Featured Pottery seated Lion, possibly Art Nouveau period? Any ideas?

Hi all, I’m hoping some of you can shed some light on this lion figure that I found a few years ago. I love it but know nothing about it and never seen anything like it.


It is marked at the with what looks like three initials (KWR?)


The base is covered in marle grey wool felt that makes me think it is from the early part of the last century, but could have been put on at anytime by a previous owner.

It is a solid piece so hasn’t been slipcast. Because of the strange glaze and rough signature, my initial thought was that it could have been an artist maquette for a larger sculpture but can’t find anything similar in shape or style.

Even if I could find out the style of glaze used I may be able to follow the trail...

Any ideas would be very great fully received.

Thanks!

 

Size? And why not pull off the felt and have a peep?

 

Very strange "pink" color for a lion.

 

Ha! Maybe the artist had only seen black and white photos??

 

Good thinking! Not sure why I didn’t take the felt off sooner...

Ok so felt was hiding a couple of clues! The initials ‘HK’ or ‘HAK’ maybe. And what looks like the shadow of an old paper label.


As for the size, it is about 7” or 18cm tall.

 

The HAK mark looks like a Herman A Kähler sig., can’t say I’ve personally seen figural pieces but found a lion with similar glaze. More research needed to confirm.
https://www.bukowskis.com/en/lots/1...wl-vase-and-figurine-by-herman-kahler-denmark

 

Wow! Thank you! That looks very similar.

 

I am sure you are correct! Just found one very similar to mine...

https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-3232

 

And the initials inscribed at the back are ‘KHR’ for Karl Hansen-Reistrup. Karl was an artist who produced ceramic pieces for Herman A. Kähler's pottery factory in Næstved.

Amazing that an object that has been a mystery for me for years can be solved within a few hours with the help of @anundverkaufen and @blooey !

Thank you both!

 

You're welcome @loxston!
Yep, old Kahler did do figural stuff for sure - I've had one or two, mine were figures of children.

 

Another success for this excellent forum.

 

I'm still worried about the red around the mouth and face. Are you sure no small cats or dogs are missing around the neighborhood? Maybe a squirrel?