’60s Blue-on-Blue Danish Studio Ball Vase by Christian Schollert

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A softball-sized ball vase (fastpitch) with a vibrant, streaky, azure glaze from the Zealand studio of Danish master potter Christian … Read more A softball-sized ball vase (fastpitch) with a vibrant, streaky, azure glaze from the Zealand studio of Danish master potter Christian Schollert. With its sturdy and gently flaring lip, the form bears some resemblance to a stylized pomegranate. Thrown at his eponymous Næstved studio in the 1960s.

CHRISTIAN SCHOLLERT (1839–1919) was a highly regarded Danish ceramist, whose pieces ranged from Art Deco table lamps to modernist stoneware bowls and often featured intricate designs and distinctive glazes, including a signature cobalt blue that often appeared on large sculptural and architectural pieces. Much of his work evokes the streamlined aesthetic of the Machine Age. He founded SCHOLLERT KERAMIK in Næstved (also the home of Kähler Keramik), a small city in the southern part of Zealand, in 1932, and also maintained a workshop in Nærum in the northern outskirts of Copenhagen. Schollert’s output extended over several decades, with attributions that stretch from the 1930s to the 1960s.

SCHOLLERT KERAMIK became particularly famous in the 1940s for producing classically crafted vases and plates fluted with relatively deep and precisely symmetrical grooves—a modernist style inspired by the technical wonders of industrialization. Often produced with reddish clays, the vessels were typically glazed in delicate blues, grays, and greens. Such functionalist ceramics emphasized that mechanical expression itself could take precedence over the representation of nature.

Schollert was second in a four-generation line of ceramic artists. His father, Christian Johansen (Schollert adopted his mother’s surname), produced earthenware in the Zealand town of Korsør in the early 1900s. His daughter, Helle Allpass (1932–2000), was a graduate of the Danish Academy of Fine Arts and a master-trained potter. She opened a studio north of Copenhagen in 1964 and helped to found the Association of Danish Craftsmen in 1976. Today, the works of both Schollert and Allpass are considered highly collectible. Allpass’ daughter, Ana Schollert, continues the family tradition at her own Copenhagen studio. See less