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.

Pieces of the Puzzle

I know, I know, I just said I didn´t have time to blog... but I had to share this! 

Almost every "thrifter" I know has a list of ultimate finds. It contains items that would make your heart skip a beat if you would come across them in real life. Let alone if they are afordable too!

I practise my poker face every morning in the mirror (I can tell you, I need more practice), just so the dealer on the other end of the table doesn't know I am dying to buy their item.

The top spot on my list will always be a blue Roth vase. In imaculate condition. (Ha, like that's ever gonna happen!)

Furthermore, my top 10 contains a Ruscha 313 in Volcano glaze, Riihimaki uranium pieces, and a Bitossi puzzle vase. I love the wax technique that was used to create the puzzle pieces, and the colors are just great. It's a very sophisticated, but incredibly seventies colour scheme.

So... lo and behold what I found yesterday!

Isn't it wonderful? Added bonus is the beautiful shape. The decor works great on the circular body. It's a great design. I believe the design was by the great Aldo Londi. 

Sadly, I'm not allowed to keep it. We have strict collection rules, only Bitossi animals are allowed permanent residence in our family. Therefore, it will soon go in my Etsy shop. But yes, my heart did skip a beat when I spotted it.

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!

Teenie Weenie Polka Dots

West-German pottery is such a fun subject, as I'm always learning new things and making new discoveries. A while ago I encountered a factory that was unknown to me: Vereinigte Zeller Fabriken Georg Schmider. I know that's a whole mouth full, but their work is a lot more fun than the name.

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.

I'm in the 313

The longer I've been collecting, the more I'm drawn to the ceramics made by Ruscha. Something in their designs is so elegant, especially those from the sixties. And where I loved bright colors and thick, runny fat lava when I started my collection, I now enjoy the slightly more subdued, earthy tones used by this factory.

In an earlier post I already showed my own collection of vases with the Vulkano glaze, in this post I want to highlight the 313. I think it is rightfully the most famous shape by Ruscha.

I mean, look at it! It's so elegant!

The vase was designed by Kurt Tschörner in 1954. The 313 went through a lot of transformations.

Somewhere in the 1960s, Ruscha decided that the model needed to be changed. The handle got thicker. I suspect this made the jug easier and cheaper to produce, maybe it also prevented that a lot of the vases from failing in the production process.

Later in it's history both the handle and the spout got bigger, which distinctly changed the form of the vase.

The 313 comes in many glazes, well over a hundred I believe. There is a great Facebook page displaying these wonderful glazes. These were produced until quite late, possibly as late as the 1990s (I think this brown/gray version might well be from that age).

Forrest Poston wrote a great article about the 313, where he discusses the changes in shape in more detail. You can find it here.

I would love to own a 313 with the original shape one day, with Vulkano glaze. Decor Filigrain would be fine as well... a girl has gotta dream, right?

It's About Time

Last year I wrote about finding my first West-Germany clock. After that first lucky hit, I found many more beauties. I have to admit that my first find is still my favourite, and I haven't found any more examples by Carstens. Lately however, I've come across a number of clock bodies which were produced by the company Herbolzheim Keramik.

Herbolzheim Keramik must be one of the unsung heroes of West-German pottery. As far as I know there isn't any information available about the company. Apart from the fact that the factory was established in…. you guessed it… Herbolzheim, there is just nothing, nada! (If you have any information, I would love to know!) But they were prolific producers of West-German pottery.

I did manage to find out (by checking a lot of online listings) that the company seems to only have produced kitchenware, mainly cake plates, and many, many bodies for clocks. I also found a few wall plates, which were based on the designs for the clocks. Not a single vase in sight!

It looks like they started producing kitchenware, as a lot of it has the typical pastel 50s/60s colours. I love the clocks though, as they are über seventies! The glazes are fantastic: oranges with reds, yellow with blue, lime green on a forest green background. Wow! These clocks are very vibrant.

Most are based on a rectangular shape and are cool because of the glazing, but some have fantastic shapes as well.

Herbolzheim probably delivered the clock surrounds to the factories who produced the mechanism. I So far I have seen a number of factories such as Quarz, Quartz, Zentra, Junghans and others all use the ceramic bodies by Herbolzheim.

The best thing about these clocks is that they are so usable! When you reach that point where your house just cannot contain another vase (and most of us West-German pottery collectors know this feeling), you can go looking for one of these clocks. Every house needs a clock, right?

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