It's here! The snow is forecast to begin sometime during the night. While I have not seen salt being scattered on the roadways, I have seen electronic signs on the highway banning commercial vehicles after midnight. They say it's going to be a big one. We can do nothing better than go with the flow. In the end, you can't beat Mother Nature.
Speaking of snow, let's share some of our favorite "snowy" vases—vessels crafted and finished with wintry, snow-like glazes. It will be our small celebration of the snow.
Shown above, a Mid-Century West German Modernist "genie bottle" vase by Carstens-Tönnieshof. The rare white and grey pumice-like glaze has been called a "glacial glaze"—and it does look like freshly fallen snow. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
The pottery company, Carstens-Kommissionsgesellschaft, was founded some time between 1878 and 1892, depending upon which history you read. Father and son, Ernst and Christian Carstens, expanded the company into multiple workshop-factories. Most of these locations did not survive World War II, except for one location in Brandenburg (which found itself in the newly-partitioned Communist East Germany). Like many privately-owned, family companies, this remaining factory was confiscated and nationalized under the German Democratic Republic.
The Cartens fled East Germany and opened a small pottery workshop in a farmhouse, called "Tönnieshof," in Fredelsloh, West Germany. Thus Carstens-Tönnieshof was born in 1947. Ernst's wife, Trude Carsten, served as artistic director. She hired already-established artists and designers to design new "lines" of ceramics for Carstens. These artists include Gerda Heuckeroth, Henry Siery, Dieter Peter and Helmut Scholtis. The post-war look was bold and Modernist—and business took off.
Initially, after the war, German ceramics provided high style at a low price—a winning combination in a new world with a growing (and style conscious) middle class. Germany, having lost World War II, had a large labor force, desperate to work. German labor was inexpensive and world wide pottery production (highly labor intensive) relocated from the victor countries (England, America) to the vanquished countries (Germany, Italy and Japan). As they succeeded, Carstens opened factories in Austria, Australia, Argentina and Chile in an attempt to expand its global reach. But, as western economies (like Germany's) strengthened—and western laborers drew higher salaries—Asia soon became the world's low-cost producer. By 1977, Carstens declared bankruptcy. An outside firm attempted (unsuccessfully) to keep production going for a few more years, finally shuttering for good in 1984. But, before then, Carstens provided innovative design and fashionable style to a world which was embracing Post-War Modernism.
Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome (and uncommon) piece of pottery.
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.