Just seeking some answers......

Hello All,

Just hoping to find and answer to an identification query. I have some Austrian China marked Karlsbad that escaped the Nazis in the 30's.....I've been trying to identify it but had no joy so far, and wondered if your members might have any idea??

 

I've just found out it is Carl Knoll, Bohemia, Austria 1916-18

 

Welcome Jax. Looks like you don't need us, you did a great job with the ID.
Karlsbad is in Bohemia, btw, not in Austria. It is now called by its Czech name: Karlovy Vary.

 

Ah, I see!! Thank you! But now I need to work out if it's worth anything lol, it seems to be pretty rare.

 

Actually, now I am confused - the stamp says Austria, but the reference I found for the exact same mark said it was Bohemia 1916-18, so maybe they were wrong?

 

Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, under the Habsburg dynasty. The central government was in Vienna, Austria. That could be why there were 'Austria' stamps.

But ceramics aren't my area of expertise, so I'll tag some others for you:
@say_it_slowly , @Ownedbybear .

 

Hey, Jax! Just a friendly heads-up that you'll want to post your photographs Full Image (rather than Thumbnail) so they're easier for everyone to see.

 

If Bohemia was part of Austria when these were made, they were probably made and exported well before the Nazis were a problem. Pre-WWI for sure, because in 1919 Bohemia became part of Czechoslovakia when they broke up the Austro-Hungarian empire after the War. The designs look 1910-ish, if that helps.

 

This is from Rontgen's book of marks and doesn't add much info to what you already know.

Do all the pieces you have contain the same version of the mark?

 

I meant they were brought to the UK from Austria by an Austrian Jew in the 1930's when they fled the rise of the Nazis.

I believe they do all carry the same mark but have not checked. Fascinating history, thank you guys!! So the reference I found could be correct - 1916-18 could be both Bohemia and Austria.

 

1916 isn't likely to be either; during the War they were too busy to make porcelain and the male potters were all in uniform.

 

Porcelain was still made during WWI in countries that had access to kaolin clay. Life didn't stop, and people still had to make a living.

As far as I know the only European country where porcelain manufacture slowly came to a halt was the Netherlands. They were neutral during WWI, but having no kaolin clay themselves, they depended on German kaolin. They may have been neutral, but they weren't about to import kaolin from Germany.
Unfortunately that meant the end of one of the most beautiful porcelain styles ever, Rozenburg porcelain, made in The Hague from 1883-1916.

 

The reference I found said that exact mark was only used 1916-1918?

I found a load more in the attic - dinner plates, side plates, and a raised cake platter!

 

There is no reason why it wouldn't be used from 1916-1918 imo.
WWI didn't stop all activity in all of Europe. In much of Europe life went on as usual. Sure, many young Bohemian men were enlisted, but older men and women carried on at home. After all, they had to make a living.

Besides, those are also the dates in the photos @say_it_slowly posted

 

Interesting. A lot of things in the USA came to a screeching halt for the Duration.

 

How did people make a living?

 

War footing. A lot of factories shut down. If they were producing it was for government contracts. The same thing happened again during WWII on a larger scale.

 

You can't eat bullets. Surely there was more than just war footing.

 

I kind of wasn't alive, and my grandpa was off being a company cook in France. Grandma was here working as a housekeeper. (my other two grandparents were gone before I was old enough to start school.) Can't say I ever really researched it. Just ran into a Boy Scouts historian today and WWI came up. It seems a lot of Scouts helped run farms during the War as part of their scouting training, because so many farm hands joined up. During WWII we borrowed farm hands from Jamaica to get the tobacco crops in here in Connecticut, but during the first go-round I'm not sure what they did.