Tag: German pottery

Designer Desire: Peter Guggenbühler

Selection of Peter Guggenbühler ceramic designs for Altenstadt

Sometimes, it’s when you’re researching something completely unrelated that a titbit of information comes your way!

That was the case when I discovered that it was Peter Guggenbühler (1928-2007) who was responsible for the series of porcelain decanters for Altenkunstadt that we sold in the past (shown at the top of our montage above).

As well as the decanters, he designed the Das Variabile range of stylised animal figures. They each have detachable stained wood and ceramic eyes and each was given a name:

  • AJAX & BEJAX
  • Lion – “Zottl”
  • Alligator – “Fafnir”
  • Rabbit – “Guggi”
  • Owl – “Huhu”
  • Snail – Schlurf”
  • Frog – “Herr Q”
  • Cat – “Killer”
  • Hippo – “Hippo”
  • Crow – Krah”

In addition he has created vases, wall plaques and small-scale sculptures.

In 2014, there was a posthumous exhibition of his work at Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was entitled “Vom Umgang mit Porzellan, Elefanten und anderen Kreaturen – der Keramiker Peter Guggenbühler” which roughly translates as “The handling of porcelain, elephants and other creatures – the ceramist Peter Guggenbühler”. Here’s how the marketing material described it:

In its spring exhibition, the Staufen Ceramics Museum commemorates Peter Guggenbühler (1928-2008), who, after initial successes in Saarbrücken, returned to his hometown of Karlsruhe in 1961 and was one of the most respected representatives of his field in Baden-Württemberg in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Of course he didn’t behave like the proverbial elephant in a china shop, he loved the material too much for that. But he has thoroughly confused the expectations associated with porcelain. Instead of pleasing figures, he has all sorts of bizarre creatures that are clearly descended from elephants, crocodiles, rats and various horned and antlered animals, but which clearly show human traits and behaviour.
In addition to small sculptures, Guggenbühler created reliefs and tiles in which he opened up other venues for human comedy, such as theatres and pulpits. An artist with exuberant imagination who is worth rediscovering!

Check Etsy for items occasionally popping up for sale.

Designer Desire: Renate Rhein

Montage of Renate Rhein ceramics for Rosenthal | H is for Home

Renate Rhein (1925-2020) was born in Hoya on the Weser. She began her working life as a paintress. From 1954, Rhein worked for Rosenthal – a company for whom Bjørn Wiinblad and Wolf Karnagel also designed.

In 1960, she taught herself ceramics and established a studio of her own in Worpswede in 1961.

The piece that first drew my attention to Rhein was one of her sun plaques. Aren’t they stunning?! Then I found this amazing tiled table of hers on Pamono.

Check out Etsy and eBay for pieces of hers that are for sale.

Any further information about Rhein is hard to come by; the tiny image below is the only one I could find of her online. If you can expand our knowledge, please comment below!

Portrait of Renate Rheincredit

Additional image credits:

Bukowskis | eBay | Pinterest

Friday Folks – Kevin James Graham

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selection of 'Fat Lava' East & West German pottery belonging to Kevin Graham

This edition of Friday Folks features Kevin Graham. We came across him online a few years ago when we were trying to find more details about some of the ceramic items that we’d been accumulating for our shop. Kevin is one of the founding members & admins of the online Pottery and Glass Forum – a group full of very friendly & extremely knowledgeable people from all around the world. You can also find him endeavouring to spread the Fat Lava love around the virtual world via Twitter and Flickr

Who are you & what do you do?
I am Kevin James Graham. I am a researcher & Author on factual books on West/East German pottery. To date I have written Spritzdecor to Fat Lava (hardback), and West & East German Pottery Marks & Form Numbers (hardback). Both limited edition books which came out in July 2009 with only 250 copies of each.

photo of Kevin James Graham

Since the publication of these two hardcover books, I switched to CD as a medium and introduced Spritzdecor to Fat Lava Book/CD and West & East German Pottery, Marks & Form numbers Volume II (which contained over 3500 more numbers than the original book). These came out in January 2010.

"West and East German Pottery" book by Kevin James Graham

In November 2010 I released Spritzdecor to Fat Lava II on CD which contained 32 more companies than the original hardback book & CD, and an additional number of designer profiles bringing the total to 48. At the same time, I released the greatly updated West & East German Pottery, Marks, Form Numbers & Decors Volume III which contained over 2800 new form numbers, including a huge section on Art Deco, with the aid of Volker Hornbostel, a collector of pieces from this period. In addition, a new Decors section was added, with pictures of the known decors of Alka Kunst, Bay Keramik, Bückeberg, Carstens Tönnieshof, Ceramano, Conradt (Gebruder), Cortendorf, Dümler & Breiden, Eiwa, ES-Keramik, Fohr Keramik, Ilkra Keramik, Jasba, Jopeko, Keto, Kupfermuhle Keramik (KMK), Marzi & Remy, Ruscha, Scheurich, Schlossberg, Schramberg (SMF), Stutzel Sachs Wächtersbach, etc.

pair of Fat Lava floor vases

Other additions to this CD included studio marks & porcelain marks sections. This CD covers the period 1900 to 2000, for form numbers. Also inside this CD is information on who designed the famous Hearts motif pieces for Wächtersbach and when.

Also within is the answer to the 5 WGP companies that had LAVA as a known decor. Of course, the work on both the form numbers & decors is ongoing as, since publishing this extensive CD, I have found new catalogues from Carstens Tönnieshof, Ceramano Fohr, Marzi & Remy, Ruscha, Roth & Ü-Keramik – so next year, a Volume/Edition 4 will be issued.

Fat Lava reference cds compiled & produced by Kevin James Graham

Other publications that I will launch this year are a Ceramano bookalogue to be released for the More Than Fat Lava Mid Century & Modern German Ceramics Exhibition happening in Amsterdam from 18 June 2011 in conjunction with Emiel Monnink from Retrominded. This exhibition will be opened by my friend Mark Hill.

Bauhaus Generated (German Atelier/Töpferei/Studio Pottery) 1920s to 2000 which contains the profiles of leading potters – who trained them, start date, marks etc with over 300 colour photographs. Over 700 potters are identified in this publication.

Studio potters include Antal (Bandi), Heiner (Balzar), Bampi (Richard), Bisang (Liselot) Bomblies (Eva), Bontjes van Beek (Jan), Böttger (Inge), Brügemman (Antje), Busz (Ralf), Crumbiegel (Dieter), Claussen (Michael), Doss (Antje & Rainer), Dudas (Laszlo), Eggemann (Hildegard), Frey (Harro), Gerhards (Walter), Gramman (Siegfrid), Harney (Else), Heuckeroth (Gerda), Hillers (Ulfert), Hohlt (Albrecht & Georg), Hudler (Friedrich), Kagel (Wilhelm), Kerstan (Horst), Kiessling (Albert). Klopfer (Lu), Kuch (Wilhelm & Elly), Kuhn (Beate), Kummer (Thomas), Lang (Anton) Laeuger (Max), Langelot (IB), Liebenthron (Gerhard), Lindig (Otto), Loesche (Ernst), Maetzel (Monica), Meier (Otto), Mühlendyck (Wim), Piesche (Anton), Schäffenacker (Helmut), Scheid (Ursula & Karl), Stahl (Rudi), Stahl (Wendelin), Stehr (Barbara), Uhlemeyer (Richard), Unterstab (Kerstin, Gudrun & Ralf), Weber (Rolf), Wichmann (Otto). The foreword to this publication will be written by Mark Hill.

pair of purple vintage Roth Fat Lava vases

How did you get into the business?
By accident! In 2001 I found a Fat Lava Bay Keramik piece in a charity shop in Chard, Somerset – I started to collect later. In 2004, after meeting my wife Esther, I moved to North Germany. I found a treasure trove of West & East German pottery. My collection, which up to that point was only 200 pieces, grew rapidly. However, very little was known then about this pottery. I started to catalogue the form numbers and after several discussions with my friend in the USA, Forrest Poston, I decided to write a book. Research on Spritzdecor to Fat Lava & West & East German Pottery Marks & Form Numbers started in 2004. The only book available at that time was 50er Jahre Keramik by Dr Horst Makus, only in German, and didn’t cover most of the items I was interested in. In 2006, a new book came out (only in German), by Dr Michael Thomas entitled Deusche Keramik und Porzellan der 60er und 70er Jahre, which is an excellent book. I still collect today, my WGP/EGP pieces have exceeded 21,000. I know it sounds a lot, but Michael Thomas has nearly 10,000 more!

red vintage Fat Lava vase

Who or what inspires you?
This is a difficult one, I have several people who inspire me to write more, these include Mark Hill, Michael Thomas, Cari Zalloni, Stuart Brownrigg, Stuart Gunning, Emiel Monnink to name a few.

vintage Greman potter bird figure

What has been your greatest success?
Again, difficult to think of just one thing. Work wise, writing the two original books which actually started life as a single book, but the printer I used was unable to bind such a large book so it became two.

trio of vintage 1950s Fat Lava vases

Have you got any advice for someone wanting to break into the business?
Hmmmmm… make sure your workplace is quiet, has no telephone, make sure you back up your data – every day and make sure your research is sound. I don’t think of writing my books as a business, more of a quest to catalogue the history of WGP. I certainly have not made any money on them, so far, and I know I am not alone. Also, make sure you have a lot of cash in the bank as printing books is expensive!