Imagine scatterings of crystalline snow—granulated like sugar—blanketing patches of an otherworldly, volcanic-pumice mountainscape. That's what I see with this West German Modernist "genie pitcher" by Carstens. Full of texture and complexity—all within a tight palette of black and white (which creates grey).
The Carstens family has a long history of ceramics-making, having operated workshops in Germany since the Nineteenth Century. Things really came to a boil during the early Twentieth Century, when Christian Carstens—along with his sons, Christian and Ernst—expanded the company broadly, buying smaller factories and setting-up new workshops. The company produced a wide range of porcelain, earthenwares and "sanitary ware" (that is, ceramic plumbing fixtures like water fountains, toilets and urinals) and was a top player in the German ceramics production industry.
After World War II, many of Carsten's factories found themselves on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall, and those sites were seized by the Soviet Union. The Carsten family, starting from scratch, rebuilt the company for a brilliant "Second Act"—perfectly tailored to the new aesthetic appetites of the Mid-Century Modernist period.
Carstens Tönnieshof was founded in Fredelsloh in 1946, well within the zone which later would become West Germany. It was named after the Tönnieshof farm where the workshop was built. The new Carstens hired young, forward-thinking ceramicists to design various lines for the company: Gerda Heuckeroth, Helmut Scholtis, Heinz Siery, Dieter Peter, Trude Carstens, and Rudolph Christmann. The first range of tableware was released the next year and business took-off. Soon thereafter, the Austrian ceramics company, Goldscheider, licensed Carstens to produce works for them. And, within two decades, Carstens had opened (or acquired) numerous additional ceramics workshops, including in South America and in Australia.
Carstens—along with ceramics designer Rudolph Christmann—pioneered the development of the high-texture, volcanic glazes which became very popular throughout the industry. In recent years, these rough, pumice-like glazes have been branded with the trendy moniker, "Fat Lava," especially in hipster circles.
The Carstens Modernist pitcher, shown above, is a subtle feast of textures, complexity, and delicacy—all within a neutral (black and white) color palette. Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome piece.
More Winter White items to come in the days to follow.
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).
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