Bjørn Wiinblad Rosenthal Studio-Linie White Porcelain Relief Vase Circa 1961–1975

Details

Description

Bjørn Wiinblad Rosenthal Studio-Linie White Porcelain Relief Vase
Circa 1961–1975

Quiet, sculptural and endlessly easy to place, this white porcelain … Read more Bjørn Wiinblad Rosenthal Studio-Linie White Porcelain Relief Vase
Circa 1961–1975

Quiet, sculptural and endlessly easy to place, this white porcelain vase was designed by the Danish artist Bjørn Wiinblad for the Rosenthal Studio-Linie, and it is the piece that makes a shelf look considered. The form is a slim upright column of flattened oval section, and down one face the wall steps inward to a recessed panel modeled in low relief with Wiinblad’s best-loved motif: a young girl with closed eyes and a soft fringe of hair, framed in a spray of leaves and small round buds that arches over her head, repeated five times from top to bottom. Everything else is left plain and glazed, so the relief reads only when the light rakes across it — from a few feet away the vase is pure white sculpture, and up close it is full of storybook charm.

At eight and a half inches it is the useful size, tall enough to hold its own and small enough to move around. Try it on a mantel or a bookshelf where a lamp will throw light sideways across the relief, on a powder room counter, or grouped with other white ceramics on a console for a collected, tonal moment. It takes three or four stems beautifully — ranunculus, a branch of quince, a few tulips — and looks just as good empty. White on white makes it a natural in a modern or Scandinavian room, but the romantic, hand-drawn quality of the face keeps it warm in a traditional one too.

Wiinblad (1918–2006) trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and joined Rosenthal in 1957, staying with the firm for the rest of his life. While most of his mid-century contemporaries were stripping ornament away, he went the other direction — fairy tales, theater, flowers and faces — and Rosenthal gave him the freedom to do it. His Romance service of 1960–61 was the first design for the newly launched Studio-Linie, and The Magic Flute followed in 1969. This vase belongs to the white relief group from those same years, where his drawings were translated from the brush into the mold.

Dimensions
Height: 8½ inches (21.6 cm)
Width: 3¼ inches (8.3 cm)
Depth: 2 inches (5.1 cm)

Marks
The base carries the green Rosenthal factory mark with the crown and rose above crossed rods over the script name and GERMANY beneath, the green facsimile signature of Bjørn Wiinblad, and the original gold foil Studio-Linie label. Rosenthal launched the Studio-Linie in 1961, so the gold label dates the vase after that year.

Provenance
West Coast Collection
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Excellent. No chips, cracks or restoration; light wear to the unglazed foot rim consistent with age.

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