C20Ceramics

Nov 27

Gutte Eriksen – 2 Recent Finds

I was very fortunate recently to find not just one, but two pieces of important Danish studio pottery by Gutte Eriksen. (read my previous post on Gutte here) The pieces were in an auction lot of assorted Danish pottery and I only recognised the first one as by Gutte – until I got them home and cleaned – as all of them were covered in years of dust and soiling. To my surprise there was a second and larger piece by Gutte which revealed itself when cleaned.

The first is a charming urn form with lid and handles standing just over 12cm tall. It has subtle cobalt blue decoration, and the textured ash and borax glaze she has become associated with. The tiny bubbles in the glaze are a characteristic of this glaze and caused by the borax content.

The second piece has a pattern around the shoulder which I have seen previously on pieces by Gutte.

Rhonda Boehm, Barossa Valley, Australia

Rhonda Boehm, Barossa Valley, South Australia

From time to time I come across lovely stoneware fired pieces by local potter Rhonda Boehm.

Rhonda Boehm (b ? – d 2005) worked from a studio in the Barossa Valley, South Australia – and was most active during the 1980s.

Her work has a distinctive and honest quality to it – and is most often in muted mushroom pinks and bluish greys. Rhonda specialised in coloured clay slips and dry glazes over a carved whitish coloured clay body. Pieces were glazed on the inside with a clear glaze most often.

Some works have a botanical design, and others have precise and geometric patterns carved into the stoneware fired clay. There is something reminiscent of the hues of the Australian sunset and landscape in Rhonda’s use of colour and design.

The images below are pieces by Rhonda which have passed through my hands over the years.

The information quoted below is from the ever growing and hugely informative Australian Pottery >1960s Website and associated pages by Judith Pearce.

Rhonda Boehm ( -2005) owned a hairdressing salon in Nuriootpa, SA, before taking up pottery in the early 1970s under her married name, Rhonda Longbottom. She completed a ceramics course…. and set up a studio in the caretakers’ cottage of an old stone winery she renovated with her husband in Tanunda, SA. She also ran a successful gallery in the main building and was an active member of the Potters’ Guild of SA. In the mid-1980s, she divorced and began practicing under her maiden name. Work produced before her divorce is incised ‘Rhonda Longbottom’ or impressed ‘RL’ with the R inside the angle of the L. Work made after is impressed ‘RB’ with the R reversed. Some pieces may also have an impressed kangaroo. Others may be incised ‘Boehm’.

Ditlev Denmark, 1967 Catalogue

Ditlev Denmark, 1967 Den Permanente Catalogue

Im very attracted to the smooth streamlined forms which Dane, Henrik Ditlev created on dark chocolate brown clay, along with his superb glaze colours.

Much of what he produced was designed for serving food – dinnerware, teapots, plate-ware, coffee pots, serving dishes and so on. Ditlev pottery was so well made and thrown, with tough glazes and superb quality clay – that when you come across it now, some 50+ years later – it is often still in excellent condition.

Interestingly, the type of plate and serving wares he produced is very much in vogue currently in top end Restaurants around the world. ( See my previous entry for Ditlev HERE ).

Recently I found in a 1967 Den Permanente Catalogue (which the Royal Danish Library has digitised here) a whole range of Ditlev pieces which were sold through Den Permanente in Copenhagen. These digitised catalogues are such a great resource, especially when trying to identify a date of production and how a whole production series fitted together.