Although most of my Lost Porcelain Studios series focuses on actual studio operations, there were a few porcelain artists who never had their own independent studio but instead spent their career as a marquee designer for one or more major porcelain companies. Gunther Granget was one of those. Gunther Granget was born in 1932 in…
This final instalment of my overview of the Boehm of Malvern studio in England covers three genres (human figures, decorative eggs, and holiday ornaments) plus a commemorative home décor item. Human Figures The “people pieces” from the 1980s studio were — other than any single-item special commissions that may have been done, such as the…
One trend that is noticeable when reviewing the circa-1980s Boehm of Malvern designs is a growing tendency to depict human figures, but the classic Boehm staples of birds and flowers continued to dominate their production. Another post-1980 tendency is to see a mixture of production venues (Malvern vs. Trenton) within the same design. During the…
The Boehm porcelain studio’s expansion into the UK widened even further during the 1980s. They already had a porcelain studio in Malvern, England, but Helen Boehm wanted to take advantage of a new trend: figurines that combined porcelain with bronze elements. In 1982 she learned of a jewelry foundry in Wales named Ammonite Art Ltd…
As a result of the retail success of their first-decade series of collector plates, the Boehm of Malvern studio went into the genre in a much bigger way during the 1980s. The decision to do this, of course, originated with Helen Boehm who never let a marketing opportunity pass her by. The so-called “collectibles market”…
As related in my first Boehm of Malvern post, the on-site management of Boehm’s British studio changed with the departure of Diane and Terry Lewis in 1979. This second half of my Malvern retrospective covers that studio’s remaining operational years. It appears that the final year of any significant production was 1992. By that time…
During the 1970s the Boehm of Malvern studio produced four categories of collectible porcelain: sculptures, collector plates, one of a kind plaques, and limited edition plaques which are the subject of this post. However, there were far fewer retail plaque designs than plates. Retail limited edition plaques produced by the Malvern studio during the 1970s…
In addition to their porcelain sculptures and one of a kind hand painted plaques, the Boehm of Malvern studio also produced various limited edition plates during its first decade of operation. Between 1973 and 1979 the Boehm of Malvern studio issued a dozen different series of limited and non-limited edition plates; those issued in 1980…
The Chatsworth Lady 