Schramberg Majolica Tableware

midcentury SCHRAMBERG MAIOLICA Barbotine FISH TUREEN TERRINE handpainted Design Period 1955 to 1965 Production Period around 1960 Country of Manufacture Germany H / height: 11cm both ~ Gew. / weight: 2950grs DM / diameter casserole : 30 cm x 15cm x 11cm high ~ 19cm with its lid MARKED: Schramberger Majolikafabrik 5624 :-: fair condition with some very small chips (see photos) - Considering the sensitive material I would even say it is in good condition -- let´s call it charming vintage :-: To ensure a safe arrival, this item is packed in super-safe packaging. (up to 10 Kg) SMF SCHRAMBERG was originally founded in 1820 as Faist'sche Steingutfabrik by the stoneware expert Isidor Faist on the site of the abandoned Schramberg castle. By 1829, Faist and his factory had gained such a good reputation that Baron Ferdinand von Uechtritz became his partner under the new name of Steingut- und Majolikafabrik Uechtritz & Faist. With the Baron's financial support, the partners were able to build a new factory behind the castle, which dramatically increased production. By the 1860s, the company had a permanent workforce of 100 and an impressive number of almost 6,000 homeworkers (decorators, etc.), mainly children and women. From 1882, Faist began taking orders from Villeroy & Boch, who eventually bought the Schramberg pottery in 1883 and continued to operate it as a V&B subsidiary until the early 20th century. In 1911, several of the factory buildings had to be demolished to make way for the local railway, which drastically reduced production and caused Villeroy & Boch to lose interest in the site, which they sold to brothers Moritz and Leopold Meyer in 1912. It was the Meyers who introduced the "SMF" trademark and eventually gave the company its permanent name, Schramberger Majolika-Fabrik. In 1918 the company was transformed from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability company and the transformation was complete. The Meyer brothers were always on the lookout for new talent, and many famous artists joined the factory or contributed designs in the years that followed. Their decorative ceramics, stylized in vibrant colours, attracted much attention in the 1920s. Eva Stricker-Zeisel was a prominent designer for the company from 1928 to 1930. Her designs were strongly influenced by the Bauhaus movement and her modern form and decoration designs gave an avant-garde look to part of the production programme. As well as designing the shapes, Eva Zeisel also supplied the intended decorations for the pieces, although the decoration department often adapted her decorations to shapes for which they were not intended. They would even use them on shapes other than those designed by Zeisel and apply decors not designed by her to her shapes. This particularly happened with the very popular 'Mondrian' pattern, which often appeared on non-Zeisel shapes. The factory continued to produce Zeisel's designs for some time after her departure, but she sometimes felt that the designs were not exactly as she had intended. With the economic crisis of the early 1930s, the focus of production shifted to tableware and utilitarian ceramics, until the Nazis forced Moritz and Leopold Meyer to sell the factory in 1938 as part of the forced aryanisation of the German state. Both emigrated to England with their families during the war, but in 1949 Peter Meyer...