Posts Tagged ‘Norway’

F is for…

Friday, May 9th, 2008

F is for banner

vintage milk and sugar set

Figgjo Flint is a Norwegian pottery company still producing today.

vintage milk and sugar set

Our favourites of theirs are the folk art and landscape-inspired designs of the 1950s & 60s – ranges such as Lotte, Daisy, Sicilia and Market.

vintage Figgjo Turi egg cup vintage Figgjo Turi plate detail
Tor Viking pattern egg cup and plate border detail

They incorporated mythical creatures, whimsical figures and stylised flowers.

vintage folk decorated plate vintage folk decorated plates
Sicilia pattern plates

The motifs were used to decorate tableware, kitchen equipment and decorative objects such as bowls and wall plaques.

vintage Fijjo pottery saucepan vintage Figgjo pottery saucepan
Pair of pottery sauce/milk pans

vintage Figgjo wall plaque featuring Vikings
Detail of wall plaque designed by Rolf Frøyland

vintage tray vintage butter dish
Daisy pattern tray (left) Berry and leaf patterned butter dish (right)

Various mergers have taken place under the Figgjo umbrella, significant amongst these was with Stavangerflint in 1968.

vintage Stavangerflint coffee set
Stavangerflint June coffee set

For more of a detailed history visit the Figgjo AS website.

Lots of our Flickr friends have lovely examples of this distinctive pottery. Have a look at them here.

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Posted in ceramics, design, homewares, Nordic, pottery, Scandinavian, vintage | No Comments »

C is for…

Friday, April 18th, 2008

C is for coffee image

What makes that perfect coffee break?

photo of espresso maker, pottery cup and chocolate bar

Well designed machines to make it in…

orange Rowenta coffee machine orange Rowenta coffee machine

Striking pots to serve it in…

group of vintage coffee pots

Vintage Denby Arabesque coffee pot Vintage Pontessa coffee pot Vintage Meakin Aztec coffee pot

Beautiful cups to drink it from…

group of hand thrown pottery mugs

Vintage Thomas porcelain trio Vintage Staffordshire trio

Vintage Hornsea Bronte trio Vintage Stavangarflint June trio

Vintage Elizabethan Portobello cup and saucer Vintage Studio Meakin cup and saucer

And not forgetting… cosies to keep it warm!

collection of hand knitted cosy coasters

hand knitted cosy coaster hand knitted cosy coaster

Coffee time @ H is for Home

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Posted in ceramics, design, homewares, pottery, vintage | 3 Comments »

Lotus Position

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Multicoloured group of Cathrineholm enamelware

Amongst the items of fresh stock for next week we’ve got some lovely Cathrineholm pots & pans that we recently picked up.

Orange Cathrineholm saucepan detail

This range of enamelware was designed by Grete Prytz Kittelsen in the 1950s.

Blue Cathrineholm saucepan

Grete Prytz was born in Norway in 1917 to a famous, Oslo-based family of goldsmiths.

olive green Cathrineholm kettle Olive green Cathrineholm kettle

Between 1936 & 1941 she studied at the National College of Arts & Crafts. After graduating she went to work for the family firm designing jewellery and metalware.

Dark blue Cathrineholm coffeepot

Enamelling was a Norwegian speciality in the early years of the 20th century, a technique which Grete revived, drawing on the family’s expertise in this field. Characteristic of her designs were the abstract motifs and striking colours such as her Lotus range illustrated here.

There was an exhibition of her work at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design) in Oslo until the end of August 2008. There is also a book/catalogue to accompany the exhibition available here.

If you’re a collector or are interested in seeing more of this work have a look at the Lovers of Cathrineholm Designs Flickr group.

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Posted in design, enamel, Flickr, homewares, retro, vintage | 3 Comments »

A leaf out of our book

Friday, February 29th, 2008

potato print of tree with birds

Our current series of blogs is looking at the inspiration of nature on artists- previous themes being fish, birds and flowers.

leaf shaped glass dish

This week we’re putting leaves & leaf-inspired designs into the spotlight. Sometimes it’s the whole object that takes the form of a leaf as with the glass dish above, but more often it’s the decoration.

Cathrineholme lotus pattern enamel kettle Cathrineholm lotus design enamel coffee pot

Lotus pattern enamelware designed by Grete Prytz Kittelsen for Cathrineholm of Norway – produced in many colours including green, yellow, blue, red, orange and black.
Leaves lend themselves very well to simple, pared down designs.

detail of1950s waste paper basket detail of plate
1950s leaf detailing

The repeating pattern of leaves on a stem is very strong visually.

Iden Pottery vase Rambouillet plate
Iden Pottery vase :: Boch Rambouillet plate

tall jug by Villeroy & Boch
Villeroy & Boch jug

One of favourite designers, Stig Lindberg, used a very similar repeating leaf pattern to great effect in his Bersa collection for Gustavsberg.

Enamelware kettle designed by Stig Lindberg
Bersa enamelware kettle

Grete Prytz Kittelsen and Stig Lindberg along with many other influential Scandinavian designers are covered in a great book – Scandinavian Design, Charlotte & Peter Fiell.
Designs were sometimes more free-flowing as in this 1950s Wade Pottery cup & saucer.

1950s Wade pottery cup & saucer

All the pieces above date from the 1950s, 60s and 70s – here are a couple of older examples. We love these rustic iron candle holders and have got quite a collection!

leaf shaped iron candle holder leaf shaped iron candle holder
Victorian candle holders

PS – We’re not sure precisely which day yet- but the H is for Home website is going live next week. We’ll be doing our next blog on the day we go live- so stay tuned!

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