Graveren by Ragnar Grimsrud

I'm so excited over here, I've managed to dig up some information about the large Graveren plate I bought in a charity store in Stavanger, look here. It is indeed a Ragnar Grimsrud piece!! I searched for Graveren pieces on the web to see if I could find a similar one, and thereby date it and find out who designed it. I finally did, in a site called Digitalt Museum. It's a great resource that I often use, it's basically the collections of the major museums, digitalized.

I found a picture of a bowl that has almost exactly the same pattern as my plate that was dated 1930-39, designed by Ragnar Grimsrud during his time as head artist/designer at Graveren. I also found two other pictures of pieces in the same wonderful Art Deco style, a liqueur carafe and a vase. They are both in the dark end of the colors used in the pattern on my plate and I'm therefore suspecting they were all part of a series. The carafe is also dated to that same period 1930-39, while the vase is a bit earlier, 1928-33. All the pieces are part of museum collections, the bowl in Norsk Folkemuseum, the carafe and vase in The National Museum.

 

Many artists were connected to Graverens Teglverk. Ragnar Grimsrud (who also worked for Figgjo and is considered one of our most talented pottery makers of the 1900s) is the most renowned, and became head designer (artistic leader) in 1928. His work was among the most appreciated during his time in the company, and after Graveren's participation on the Paris fair of 1925, one of his pieces were added to the collection at the ceramics museum in Sevres. 

Many Graveren pieces are marked like this, with two three- digit numbers, the upper  number being the number of the design, and the lower the decor.There's also the little factory stamp with the pipe and the letters "Gr". It's hard to see in this picture, it's in the upper right corner, upside down.

I feel like I struck gold with this one. Due to a small imperfection, a little crack along the edge, the price was only 30 NOk, that's just 5 USD or 3,30 GBP!! I don't mind that little flaw one bit, I'm never gonna sell this beauty anyway! I've moved stuff around a little bit and paired it with my older Graveren storage jar turned planter on the dining table.