Art Nouveau Ceramic Milk Jug by Michael Powolny, Austria, Early 1900s

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Item description:
Beautiful glazed ceramic milk jug or small pitcher, entirely hand-decorated and glazed, embellished with various semicircular garland decorations … Read more Item description:
Beautiful glazed ceramic milk jug or small pitcher, entirely hand-decorated and glazed, embellished with various semicircular garland decorations featuring flowers and leaves, painted with a brush by the artist on a white background, in full Art Nouveau style. The ceramic mixture is very hard and the glaze is very compact, extremely heavy and hard. Marked under the base with the flower vase mark and the letters G and K, which stand for Gmundner Keramik, Michael Powolny's mark as published in the book "Michael Powolny Keramik und Glass aus Wien 1900-1950" (see last photo). The mark is the third in chronological order and refers to all sculptures from 1919 to 1950, the year the factory closed.

Useful information for evaluating the item:
An internet search shows that the eight highest auction results achieved by Michael Powolny's ceramics range from €30,000 to just over €50,000, to which auction fees of 25-30% must be added. This gives an idea of the value of the ceramics created by this famous Austrian artist, undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the European ceramics scene in the first half of the 20th century. We are all well aware of how few ceramic sculptures from the early 20th century can achieve such results; only objects created by great artists and designers famous throughout the world can achieve such results. We have also seen that even very small ceramics achieve significant results, ranging from €1,000 to €2,500 for ceramics 10 cm high, some even 5.5 cm high. In addition, the auction house's sales commission must always be added to the hammer price.

Information about the artist and/or manufacturer:
Michael Powolny (1871-1954) was one of the most important artists of the Viennese Secession of 1900. In 1906, he founded his own factory, Wiener Keramik, which in 1907 became part of Josef Hoffmann and Kolomon Moser's Wiener Werkstatte, with whom Michael Powolny collaborated for many years. We are talking about giants of the European ceramics scene and of European design as a whole in the first 50 years of the 1900s. This piece has an attribution mark,
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