A large, colorful DÜMLER & BREIDEN vase of eccentric shape.  The glossy, textural, red-orange lava top-glaze slips down over a dark, matte, blue/black ground.  The interior is shiny black.

DÜMLER & BREIDEN (aka D&B) was founded in 1883 by Peter Dümler and his brother-in-law and childhood friend, Albert Breiden, in the small town of Höhr-Grenzhausen in the Kannenbäckerland, not far from Koblenz.  (The Kannenbäckerland—the "potters' land" or, more literally, the "jug-bakers' land"—is a centuries-old home to ceramics manufacture in central Germany and the site of the largest clay deposit in Europe.)  In the early 20th century DÜMLER & BREIDEN was known mainly for the production of beer steins and punch bowls in the typical Westerwald style, but it gradually established itself as one of West Germany's leading producers of art pottery in the years following WWII.  Throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s it produced an enormous range of decorative ceramics, employing themes from traditional to pop art, in a wide variety of quirky styles and forms.  Its pieces were finished with a diversity of colorful, even flamboyant, glazes and glaze combinations.  Important designers working for D&B in its heyday included Ernst Dümler, Paul Zimmerling, and Rudolf Christmann.  Items produced within the 'Domino,' 'Polar,' and 'Saturn' design series are among the most collectible.  DÜMLER & BREIDEN closed in 1992.

Notes on identification:  D&B most often used white to buff clay, although red clay is seen in the 'Terra' series and other klinker-like items.  Marks are almost exclusively impressed and are usually made with a distinctive, square-cut lettering.  A crossed-swords D&B symbol (with the initials "D" and "B" as stylized hilts) is often present on the base along with the form and size numbers; where the symbol is absent, the form and size numbers are stacked.  If an origin is indicated, it is always simply "Germany"—with no designation of West.  The full text "DÜMLER & BREIDEN" replaces the D&B symbol from 1980 onwards.  'Relief' and 'Studio' pieces were marked on the base with the names of those series.  Very few items have unmarked bases; markings are only very rarely obscured by glaze.  Factory stickers are most commonly found only on early items and usually include the D&B crossed-swords symbol and the location “Hohr.”