The color Petroleum Blue is a rather hard to pin-down precisely. An internet search suggests an overly broad range of bluish-greens. Furthermore, the name elicits a negative response in some—such are the environmental consequences of petroleum (especially when it has been spilled). But the color—which the Brits call Petrol Blue—is handsome, indeed. And the color did enjoy the embrace of shelter magazine hipsters five or six years ago.
Broadly defined, petroleum blue is a blue-green with an emphasis on the blue. Perhaps the name poetically implies the elusive nature of the color—reminiscent of the unstable iridescence seen when petrol is spilled upon a floor or into a puddle of water. In any case, petroleum blue is a justifiably sophisticated and wonderful color—as one can witness in the corseted West German vase, shown above, This vase was made by Scheurich Keramik in the Sixties or Seventies.
The pottery company was founded in 1928 in Schneeberg (near the German border with then Czechoslovakia) by cousins Alois Scheurich and Fridolin Greulich. They wholesaled inexpensive glass and ceramic items produced by others. In 1938, they relocated to Kleinheubach, in Central Germany. In 1948, after World War Two, the cousins began to produce their own ceramics line under the Scheurich & Greulich (S&G) label and in 1954, Alois Scheurich broke-off from his cousin and opened his own ceramics workshop with a large, tunnel-form electrical kiln. This "vertically-integrated" business arrangement (designing, producing, selling one's own products) came at a perfect time for Scheurich to catch the Mid-Century Modern ceramics wave. As a result, Scheurich profited handsomely.
In 1955, Scheurich hired ceramicist Heinz Siery, who would become a crucial figure in the company's history. He helped modernize the production system and lead Scheurich's pioneering design efforts. Scheurich Keramik's strategy was to produce a limited number of forms—the blank, white shapes—which could then be glazed with one of several hundred colorations (based on sales results and customer demand). It was during the Sixties and Seventies that Scheurich pursued aggressively the high-texture, pumice-like glazes (sometimes called "Fat Lave" today), a signature aesthetic of Mid-Century Modernism. Scheurich even designed and produced special lines for export to foriegn countries. From the Fifties through the Eighties, Scheurich was one of Germany's leading high-volume producers of affordable ceramics. Scheurich is still in business today, though their contemporary production focuses on garden planters and pots sold through garden centers.
The corseted ceramic vase, shown above, is a shape which was glazed by Scheurich in a wide variety of color and design colorations. Here we see it in a highly-textured petroleum blue over a muddy black underglaze. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
More "Feeling Blue" tomorrow and in the days to come.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
To arrange a visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only), please call 917-446-4248.