The latest

Last week my oldest son had a football cup quite some distance from where we live. The team stayed in a school, and most parents went there over the weekend to see the games. NOT in sleeping bags in that school, I can assure you!!) My son broke his arm during a match two weeks ago, so he basically went along for the fun bits and to hang out with his team. My interest in football only go that far, so without the pleasure of watching my son play, I decided to sneak away for an hour to a nearby charity store I'd noticed on our way there. It was HUGE! Some of this weeks finds are from that store, like this first one:

This is a large Figgjo Folklore wall plaque. I found it in a charity store at around half of what the usually sell for. I have a smaller one that belonged to my grandmother. A while ago my mum gave me her Folklore set, you can see it here. Folklore was in production freom 1970- 75, and was designed by the amazing Turi Gramstad Oliver. I love the cheerful summer scenes, such a happy pattern!

 
Seeing them both side by side shows you how big the new one is, it's a whopping 33 centimeters tall!

Then three great, and VERY different vases. I found this tall and amazing Carstens vase in the same store as the Figgjo. Isn't it gorgeous? I so love the textured surface and the color! The pattern reminds me a bit of Einar Johansen's designs for Søholm, don't you agree?

  

Speaking of vases, this beautiful bisque vase is Suvi by Arabia. It was designed in 1981 by Gunvor Olin-Grönqvist, you can see her initials "GOG" in the last picture. It has a molded relief of flowers, which stands out on the unglazed surface. Suvi is a whole series of vases in different sizes and really nice planters. There might also be more products, does anybody know?

My mum has the bigger brother (sister?) of this one. She bought it in the early 80s when she got what my dad later refers to as the most expensive bouquet he has ever given her. She received a large bouquet of roses from Amsterdam and he didn't mean the price of the flowers, but the fact that she didn't have a vase that was big enough and went out and got a really large Arabia!

The third vase is a Scheurich. Seems a shame that I never write anything about the Scheurich pieces, it's simply because I don't know a great deal about them- other than the fact that they're gorgeous! Love the colors and lava pattern on this one.

My collection of Stavangerflint souvenir plates from my home town is expanding, I found two new ones yesterday. I'm not sure who designed the ones with the maps. If you look closely, it says "Viste" just to the left of the Stavanger cathedral, that's where I grew up and where my parents still live! To the south you see Egersund, home of all that great pottery, and in between is Jæren, with my beloved beaches and rocky shores. 

The second one in red is handpainted by Kari Nyquist. It shows, like my previous plates, scenes from my home town. This was made as a corporate gift (that's the text on the back), it even states the year, 1964. You probably recognize the scenes and buildings by now, after I've been going on about it several times:-) Notice the fish monger in the third picture trying to impress the lady? You can see my other ones here.

Today, I found six more settings in the Stavangerflint Finse pattern, as well as a sugerbowl and creamer and egg cups. Finse was designed by Kåre Berven Fjeldsaa in the 60s. There is more information about it and better pictures in one of my recent posts.

I've been on the lookout for egg cups, and lately they have been pouring down on me:-) I especially love the Figgjo ones with the little bowl for egg shells, that you can see here, but the Stavangerflint ones are also really cute. I found eight Finse egg cups, and four Sera. I think the egg cups look REALLY good in Sera.

I found a small Knabstrup dish and candle holder in a very delicate combination of light greyish blue and beige. The colors on the dish are more faded. I don't know a great deal about this company, and found this information on this site that sums up their history:

This factory was based in Denmark in Zealand.  From 1856-1907 Knabstrup Lervarefabrik was a brick factory. In 1897 it was bought by Henrik Schou and in 1907 its new ceramics factory formed the basis for a new era in Knabstrups history. 

In 1930, production was mostly utility ware. Aksel Sigvald Nielsen (Aksini) worked there until 1954, producing vases and also pottery plaques. After Frida Schou retired as Director in 1970, the factory bought a new gas kiln, Bjorn Wiinblad took over production and changed the name in 1977 to Knabstrup Ceramic Factory A / S. Production consisted of dinnerware, wall plaques, and dishes. The company closed in 1989.

There's a pair of candle holders in brown and green for sale in Birgitte's Etsy shop, have a look!

 

That's all I guess! Well, that's not excactly true. I found something really sunny that I decided deserves a post of it's own. If you're on Instagram, you've probably seen it:-) See you soon!