The vase that started my new passion is this bad boy:
I love it. It just makes me happy looking at it. I can't imagine anything like that being made nowadays. It is just so mid century, so pop art. I do think it's the glaze that makes the vase, as the baluster inspired shape is actually really traditional.
Fast forward to two weeks ago: returning from their trip to the UK, my parents brought me this fantastic set of animals.
Doing some research, I found out these are also by Zeller! They are absolutely fantastic, so much fun. I specifically love that they are so humorous and colorful. Perfect example is the face of the fish:
So, what do we know about these, apart from how great they are?
There has been a pottery as early as 1794 in Zell am Harmersbach in Germany, in 1898 the factory that produced the wares above was taken over by Georg Schmider. In the early 20th century they produced a lot of traditional faiance, also some beautiful pieces in the Art Nouveau style.
In 1950 the factory hired Anneliese Beckh. A brilliant move as far as I'm concerned, as she designed all the pottery until 1983, including these lovely colorful bits.
Anneliese Beckh was also responsible for the cool Scoophead cats made by Zeller. I don't have any of them in my collection (yet!), so no pictures, but if you would like more information on them, there is a lovely Facebook group, which you can find here.
