HISTORY:
While we would acquire primarily English chinaware's, at times "other" pieces caught our eye from the likes of Japan, Korea, Germany and Czech Republic ... this attractive table bowl is from the latter country.
One reason we (actually my wife primarily!) collected English wares is because that, in the main, there was usually information about the history of the maker - we like to know who, when and even how pieces were made, not just collecting for the sake of an items "attractiveness"
The maker of this bowl comes into this category and there is quite extensive information readily available online but in summary ...
The Altrohlau pottery works began operations in 1810 but it wasn't until 1836 when they started producing porcelain products. The company underwent a number of changes, primarily bought about by the company being nationalised and World War II. After all this turmoil, the company still survives even to this day (2025), but not under this name.
The base name of the company was Altrohlau, referencing the pottery works, with the MZ being the initials of the company owner from 1884 (Moritz Zdekauer). After 1909, the company became associated with C.M. Hutschenreuther, this is where the CM-R comes from.
This table bowl definitely post-dates 1909 (CM-R) but there is no Eagle with a crown which was used during the years immediately leading up to WWII and afterwards, it does appear though that this backstamp was in use up until around the 1920's, prior to the war.
Hand creation, hand decorated in a very "1920's style" with a shape that is not unlike a large 'clamshell bowl'
Of course, use the bowl for holding whatever you wish - some may place fruit in the bowl or better still, fancy sweets (a lot of them!) but do you know what my wife used this for? She called it 'art in flowers"
FLOWER PETALS! Yes, you can buy fresh flower petals or if the season is right, pick them from the garden and artistically scatter them around inside the bowl - this always made for a very 'eye catching' piece on special occasions. Where to get fresh flower petals? Sometimes the local florist can help but we most often visited the Sydney flower markets at Flemington (we are sure other cities would have one of these) VERY early in the morning, I seem to remember 4 ~ 5am was a good time to pickup a bunch of flowers to be used for their petals. Not sure about regional areas but if you were lucky, a local flower grower may be able to help out with these.
Let's get down to the description ...
MZ ALTROHLAU CM-R Oval Table Bowl
Made in Czechsolvakia (the official formalised name in 1920 was Czechoslovak Republic (CSR)
Circa 1920's (to the best of our knowledge)
Pure White porcelain base material
"Clam shell" style of top lip, or it could be considered as a large open flower bud!
Hand decorated - uses a type of hybrid technique, I can see solid colours along with brush 'dabs' of varying sizes for the finer details.
Colouring used is soft, pastel like and of course under the glaze.
The name of this design is unknown and there is no indication on the piece of any identification other than the maker's name. The design focus is a central spray of various flowers (we do not recognise these flowers although some do look very similar to orchids) with a very light Lime Green background colouring extending up towards the rim, around which is a band of soft Apricot colouring and finished off with hand applied Gold gilding. There is no decoration to the underside of the bowl ... just pure White.
DIMENSIONS:
It is a little tough giving some accurate measurements to this bowl because of it's irregular shape but as an approximation ...
260mm (10") across x 200mm (8") x 70mm (3") deep
Most people would describe this as a medium sized bowl
WEIGHT: 450g - this is fine porcelain, not a heavy earthern ware bowl!
BACKSTAMP (the photograph is from this actual bowl)
CONDITION:
Overall, such amazing condition although I shouldn't be surprised as this bowl didn't come out "on show" very often, only for special occasions and once in a drama production prop!
NO cracks
NO discolouration or fading of the decorative artwork
NO crazing observed (wet and dry checked) - now this is truly amazing (in my view) as you are looking at a piece of porcelain which left the pottery works just over 100 years ago! Over time, due to temperature changes in particular, the glaze on china or porcelain tends to fail to varying degrees - this piece has not suffered this, so far. This is one "pretty lady" who has aged extremely well!
I have looked extremely closely at the topside artwork and I can see just three tiny little dots, like a small dirt mark (although I discovered one is actually an artists "slip of the hand"!) I am not game to attempt removal of these 'dots', they are really quite insignificant and it is probably best to leave these well alone.
Underneath there looks to be one fleabite, with light discolouration. I have sterilised this area with Iso Alcohol spray to render any bacteria inactive. This light Brown dot is not significant in our view but mentioned none-the-less. There is also a small Purple 'dash' and this is absolutely from the original works artist's brush! Also not a significant mark in our view. Take a look at one of the photographs to "spot the dot"
The Gold gilding is in very good condition, it has been hand brush applied (I can see the brush feathering to the edges of the Gold) and the gilding has been applied more to the side of the rim, not across the top of the peaks and hollows of the rim. The bowl was designed to be viewed "side on" and not directly from above and we believe this is why the Gold is applied to the side of the rim. If it is viewed from above, you can see the bare White porcelain but this is NOT wear, there never was any Gold gilding applied on the top.
Now that this rather exhaustive description is complete and some photographs taken, I have placed this bowl within a clear, sealed plastic packaging to protect it from the environment (airborne dust etc)
Of course it will be well packed in our "famous" packaging style - tough, rugged packaging which ensures the item is 'caressed' while on it's way to it's new home!
