Pulling in the Reins

Soon after I started collecting West-German Pottery, I learned about Ruscha wall plates. They are stunning, and I loved the idea that you could have a ceramic painting on your wall. Long story short, I wanted one. Even more specifically I wanted the large Ruscha wall tile with horses and a chariot, as the oranges and blues against the copper background are so pretty, and it such a strong image.

Back then, I was a student without a car, so my budget and hunting grounds were limited. After a few months, I got lucky and found a relatively cheap one online. My then boyfriend was so kind to drive me to Amsterdam to pick it up. The man who sold it had an AMAZING mid-century modern interior, which became my new interior decorating life goal if I ever got a real adult house.

When I proudly showed the tile to my parents, my dad told me that his parents had the exact same tile in their hallway! I must have seen it a hundred times, and it might have subconsciously influenced my style later, but I have to admit I couldn't actively remember it. My grandparents had a beautiful interior, with many antique pieces, but I love the fact that they were hip enough to have had some West-German pottery as well!

Nowadays, my grandparents' tile hangs in my parents' house. My tile had pride of place in my student room, and also in my later homes. It currently hangs in my "library".

A few birthdays ago I was surprised to find that there are variants of this wall tile, as my parents gifted me a beautiful vertical variant. (If you have read more of my blog, you'll know that my parents are the best Birthday Gift Givers ever, and many of the best pieces in my collection are thanks to them.) My collection got expanded with a tile with only the horses as well.

As much as I love all three tiles, I do think the design with the four horse chariot is the best. For me it is an iconic Ruscha item, and I love that the design has its roots in history. As far back as Egyptian times, there are depictions of horse chariots, as you can see here. Scheurich and Jopeko also made vases with this design. I think it was one of the designs on wall times that Ruscha produced most, as you see it reasonably often. 

Last year I was surprised at a flea market to find another version of the four horse chariot design, but this time with a light background! I hadn't seen that color combination ever before, but it works really well. 

For a few months this has adorned my walls with the other tiles, but as I was surprised with another Ruscha wall tile, a rare and beautiful bull, I have now put it in the shop. I have an agreement with my husband that if I add a piece, I also have to sell one. (This counts for books, my other love, as well). As much as I love West-German pottery, I just cannot keep it all!

As Ruscha made many beautiful wall tiles, I would love to hear (or even see) what your favorite is in the comments! 

Eye candy

It's a bit of a blogging cliche, but I don't have a lot of time to write new posts at the moment. But I do have some eye candy to share! We have moved house this summer, and I now have an entire attic that I can fill with vases. I'm such a happy camper! 

And this is only the beginning. I'm still sorting through boxes that were stored at my parents house and deciding what may stay and what will be sold. So if you're interested in West-German pottery, keep an eye on the store. I've already added part of my Es-keramik collection, but there will be plenty more!

A Mountain Backdrop

I've just returned from a lovely holiday in Austria. Normally when I'm on holiday I might visit the odd antiques shop, but as my husband and I often go to destinations where you have to fly, there isn't really the opportunity for buying vintage items. This time we travelled by car, and there was a flea market near our hotel on Sunday, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be a really good one, with lots of stalls and plenty of private sellers. And isn't this the best view at a flea market, ever?

We've found some lovely things at this first market. From left to right: A Goebel ceramic fish money bank, two Rörstrand tea or coffee jugs in the pattern Irene, a Bitossi vase in the decor Sahara, a glass elephant paperweight (which is marked, but I haven't figured out who made it), and a blue Bay vase.

The first few days we had lovely weather, but later on in the week it started to rain. As we weren't able to go biking as planned because of that, we decided to do some more hunting. We visited a number of antique malls/halls and charity sales in the area. Again, we came up with a pretty good haul!

From left to right we found a ceramic lantern by one of the West German factories, a Holmegaard candle holder, a Bay Fat Lava vase, a Ceramano jug (sadly, damaged at the handle), and a large yellow Sklo Bullet vase.

At a charity sale for a local animal shelter we also found this beautiful cup and saucer by Weimar Porzellan in kobalt blue, which is weirdly also marked by Goebel. I discovered these are called a Herrengedeck or a Fernsehgedeck in German. The saucer is extra large so it can contains some cake or cookies. Very convenient!

The day before we left we visited one more antiques hall near our hotel. This hall was full of little stands and small shops and opened every sunday morning. We had to get up pretty early to fit it in our schedule, seeing we also had to drive the 1000 km home, but we weren´t disappointed!

Again, from left to right: a Scheurich 414-16 with fab blue and black crusty glaze, two teak vikings, one carrying a massive spear, a small glass elephant by Bertil Vallien, a Sommerso Murano vase in blue and yellow, a Bavaria Porzellan trinket box, a Baller bronze donkey/zebra, possibly by Walter Bosse, and a Scheurich vase with a beautiful blue and yellow glaze.

We were just about to leave when we spotted one more store around the corner. As a cherry on the cake this shop contained a fab shaped Bertoncello vase and one of the best Nierentisch I have seen in a long time!

Most of these items will be for sale in my Etsy shop, which you can check out at www.etsy.com/shop/Vaseomania

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.

I see Vases, they're everywhere!

My husband and I went on holiday to the United States this year. Normally I love to scour the local antique and vintage boutiques for West-Germany vases during my vacation, and if we travel by car, we also love to check out any flea markets in the area for vintage gems, but as we were in the US I figured I wouldn't encounter any items to add to my collection.

Can you imagine my delight when we were shopping for clothes in one of the great American icons, Macy's, in San Francisco and we encountered a display of blue/white/red West-Germany vases? And these weren't some boring old standard vases, most of these were actually really pretty! Sadly the vases weren't buy one get one free, I would have loved to take these home with me!

A volcanic welcome!

A volcanic welcome!

Almost exactly 8 years ago I picked up my first West-Germany vase at a yard sale of a local nursing home. It was a Scheurich 517-38, with the Lora décor. It even had the original label. Although it was love at first sight, I never suspected that buying this one item would lead to a collection of several hundred (mostly fat lava) vases, and a life long passion for all things vintage.

The smallest Lora ever?

The Lora vase still has a proud place in the displayed part of my collection. The décor became one of my favorites and I have collected several items with the same glaze over the years. As these vases have given me so much joy, I would love to share some of the stories and history behind them. You can expect to find information on the factory and glazes, but I will also share some of the anecdotes behind personal favorites in my collection and new finds. It'll mostly be about West-Germany pottery, but as I also encounter other wonderful vintage items during my scavenging, so I wouldn't want to keep these treasures from you.

I hope you'll enjoy my stories and these vases as much as I do. If you already love West-Germany pottery and have your own amazing collection, I hope you'll be able to find that nugget of information that you didn't knew yet, and if you're new to this Fat Lava thing, who knows, maybe I can spark a new passion?

Enjoy!

Leanne