Raija Uosikkinen | C20Ceramics

Apr 6

Arabia Finland 100 year Anniversary Series

This series of designs from Arabia Finland were designed by Raija Uosikkinen to celebrate the 10oth Anniversary of Arabia Finland in 1975. As far as I know there are three designs in the series – 100, 101, and 102, and they were produced during 1971-1975 in limited numbers.

Each scene features a bucolic rural village drawing in cobalt blue, on a greyish white stoneware clay. The plates are dinner plate size – about 26cm diameter. The blue designs also have beautiful line patterns and decorative textures.

The plates don’t seem to be as well known as Raija’s “Kalevala” annual plates starting 1976 and her Christmas plates starting in 1978. This is possibly due to their more limited production.

On the back some designs just have the design number and the Arabia backstamp – i.e. 100, 101 etc, and some have in addition the number of the edition.

Arabia 100th Anniversary Plate 102

Arabia 100th Anniversary Plate 101

Arabia Finland Kauppatori

A superb recent find. At first glance I thought this was a variation of the iconic “Emilia” series by Raija Uosikkinen, but it turns out to be from a series of designs called “Kauppatori”, in the same drawn style as Emilia but quite different when you look at it more closely.

The design seems to be very rare, and from what I can see only on 2 forms – both deep serving plates.

It is named after the famous Market Square in Helsinki, Finland….one of the most famous tourist attractions in the city.

The design features similar charming characters to those in “Emilia” but the townscape, market characters, the use of green, as well as black line drawing set the design apart.

There is a fantastic Finnish website HERE where a lot of research as gone into the history of “Emilia” and all the designs like this one, related to it. I often refer to it

Arabia Finland Kauppatori

Arabia Finland, Raija Uosikkinen

One of Raija's most coveted , and now most expensive designs to purchase on the secondary market is the beautiful "Emilia" which was produced c1957-1966. It features charming crisp black and white graphics of a whimsical nature - some purported to be about the daily life of Uosikkinen´s American aunt's life. Other motifs feature garden scenes, market scenes, and other depictions of daily life.