Scheurich (founded in 1928) was one of the largest (maybe even the largest) West German pottery manufacturers. Their marketing strategy was to have a fair amount of shapes, cover these with an endless variety of glazes and sell them at a competitive price. There was a Scheurich vase to fit anybody’s taste. It was a good strategy, because they sold thousands and thousands of vases. As a matter of fact it kept them in business till this very day. Scheurich is still going strong.
You can still find a huge amount of older Scheurich vases on the secondhand market. The 1950s vases are OK, but don’t stand out and some have a bit of a grandma thing about them. The vases of the 1960s and 70s seem to be the most collectible. Shapes are always quite OK, I think. They produced some more daring shapes, but on average Scheurich seemed to go for the simple, more traditional, but never old fashion shapes. The glazes are another thing. Scheurich made a truly monumental amount of glazes, trying all kinds of things, often involving some kind of lava or drip glaze. They made figurative decors and abstract decors, combining smooth glazes with textured glazes, shiny with matte glazes, using all kinds of colors with ‘loud’ combinations especially during the 1970s. In the 1960s Scheurich also made some iconic designs with a moulded pattern.
Some collectors focus on Scheurich, collecting shelfs full of one shape, but in a million different glazes. The sight of these kind of collections can be very impressive. I myself am not that kind of collector. I don’t have rows of one shape, but a lot of different shapes and no real plan or theme behind my Scheurich collection. Some vases I ended up with, some I really wanted to buy at the time, some I thought I should buy because they were Highly Collectible, some I still like, other not so much any more. But the ones I like most at this particular time are still out there.
Here are a few vases to give you an inch of an idea of what Scheurich is about. More Scheurich will follow.
