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 ;)

Bucket list

A while ago I stumbled upon this great blog posting My thrifting bucket list revisited again by The Recycle-ista. In it she lists some of the coolest things she found during her years of thrifting (including a wall piece by Curtis Jeré – SO jealous! Maybe his Raindrop pieces should be on my bucket list), and what’s still on her list.

It made me think what would be on MY thrifting bucket list. In my last post I mentioned that I found something from my bucket list: an Ystad candelabra with Kosta Boda glass. I was so happy when I found it. I still have it, and I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly. In fact, it has multiplied: I got a matching green candelabra for my birthday. It automatically puts the orange version as the first item on my bucket list, because what would be better than an entire set? (I couldn’t confirm if these large candle holders also come in blue.. which would be so nice as it’s my favorite color!)

Next item on my list is a piece of the Bojesen Zoo line. They’re so cute! And I love Mid Century Teak. Especially when it is not perfect but used. Wood gets such a nice patina over the years. Last weekend I was extremely lucky, as I stumbled upon not one, but two Bojesen Flag bearers. They’re fully marked, vintage, and well loved, but SO nice. I will keep one in my own collection, and one will be available in the store.

End of September my husband and I are going on holiday in Malta. As we don’t have a car there, I think there won’t be a lot of thrifting, but we are going to Mdina by bus, and I’m guessing there will be some antique stores in Valletta (if you have any tips, let me know!). My dad has been collecting glass for a long time, mainly Scandinavian, but he also has two beautiful fish head vases by Michael Harris for Mdina. I would be thrilled if I could find one in Malta, where they were originally made, so he can add it to his collection.

Fish head vase on the cover of Michael Harris, the book by Mark Hill

Seeing this is my bucket list, it also needs some West German pottery on there. I’ve mentioned before that I collect Roth Keramik. They are still the ultimate Fat lava. Although my aunt and uncle, who also have the thrifting bug, have found not one, not two, but THREE Roth vases in the wild, I never was so lucky. I did find the one below on a flea market, but it is cracked (I still brought it home, because it is one of the rare blue vases!). For my bucket list I don’t mind which color it is, any would be nice :).

I’m a huge fan of Bitossi. Over the years I have found plenty of vases, bowls, and even some animals, but I have never found a clock. There are a lot of cool patterns, so it is difficult to choose. Perhaps the traditional Rimini Blu has my preference, as it is such an iconic and recognizable décor.

Sorry.. not my pic. See source here.

Over the years I have picked up the occasional piece of Rosenthal Flash, designed by Dorothy Hafner. But did you know she also made her own studio ceramics? Especially her teapots are amazing. It seems like most of them were sold in the US, so the chances of finding any here are small, but stranger things have happened.

Sorry, not my pic. See item for sale here

The final item on my list, for now, would be something – anything – by Memphis Milano. I first learned about Memphis and Sottsass during my internship at Christie’s, and it has been true love ever since. The auction I worked on contained a large collection of Memphis Milano items, and they are just amazing. They’re crazy, colorful, fun. So different from anything I had seen before. I saved the money I earned from my internship and bought a Martine Bedin Super Lamp (not the original eighties one from the auction, that was too expensive, but an official re-issue).

The lamp still has pride of place on my granddad’s antique writing desk. Whenever we have people visiting us for the first time it is a great conversation piece.

I know that the chances of finding a piece of furniture, or even a lamp thrifting is extremely small. However, Memphis Milano also made cool pottery, glass, fabrics and jewelry. It might be more realistic to find something like that!

I think I’ll stop here… I could go on for pages, as there are so many cool vintage treasures. But these are the ones that would make my heart skip a beat.

Let me know which items are on your list. I would love to know!

Blink! An Ystad Metall Candelabra

A few weeks ago I read the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It's a great book, certainly a recommendable read. It explains the different sort of snap decisions we make, and how they can influence our behaviour in a positive or negative way.

The book begins with a case of an old Greek statue, a Kouros, that is brought to the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. The statue is presented to the museum, they really want to purchase it, but as it costs an enormous amount of money, they research it extensively. After their research they decide the statue is the real deal, and buy it. But, shock and horror,  when some of the specialists in the field later see the statue, they instinctively know that it is a forgery.

So, how does this relate to Fat Lava? It very much reminded me of the process of "hunting" for goodies on markets. When I'm scouring stalls for Mid Century Modern, I know in a split second if there is something interesting for me. Even if there are more than a hundred items on the table, I'll spot what I want immediately, sometimes from three rows across the hall.

The amazing thing is that this also works with items I have never seen in real life before. Last weekend I was at a market, and from the corner of my eye I spotted this beautiful candleholder by Ystad Metall.

I had only seen images of this online, but it is very high on my oh-how-I-wish-I-will-come-across-one-of-these-in-the-wild-list. And there it was! As Malcolm Gladwell describes, in less than a second I knew what it was, and that it really was a Ystad candlestick.

And it is every bit as beautiful as I imagined. The only thing that surprised me is that it is slightly lighter than I anticipated.

The candlestick was probably designed by Gunnar Ander*, somewhere in the 1960s. Gunnar Ander was a Swedish designer, that lived from 1908 to 1976. He mainly worked for the Lindshammar glass factory, but was also active for Ystad Metall for a while.

Although I cannot confirm this with certainty, the glass discs in the candelabra are attributed to Kosta Boda, and possibly made Erik Hoglund. It at least is mentioned that Kosta Boda produced glass for Ystad, so it is likely that these were also made by them.

For me, the combination of the translucent glass and the dark metal are what makes this such a strong design. It's a bold and modern piece. The piece is marked Ystad Metall on one of the legs.

For now (although it might at some point become available in the shop) it lives happily on my beautiful antique writing desk, between part of my collection of Roth vases, and a Super lamp by Martine Bedin. I think it compares well with these iconic designs.

*I believe this is his correct name, but I also see his name described as Gunnar Anderssen or Andersson in places.