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Annikki Hovisaari for Arabia Finland Large Decorative Ceramic Wall Plaque

About the Item

Large ceramic wall plaque features an abstract motif of a fish in bright turquoise glaze with mauve and blue outline on light mottled mauve background. The contrast between high gloss glaze on the main decor and semi-matte background glaze adds textural variety and tactile interest, while large-scale size of the artwork provides visual impact and sculptural quality to the piece. The plaque is marked with Arabia Finland factory mark, an export mark from 1949 - 1964 that was also used for the home market items; it is also known as the "crown stamp". The numbers in the stamp are the factory's own production codes, they do not indicate the production year or month. The plaque also appears to have a faint artist signature in pencil above the stamped mark; it has a piece of paper with handwritten artist name attached below the stamp mark that was probably placed by either distributor/gallery or collector. We decided against removing the metal attachment that was using for displaying the plaque on the wall, allowing the future owner to decide how the piece will be displayed. The plaque was acquired from the estate of a prominent art collector in Western New York; it is unclear if it was purchased domestically or when travelling abroad, but it appears rather rare. We were able to find a smaller, turquoise butterfly decorated plaque, that is stylistically close to this piece, that appeared once in auction listings a few years back, but we never saw this particular design. The plaque has the hand-crafted, free-flowing artistic quality and different glaze application technique compared to some of Hovisaari better known tiles, such as her peacock, rooster, and owl tiles, or rectangular wall plaques with geometric or abstract fruit decors, in which the glazes are confined by a raised ceramic outline. The plaque is reminiscent of unique art decor pieces that Hovisaari designed for Arabia while designing decorative tiles for the factory production of Arabia's decorative arts department; in particular, the same glossy turquoise glaze appears on her unique flower relief, created in 1950s-1960s, leading us to believe that this plaque could have been created as a unique art during that time period, and not reproduced. Annikki Hovisaari (1918-2004) was one of Finland’s leading ceramic artists in the 20th century. She graduated from the Central School of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in 1948. Hovisaari worked at Arabia in the Department of Decorative Arts from 1948 to 1962, and then moved to the Department of Art until 1974. She designed and made mainly decorative item sets for production by the factory, but also created her own unique works during that time. In 1963, Hovisaari moved to the Art Department, where she perfected her distinctive wheel-turned and shaped large basins, bowls and bottles, made of chamotte clay, porcelain and earthenware; she decorated her pieces with color glazes and sometimes by carving. Annikki Hovisaari took part in international exhibitions in the 1950's and 1960's; in 1962 she was awarded the first prize in Gualdo Tadino ceramics contest in Italy, and ten years later - in Vallauris, France. When the Art Department was restructured in 1975, Hovisaari left Arabia. Annikki’s artistry is represented at the numerous museums in the Nordic countries.

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