Designer Desire: Kordes & Lichtenfels

I was trawling through either Pinterest or Instagram recently (I can’t remember which) and came across some very beautiful, Scandi-looking, brutalist jewellery. It turns out that it was made by a company called Kordes & Lichtenfels. Despite finding extensive examples of their designs online (not all mid-century modernist in design as the ones we’ve chosen to highlight above), there’s sketchy information available about the company or its jewellery designers.

Founded in Germany in 1884 and based in the famed jewellery-making centre of Pforzheim, Kordes & Lichtenfels were manufacturers of deluxe jewellery fashioned from gold, silver and rolled gold with semi-precious stones. In the 1970s, the company evolved into Merz Export GmbH and, from 2017, another company Andreas Daub took over the production.

There are lots of pieces of Kordes & Lichtenfels jewellery available for sale on eBay and Etsy.

Image credits:
Pinterest | Poshmark

Designer Desire: Peter Guggenbühler

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.

Cakes & Bakes: Butterkuchen

When I saw the headline of the Guardian article – Churn Baby Churn – I knew that there’d be a recipe for me to attempt. You see, the recipes in the collection all have one thing in common… lots & lots of butter… Justin’s favourite ingredient!

I think I may have heard of butterkuchen (butter cake) before – perhaps I’d seen it made on Bake Off. Butterkuchen or Freud-und-Leid-Kuchen (Joy and Sorrow cake) or Beerdigungskuchen (funeral cake) is often served on occasions such as weddings and funerals or alongside a coffee as a sweet snack in (particularly Northern) German coffee shops. It’s made using a yeasted, enriched dough and, as well as all that butter, huge amounts of sugar too.

You spread the well-kneaded dough out on to a rectangular baking sheet, allow it to rise, prod holes in it, fill the holes with cubes of cold butter, sprinkle with lashings of sugar and flaked almonds, allow to rise again before baking for a quarter of an hour.

The resulting cake is truly scrumptious. The taste and texture reminded Justin of doughnuts. I thought that it also looked like a sweet version of a focaccia.

It’s a new favourite cake on our recipe rolodex!

Click here or on the image below to save the butterkuchen recipe to Pinterest

Butterkuchen

Print recipe Pin recipe

Cook Time 15

Course Dessert

Servings 8

Equipment

stand mixer
dough hook
lipped baking sheet

Ingredients

13 g quick action yeast
50 g caster sugar
8 g vanilla sugar
200 ml milk lukewarm
400 g plain flour
1 pinch salt
1 egg
50 g unsalted butter melted, then cooled
150 g unsalted butter well chilled
150 g granulated sugar
8 g vanilla sugar
100 g flaked almonds

Instructions

Put the yeast into a large measuring jug
Sprinkle the 50g of caster sugar and 8g of vanilla sugar over the yeast, pour over the warm milk and stir well to dissolve
In the bowl of a stand mixer, sift in the flour
Add the salt, egg and melted butter
Pour the yeast mixture over it and, using the dough hook, mix on the lowest speed until it begins to come together. Turn the dial to the highest setting and knead for about 5 minutes. The dough should form a large lump around the dough hook in the mixing bowl (if the dough is still a little too damp, sprinkle some flour and work it in well)
Cover and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes
Knead the dough by hand and let it rise for another 15 minutes
Meanwhile, grease & line a high-edged baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the dough out evenly across the sheet. Cover the dough again and let it rise well
Press indentations into the dough about 5cm apart, the easiest way to do this is with your thumb or index finger
Place knobs of the chilled butter into the indentations and sprinkle with sugar (amount depending on taste). Then distribute the almonds and vanilla sugar evenly over the sugared & buttered dough. The whole thing then has to rise again until the dough has visibly enlarged. (Note: don’t cover the dough at this point, otherwise the butter will stick to the cover)
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
When the dough has risen, bake for 15 minutes and the top has turned a golden brown
Allow to cool on the baking sheet and then cut into portions

There’s no doubting it’s Thomas!

There’s no doubting Thomas Germany Pottery when you see it – especially from this 1960s period. The designs are fabulous – stylish, crisp and clean.

We picked up some lovely examples this week – namely a couple of lidded tureens and plates in three different sizes. We said that you can’t mistake it when you see it, but the feel of it is very distinctive too. A fine quality porcelain that feels wonderful in the hand.

Designers include Richard Scharrer and Eva Striker-Zeisel. Patterns include Pinwheel (shown below), Arcta, Eclipse and Onyx to name but a few. We couldn’t find another example of the two-tone blue diamond-over-circle pattern we’ve just bought – in books or online. Do you recognise it or know the name/designer?

Some patterns are very pared back in subtle shades, others have striking op art designs in eye popping colour combinations.

We think it’s gorgeous – stylish and elegant.

We currently have a few pieces of Thomas in our shop if you’re interested.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Germany