Item: PP-5
Here's one of those pieces that helps us earn the "Odd" in Odditiques. This charger or plaque was made by Utzchneider & Co. in Sarreguemines, France around the turn of the century, but that's certainly not the odd part. The scene shows a German or Alpine beer garden, all nicely idyllic right down to the birds in the arbor. We have one guy with a pipe and hassling the server, one guy passed out while the server still pours him more beer, one guy off to the side not looking too happy, and a glass and cards littering the ground. Okay, nothing new in all that......until you pay attention to scale and detail and realize that these are all children. I don't know why they did it or what tradition they're playing with, and I'm sure people would through an absolute fit if a pottery produced this plate today, but it's still a quirky delight. You can have fun inviting friends over and waiting to see if they notice.
The primary decoration is transfer. It looks like there's some handcoloring, but I think that's more illusion and wishful thinking that reality. The metal rim is non-magnetic and fairly thing but has a neat Greek Key variant in the openwork. It's a bit dulled by time, but there's not a trace of silver polish in the house to see if this is silverplate under all that. On closer look, the brown that I thought was corrosion or tarnish appears more like something splattered and it's coming off easily with a little fingernail help. I'll do some cleaning and reshoot a picture or two. The ceramic portion of this piece has a diameter of about 10" and the total with the trim is about 12 1/2".
The condition is very good overall. The image itself is in great condition, and there are no cracks. The back rim of the plaque in the area of the wire hanger obviously took a strong hit sometime in the past, but it still seems able to hang and does no harm to the presentation. The metal rim does show some corosion here and there, but that's to be expected and should pose no real problem. Of course, all our sales are fully guaranteed, which simply means if you aren't happy, we aren't happy. I generally find happiness to be more pleasant than melancholia.
Price is $175 plus $15 for Priority Mail and insurance within the U.S. International shipping rates quoted on request. E-Mail Us
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