Jaap Ravelli (1916-2011) was a Dutch potter probably best known for his black & white African inspired figures of people and animals.

In 1943, Jaap – in partnership with his brother Dick – founded their company, D. Ravelli & Co, Sierkunst Atelier in Leiden, in the south of Holland. Jaap was the artisan maker, whilst Dick concentrated on the management of the business.

The following year, a visit to a pottery kiln inspired the brothers to set up their own pottery in 1944. The oven remained unused during the war years, a reason being that the chimney wasn’t high enough to generate enough of an updraught. Eventually, in 1946, the oven fired its first pieces. They were akin to the pottery made in Delft and Gouda and bore little resemblance to the later pottery for which Ravelli became known.

In 1947, the company relocated to Valkenburg, to riverside premises on the Old Rhine.

During and immediately after the war, there was a shortage of practical, domestic-use pottery so the Ravellis decided to concentrate on making teapots and cups & saucers. They transported their very first products by bicycle from Central Station, Amsterdam to Waterlooplein market (the oldest flea market in the Netherlands), where they sold them to a trader for 200 guilders. This was their first ever sale.

As well as his own wares, Ravelli took on a couple of collaborations. A range of teak furniture was produced in the 1950s, designed by Louis Van Teeffelen for Wébé, which included small tile inserts designed by Ravelli – two examples are included in the montage above.

Unfortunately, as a result of increasing competition from international manufacturers, Potterie Ravelli ceased trading in 1977.

There’s a richly illustrated biography (in Dutch) entitled, Ravelli: de geschiedenis van een potterie 1944 – 1977 . It was written by John de Koning, an avid collector of Ravelli pottery. An English language kindle version, The history of a pottery in Valkenburg, The Netherlands 1944 – 1977, is listed for sale on the USA Amazon site.

In the 1989 foreword to the book, Ravelli writes:

The large amount of work that was produced over a period of 33 years was, of course, not the work of one man alone. None of the work could have been produced without the thousands of hours put in by my brother Dick and the other employees down through the years. I can honestly say that there wasn’t a single day in my life when I didn’t go to work with a sense of pleasure and fulfilment, something I now regard as an enormous privilege.

There are quite a few examples of Ravelli’s designs available to buy on Etsy and eBay.

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Additional image credits:
collECKtor