Two Vases

The two vases appear to have been modeled from the same clay, which is brown when fired, and are partly covered with a deep red (“ox blood”) glaze. However, the form and impression of the vases are quite distinct from each other. While the heavily mottled vase on the left takes its form from the urns of antiquity, the righthand vase is nearly square in form and the almost painterly dispersion of the glaze overlay is reminiscent of Japanese models. Both vessels reflect the high niveau of art ceramics in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, as evidenced by the Berlin ceramic workshop of Jan Bontje van Beek.