Collections Online

Vase, earthenware, double gourd shape with ovoid body and tall neck swelling towards the top and turned in at the rim, glazed outside in matt black, inside with a white glaze over a green glaze.

The double-gourd shape of this vase and its matt black glaze are influenced by Chinese ceramics. The simplicity of the form and the muted colouring reflect the modernist design principles learned by Marks at the Bauhaus School of Arts in Weimer in 1920-21. Born Margarete Heymann in Cologne, Grete Marks (1899-1990) set up the Haël Workshops for Artistic Ceramics in 1923 and achieved success through a firm commitment to progressive design. Persecuted as a Jew by the Nazis, she was forced to sell her factory in 1935 and escaped to Britain, where she worked for a time in the Staffordshire potteries.