A beautifully formed example of Scheurich’s 1960s version of their Harlekin décor on Heinz Siery’s elegantly elongated shape Nr. 517/30.

SCHEURICH KERAMIK had its origins in a joint venture launched in 1928 by Alois Scheurich (d. 1968) and his cousin Fridolin Greulich in the small town of Schneeberg near the Czech border in Saxony—wholesaling glass, porcelain, and ceramics. The business was moved to the market community of Kleinheubach in the northeast corner of Bavaria in 1938, and ten years later the partners began to produce household ceramics of their own, selling them under the name Scheurich & Greulich. The partnership was dissolved in 1954, and Alois founded Scheurich GmbH & Co. KG to continue production on his own. The new company employed Germany’s first electrical tunnel kiln.

The celebrated designer Heinz Siery was recruited as SCHEURICH’s lead modeler the following year in 1955. In addition to creating his own extensive range of shapes, Siery helped the firm develop its overarching product strategy. SCHEURICH would manufacture an assortment of simple forms that could be made cheaply and then decorated in a great variety of glazes. The natural result was an enormous range of merchandise that was both diverse and easily adaptable. The approach proved altogether successful.

Low prices combined with a dizzying array of attractive designs translated into millions in sales for SCHEURICH, and the company remained one of the largest manufacturers of ceramics in Germany through the 1980s. To keep pace with the public’s ever-changing tastes, décors were adapted twice a year. Some of the better-known décors include the hand-painted Montignac (1972–1973); Amsterdam (1974–1975), with its onion motif (Zwiebeldekor); Fabiola, with its flowing, brown-red top glaze; and Jura, with its fossil, or snail, motif.

Among the more famous components of the décors used to finish mid-century ceramics are the unusually thick, often flowing glazes nicknamed “fat lava.” (Strictly speaking, “fat” is something of a misnomer, generally thought to be a careless translation of the German word groß—meaning “large,” or “thick”—referring here to the depth of the glaze, how much it rises above the surface of the clay, not its viscosity.) The term has proven slippery. Some conflate it with volcanic glazing generally, where the use of certain ingredients causes controlled, gaseous explosions, producing holes in the glazes that are visually suggestive of lava (or the surface of the moon); some apply it wholesale to all German pottery from the mid-century! Regardless, fat lava glazes were very popular in the ’60s and ’70s, and SCHEURICH produced many stunning examples.

SCHEURICH KERAMIK used white clay exclusively. Objects were always formed by mold and were fired at 1000 degrees Celsius. A minimum of 500 pieces were made of every item that was produced. Identifying marks were embossed on the base. Model numbers are three digits long and followed by the height of the object in whole (in a few instances, half) centimeters, usually with a dash separating the two components. Most SCHEURICH items have no embossed company mark. If noted, the country of origin appears as either W. GERMANY or WEST GERMANY (occasionally abbreviated to GERM). Many SCHEURICH items retain their original foil or paper labels.

SCHEURICH KERAMIK exported more ceramics than any other German company. Some lines were specifically manufactured for foreign markets. Indeed, the historical distributions of particular forms and glazes suggest that some were produced for specific countries. The bottoms of exported vases are often embossed with the word “FOREIGN” rather than “WEST GERMANY.” Not surprisingly, some vases so marked wound up on the home market.

In addition to vases, SCHEURICH’s mid-century output included flower pots, ashtrays, piggy banks, candle holders, beer mugs, buffet clocks, and wall plaques. By the late 1980s, the shapes and colors of its vases had become rather pedestrian; this work is not attractive to collectors. As a subsidiary of Sheurich-Group GmbH, the European market leader for indoor and outdoor planters, SCHEURICH KERAMIK is still in operation today.

HEINZ SIERY (1927–1993) was a true luminary in the world of ceramics in the 1950s and ’60s. His form designs had a significant impact on the product styles of makers Fohr, Scheurich, Carstens, and Ruscha, among others. Siery often employed “the golden ratio” (or an approximation) while designing, lending harmonious proportion to his work. This can be seen clearly in his most iconic vase, no. 271/22 for Scheurich. Presented in 1959, it was extremely popular and was still being manufactured in the 1970s. Siery also developed and introduced new methods of industrial organization.

In 1969 Siery and wife Ingrid Siery-Illgner established a jointly operated studio, Atelier Syré, near the historic town of Euskirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia out of which they both freelanced. (Ingrid had also designed pieces for Carstens and had overseen the Wächtersbach earthenware factory’s design department.) In addition to commissioned work, the couple produced creations of their own—notably elegant, figural sculptures made of bronze, whose simple, classical forms and sleek lines evoke the work of Henry Moore and Joannis Avramidis. Atelier Syré houses a sculpture park home to more than 300 of these works.

DETAILS

Designer – HEINZ SIERY

Design Period/Year – 1960s

Maker – SCHEURICH KERAMIK

Production Period/Year – 1960s

Origin – WEST GERMANY

Styles/Movements – ABSTRACT; BAUHAUS; MID-CENTURY MODERN

Materials – CERAMIC

Colors – ORANGE, BLACK, GREEN, RED

Condition – May show slight traces of previous use.

Dimensions – 5 ½" DIAM. × 12" H