scheurich bought old Ruscha stock and marked them with their label, but I have no confirmation on this, that is just a guess on my side).

Please be aware that some of these bulls are (or at least were for the last few years, I cannot find them on their website anymore) being reproduced by Otto Keramik in several glazes, and can be purchased online, often for a much lower amount than on selling sites. Otto Keramik did not make these to deceive buyers, they are clearly selling these as new on their website. These glazes are rather different from the glazes that Ruscha or even Scheurich used, often much glossier. But I do think it's important information to have before you go out and buy a bull.

Last but not least, I would like to wish you all the best for 2014! I hope it'll be an awesome year, with lots of exciting finds.