Rosendahl Wine Set

Oops, it's not ceramics.

One of our friends in Stavanger gave us this Rosendahl Grand Cru wine set as a gift after we admired hers.  I love the foil cutter, and the corkscrew has been very welcome since our bar-keeper's-friend one broke (and the Rosendahl one is easier to use!).

Stavangerflint Group

Lisa Larson Lilla Zoo Cat

Monty investigates his doppelgänger.  The Lilla Zoo cat is marked only with an impressed "B" on the underside.  Other pieces may have a Gustavsberg or Lisa Larson sticker.

Stavangerflint Plate

I think this was also designed by Anne Lofthus, based on the rosemaling and figure designs.

Stavangerflint Stolt Margit Plate No 6

The sixth plate in the Stolt Margit series.  Sadly we don't have 3 through 5... or beyond number 6 - does anyone know how many there are?

Stavangerflint Stolt Margit Plate No 2

The second Stolt Margit plate.

Stavangerflint Stolt Margit Plate

I love the style of these Anne Lofthus designs for Stavangerflint.  The glaze has a less glossy, almost creamy feel, and the rosemaling design is very nice.   She was at Stavangerflint from 1959 to 1963, and the Stolt Margit series has at least six parts - I have plates 1, 2, and 6, although they are different sizes.  This is plate 1.

Dessert with Iittala and Rörstrand

Iittala espresso cup in the Ego pattern, aquavit in an Iittala Ultima Thule cordial glass, and a fantastic dessert from our local pastry shop on a Rörstrand Millesgården plate.

New Window Stuff

We finally put the finishing touches on our kitchen window by adding a shelf and valance.  The forged iron shelf brackets are from etsy (ArtisansoftheAnvil) and I sewed the valance from some of the 20 yards of fabric that I found at a Scandinavian warehouse sale.  The shelf has some of our Scandianvian pottery - a Figgjo Clupea soup tureen, Figgjo tea set in the Astrid pattern, Stavangerflint teapot in the Flamingo Bambus pattern, and the Stavangerflint Norrøna coffee set.  I cut and installed the glass tiles on the wall (only one wall has tile up to the ceiling - the others are cabinet-height).

Lisa Larson Lilla Zoo Horse

This is unmarked, but I have seen other pieces with the Gustavsberg sticker.

Per Spelmann Trivet by Stavangerflint

A Stavangerflint trivet designed by Gro Pedersen Claussen.  She was at Stavangerflint from 1963 until 1967, and then continued to provide freelance design to Stavangerflint/Figgjo until 1977.  This is part of a series based on traditional Norwegian folk songs.

From the Norwegian Melodies site:

"'PER SPELMANN' (Per the Musician) is the story of a musician who trades his only cow to get back his good, old violin. He plays that instrument until the fiddle laughs, the boys dance, and the girls cry!"

The translation from the Norwegian Melodies site is below - the trivet only has the first verse.

Per, the musician, had only one cow,

He traded the cow, got his fiddle back,

"You old, good violin, you violin,

You fiddle mine!”

Per, the musician, he played,
And the fiddle, she laughed!
 'Til the boys were dancing,
And the girls cried.
"You old, good violin, you violin,
You fiddle mine!”

And if I become old
As moss on a tree,
Then never would I trade away
Fiddle again.
"You old, good violin, you violin,
You fiddle mine!”

Knud Kyhn Bear by Royal Copenhagen

Another bear!  This one is designed by Knud Kyhn.

The bottom is marked with the shape number, KK for the artist, and the Royal Copenhagen logo.

Rörstrand Casserole

My cousin Nancy gave me this great Rörstrand casserole.  I think the pattern name is Fiesta Fresta (thanks commenter!), although the mark is smudged on the base.  If anyone knows for sure, a comment would be great.

Stavangerflint Trondheim Plate

We rented a house on Rennesøy, near Stavanger, this past May, and they had this souvenir Trondheim plate hanging in the kitchen.  It was produced by Stavangerflint, and based on the design the artist was Inger Waage (I don't have a picture of the back).

Figgjo Flint Folklore Trivet Number 2

The second of my pair of Folklore trivets - this one's Yoda-inspired translation is: "One's appetite appeased can be with a vintage wine."

Figgjo Flint Folklore Trivet

And someone provided a convenient, and literal, translation on the back. As Yoda would say, "Congenial company saves food expense."

Rörstrand Bears - Friday Fun

Another Swedish bear (or two), this one a bit finer quality.  I gave this to my partner for Christmas a few years ago, but then lost track of its information, so all I knew was that it was made by Rörstrand.  The base has the artist's initials (KG), but search engines only recognize that as "kilograms!"  I finally had success recently and found out KG stands for Karl Grössl, who was at Rörstrand for only a few years - 1936 to 1939, which makes these much older than I thought.

I particularly like the glaze on this - the brown has nice variations in color, and thinner parts let the white porcelain show through in places, while other parts have big drips of glaze.  The glaze is quite smooth, too.

This originally may have been attached to a small wooden base.

 Rawr!

Syco Bear

I found some (overpriced) Knud Kyhn bears at an antique show, which led to some online searches for "sweden ceramic bear," resulting in this little guy.  It was made by Syco of Sweden - another company that seems to be off the grid.  The prominent mold line and some gloops of clay make me think it isn't the finest quality, but he's still cute.

Stavangerflint Norge Plate

Lisa Larson Viking

Stavangerflint Syltetøy Jar

This was my grandma's covered syltetøy jar.  The bottom is marked only with the Stavangerflint logo and "Norway."  I don't know who this designer was.

You'll notice the small smudge at about 3:00 on the Stavangerflint logo.  I used to think those were just smudges, but I recently read that there was a pattern to them - but no one seems to know what that pattern was!  One contemporary pottery studio, Ephraim Faience from Wisconsin, uses a similar method to indicate the year of production (a hatch-mark at 3:00 meant it was produced in 2003).  I assume the Stavangerflint mark was used in a similar manner.  The glaze marks seem more prevalent on the older pieces.  Now we just have to find out what they considered year-zero.

Elle Egg-shaped Dish

A uniquely shaped dish by Elle.

One drawback of the Elle pieces is that they are very susceptible to chipping.  We had this only a few days and accidentally knocked it against something, resulting in a little glaze chip. :(  Many of the pieces that belonged to my grandma are chipped, too - but that's just a sign of a well-loved and well-used piece of pottery.

Stavangerflint Souvenir Plate for the Rotary

Stavangerflint produced many souvenir pieces for customers outside of Norway.  This plate is interesting because it has a scene of Stavanger, but the back indicates it was created for the Rotary District 129, which I believe is in the UK. The artist was Kari Nyquist - her pieces were most often created in a blue silkscreen on a blue background, although she did also work in other colors.

Rolf Berg Tomte - Friday Fun