PAUL EYDNER FAT-LAVA BOTTLE VASE (GDR)

A very attractive stoneware bottle vase with a visually interesting lava glaze in shades of blue and white with hints of the tan stoneware beneath.  Produced by the Werkstatt Paul Eydner (WPE) in the 1960s, it is likely the work of his daughter Alice Schmidt who assumed management of the workshop after her father's death, and was responsible for developing many of the modern shapes and glazes produced there.  it is fully marked on the base, including the shape number 58.

PAUL EYDNER (1878-1956) founded the 'Werkstatt Paul Eydner' (WPE)  in 1903 in Waldenburg, Germany (Saxony), and ran it until his death in 1946.  Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Martha Eydner leased the pottery to her daughter Alice Schmidt, neé Eydner, who ran the pottery on a lease until 1972.  In that year, Ms. Schmidt's production was partially nationalized, but the pottery and its means of production remained the property of Martha Eydner.  In 1975 it was sold to the GDR State Art Trade, which produced pottery there until 1990. This workshop in Waldenburg was the most developed of all the arts and crafts potteries in the area. Many shapes and glazes used there were designed by the tenant Mrs. Schmidt, and the state art trade continued this development until the business was closed in 1991, at which point it went into trust.  Shortly thereafter the workshop was re-established as the Keramikwerkstatt Waldenburg by its new owner Peter Tauscher  who had himself learned the pottery trade from Paul Eydner. the workshop remains active to this day.