Hamburger's Pottery light blue stemmed vase

A light blue stemmed bulbous vase produced by Hamburger's Pottery (1947- 1986) in Grahamstown, South Africa. Such studio or factory ceramics were household and popular items. Named after the German born, Jurgen Hamburger, a ceramic instructor appointed in 1938 at Grahamstown Art School based at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape. In 1948, Hamburger sold this pottery to Norman Steele-Gray and eventually established Hamburger’s Pottery, which primarily manufactured crockery and domestic ware characterised by restrained decoration such as sgraffito and slip-trailed images. Hamburger’s oeuvre was rich, varied and complex, and was grounded in the Northern European modernist ceramic design traditions articulated by the Bauhaus.