Sunshine on a grey day

It was such a treat to find this sunny teaset in these grey, wet and foggy times. Egersund Unique is handpainted and the pieces therefore have an individual look. On the olivegreenish/ brown edges you can clearly see the brushstrokes. Unique was designed by Kaare Block Johansen in 1971 and was in production until 1976, just a few years before Egersund Fajanse closed down in 1979.

Unique has the exact same design as Korulen, also by Kaare Block Johansen, but which has a lovely sunflower pattern by Unni Margrethe Johnsen. I have found quite a bit of both of these sunny designs. I so love the colors and those amazing early 70s lines. The teapot is simply amazing!

I've written quite a bit about these before, so I won't bore you by repeating myself. If you're interested, you can find quite a bit of information here and here. Wish you all a great week!

 

From Finland with love

I adore finnish design. Yesterday, my dream find arrived!! I've found what's been on the very top of my wishlist for a very long time on Finn (Norway's Craigslist)- the Ultima Thule caraffe. It's so incredibly gorgeous, I absolutely adore this series by the amazing Tapio Wirkkala, designed in 1968. It's so breathtakingly beautiful, looking like eternally melting ice. The design is both beautiful AND intriguing, I keep noticing more great details all the time. The work of that bearded, pipe- smoking, natureloving guy is unlike anything else. As mentioned in a recent post, collecting the tumblers takes a lot of patience, the few that find their way to a store over here, is snatched away before they even hit the shelves. But my goodness, finding them is so rewarding, they are simply the most gorgeous glasses on this planet.

My heart always beats a little bit faster whenever I find new pieces of Arabia Ruska. I adore finnish design, and to me, Ruska is Finland, the roughness, the dark woody brown, the simple shapes, I love it. Just like Ultima Thule, it has a very Nordic feel to it. This masterpiece by Ulla Procope was introduced in 1961-62, and was in production for more than three decades, I'm guessing much due to it's modern and rustic appeal. Lucky for us, this makes it fairly easy to collect, as I know many of you do. It never seizes to amaze me that it was designed as early as it was. If I didn't know, I would easily have guessed the 70s. Earlier I've found the lovely teapot, dinner plates for twelve, several serving dishes and a teaset. Below is what I found yesterday in the Salvation army store. At ridiculously low prices, I might add.

I love the shape of the creamer, simple, low and wide.

Six coffee cups. I have eight teacups already, and often prefer the shape of teacups. But these coffee cups are even more gorgeous, so straight and tall. The only problem with Ruska is that the cups don't stack well... I do forgive them, though, since they're so gorgeous.

I haven't seen this dish before. It's an oven dish, but I can find so many other uses for it too, I adore the shape. It has the first stamp I've seen with the name Ruska on it.

 

I have this large round serving plate already, and have always wanted one more. I use it for everything, cake, salad, pizza and traditional dishes like a roast. 

Autumn has been at it's very best here today. Gorgeous weather and breathtaking colors. I went for a walk and I'm leaving you with a couple of snaps of a house here in my neighbourhood that I'm really curious about. With it's dark brown facades surrounded by Nordic foilage it seemed so fitting to throw it in after the Ruska. Although it's close to the road, it's hard to photograph. Despite it's very geometric appearance, it blends in with the foilage. Much due to the coloring, of course. It's designed around the end of the 60s. it has a square plan and an atrium covered by the glass pyramide you can see on the roof.  I'm hoping one day I'll get the chance to see it inside. I'll be sure to share it with you if it ever happens! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Ps. I just linked up with Max over at Blackbird has spoken, do pay her lovely blog a visit, I highly recommend it!

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.

Thrifting heaven

My home town proved to be thrifting heaven. The concentration of pieces by Figgjo and Stavangerflint is higher here, after all, this is where it all was made, and the Egersund factory was just an hours drive further south. I guess the selection of domestic pottery in the stores wasn 't quite as large and international as now. There is also the fact that a lot of people bought their sets directly from the factories, both for the discounted prices and out of loyalty to those local companies. The generation that bought Figgjo and Stavangerflint for their homes during their 60s and 70s heydays were of course our mums and dads. Many of them are now are now in the process of selling their houses and downsizing both their homes and number of dinner- and coffee-sets, so consequently these are now up for grabs. I'm so glad mine still live in my childhood home, it's a typical late 60s/early 70s one story house, so no steep stairs:-)

I thrifted with my mum, who's closets and drawers are even fuller than mine:-) I wish I had her around for every thrift round, we had such a nice mother and daughter time! She thinks her house is full enough, though, so she doesn't search for anything particular. Only egg cups. I'll get to that.

When I'm over, I'm mainly looking for local stuff, Figgjo and Stavangerflint goes without saying, but Graveren pieces and older Sandnes pottery are also a thrill to find. I found this traditional storage jar and baking bowl, both made at Sandnes potteries. They're common household pieces from pre- plastic times, and all our grandmothers had them. They were probably the last generation to use them in the traditional sense. My dad told me he remembers his mother also used her bowl to mince fish for fish cakes. They were made both by Graveren, Gann and Eie, a former Egersund pottery. I usually put a plant in mine. They can rarely be found flawless, but I guess the small beauty marks are part of the charm, years and years of use by hardworking women with their bread doughs makes them very precious. The jars are glazed inside and out, the bowls only inside. You can see another post about the traditional Sandnes pottery here.

Graverens Teglverk was founded in 1852, the production of colored ceramics started in 1926. Until them, Graveren had only produced brown traditional pottery that had been produced in large amounts ever since the 17th century, due to the high quality and good supply of clay in the area. The Sandnes potteries also produced roof tiles, that were even in some cases used on walls due to the lack of timber. Graveren was for a long time the largest pottery in Sandnes and was known to hire great artists.

Graverens Teglverk merged with Ganns Potteri in 1976 and became Gann Graveren. The ceramic production was closed down in 1982, and today, even the roof tile production is history.

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 perhaps the most renowned, and became head designer (artistic leader) in 1928. His wife, Elsa Grimsrud, was the company's first decorator (illustrator? Neither sounds right...) 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. William Knutzon took over in 1946 and was there until 1949.

I don't know who made this large plate by Graveren, but I fell in love instantly. The art deco inspired pattern makes me guess it's from the 20s or early 30s. If anyone has some information about this or similar pieces, please give me a holler, as I'm dying to know more about it! I think the colors are wonderful and the pattern reminds me a little bit about some Egersund pieces I've seen at the fayence museum.

Speaking of Egersund, I was lucky enough to find a Korulen breakfast/ lunch set for eight a while ago, as well as various serving dishes. They are rare finds in thrift stores. In Stavanger I found six more plates in that same pattern and a yellow milk jug. The design is called Unique (Kaare Blokk Johansen) and came in, as far as I've been able to find out, the Korulen pattern (Unni Margrethe Johnsen, in production from 71-76) and two color combinations, brown with orange accents and this orangey, sunny yellow with the brownish green. For the color of the milk jug I've only seen the name Unique, the decor/ color combo might have another name. I love the sunny milk jug combined with the Korulen pattern, even more that if it had the same pattern. It sure is a sunny way to start the day:-)

 

Now some more on the egg cup matter. I´m constantly on the search for Figgjo egg cups, and was happy to find six. The pattern is Hedda (1977-80) by Rolf Frøyland who, alongside Turi Gramstad Oliver, was a local designer with a lot of great patterns on his conscience. It´s a pattern I haven´t really collected before and can´t really remember from way back when, but the brown pattern goes very well with all my other brown stuff and the Egersund Korulen set that I often use for breakfast, a real yellow and brown 70s combo. I also have two egg cups in Tor Viking that you can see in this post. That´s a pattern I do remember and cherish, we had it when I was growing up. 

The design, however, is by Ragnar Grimsrud from the 60s and is pure genius. You can put your egg shells or your salt, butter or little pieces of anchovies in the little bowl. Due to their shape they also stack really well. These egg cups are quite hard to find, so if you come by one, grab it and run. I try to collect some light blue ones for my mum, she only has a few of her old ones left, so I´m hoping to find her some more.

 

Another serving piece, this dish is Stavangerflint Sera, designed by Inger Waage and in production from 1970 to 79. I love the shape with the handle. It looks like it originally had a lid, and I can imagine how the lid looked like. It´s in the smaller end of medium sized an will be great for vegetables. I even use dishes like these for fruit or popcorn. It´s from their oven proof line so it can also be used for an oven dish. I´m always terrified of putting these treasures in the oven, though....

 

Another handled dish! This time a danish studio piece by KK Denmark. I found a small dish with that same stamp earlier, shown in this post, the pattern is almost identical. I still haven´t been able to find out who the maker is. Anyone?

This vase to the right is another mystery piece, though I´m quite sure it´s norwegian. I love the combination of the rough surface and the refined glazed top. The red ladybug wall plaque is made in the 60s by Pottemaker Simonsen, a local Sandnes pottery maker who are still making the traditional brown household pottery that I mentioned in the beginning of this post, and have been doing so for several generations. They have this wonderful workshop and shop in the center of the town. I visited on a rainy day (yes, it often rains there...) when the streets were very quiet, and was asked if I wanted a tour of his workshop. Would I ever?!? It was so great to see everything, the tools, the different stages of the drying prosess etc. I commented on the ladybug hanging on a wall in the workshop, and the pottery maker said it was mine if I wanted it!!! They make the jars with the white lines, my old ones are plain brown. The bowls, however, I´ve only seen with the lines around the edge.

 

       

More planters.... These are unmarked, but must be german. I have some other german ones that have that same lava glaze. I also found this Haldensleben vase (below) in the very same pattern that I have on two other pieces. They´ll make a nice trio.

Muy mum found this Marbell stone art piece for me, of this peaceful- looking little boy, isn´t it adorable? I´m usually not much for adorable, but this one is irresistable. I have another one of these belgian stone pieces that I got earlier, it´s far more abstract. There´s very little to be found on the web about Marbell stone art, so I don´t know a great deal about them, other than remembering them from the time I lived in Belgium.

The last piece this time is my very first Midwinter Stonehenge piece. the pattern is Greenleaves, which both mum and I fell for instantly. It´s just a single dinner plate, but I guess I can serve something from it, cookies maybe? I didn´t know before looking at it now that Midwinter is part of the Wedgewood group.

That was it, really, except for one lovely print by a local Jæren artist, which I left behind with my parents. They will visit this fall and bring it along. I´ll be sure to show you:-) I found so much on our first round that I had to stop, concidering we we' re travelling by plane... A few days later, I popped into a store that was so full of Figgjo that I had to rub my eyes. And at such good prices. The store owner assured me that she always had this much, so not to worry, I would find just as much on my next trip home. Look at it!!! I already knew my luggage had reached it´s maximum weight for the plain ride... I´ll definitely go back, but what to choose when faced with all that gorgeousness?? It´s gonna be hard...
 

I`ve left my beloved coast now and started working again. I desperately want to go back, I´ll have to try to squeeze in a weekend there soon, I miss it like crazy. 

PS. I´ve linked in with Max over at Blackbird has spoken. Pop over and have a look at her lovely blog!