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Pottery Marks Identification Guide
In the Pottery Marks Lexicon Database (Pottery Marks Lexicon) you will find pottery marks of pieces of studio pottery from Germany, France, Spain, the USA, Japan and Switzerland. German pottery marks from the FRG as well as from the GDR can be found in our mark lexicon. When pottery marks originate from a workshop, they are also called workshop marks. If they are marks of manufactories, they are called manufactory marks. If they are factory marks, they are called factory marks. And in general one says manufacturer’s marks.
Let us identify your ceramic mark/signature!
OVERVIEW
Mark search online
And this is how the mark search online in our mark collection works: The studio pottery marks can be easily found using the search function above the overview table below, as each mark is described as you see it. If you don’t want to use the ceramic brands search with image display, just don’t type anything in the search box. Instead, you can simply scroll down the page and view or compare all available ceramic brands. Alternatively, you can also search for the last name of the ceramicist in question by using the listed letters above the marks table. When you click on the respective letter, you will jump to the last names of those ceramicists who start with this letter.
Determine pottery marks with lexicon
To use the studio pottery pottery marks lexicon online optimally and find for example german pottery marks please type in the search field above the table, what exactly you can identify as a mark on the pottery. For example, if the studio pottery mark consists of a K in a circle, type “K in a circle” in the search field (do not use the search field on www.robertzueblin.com, this will probably not help you in this case).
Besides marks of pottery from Germany, including one or the other pottery mark from the GDR (GDR pottery marks or GDR pottery stamps), you can also find pottery marks of pottery makers from France and Spain in the pottery marks database. As a rule, the pottery stamps are ground stamps. In other countries, such as Japan, marks are often also applied to the lower lateral edge of a pottery.
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Volume 1 and 2
German Pottery of the 20th Century
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Types of pottery marks
There are different types of marks, as can be seen from the following overview of mark types, also called a list of mark types:
- pressed blind marks (press marks)
- cast blind marks
- relief marks
- stamp marks
- incised marks
- brush marks
- painting horn marks
- pencil marks
- paper marks
- dating marks
- decorative marks
- rotary marks
- painter’s marks
- formers/workers marks
- mould marks
- size marks
- dealer’s marks
- owner’s marks
In addition, pottery marks can be distinguished according to whether they were applied on top of the glaze (onglaze marks) or underneath the glaze (underglaze marks).
Ceramic monogram as a mark
Ceramists sometimes also stamp monograms on or under the ceramics. A monogram is usually one letter or two or three letters. These letters are usually the first letters of the ceramist’s first name and surname and perhaps the middle name(s). These initial letters are also called initials. The ceramist Gerhard Dölz, for example, uses the monogram GD as a press mark.
Difference between signature and marks
In the following list you will find only studio pottery marks, not signatures. The pottery signatures can be found under this link.
The difference between mark and signature: A mark is a manufacturer’s sign created with a stamp. So instead of calling it pottery mark identification you can call it also pottery stamps identification. A signature is written by hand (carved or painted on the ceramic). Sometimes a pottery signature stamp is also used. Although the result of such a signature stamp looks as if this signature was handwritten. In fact, however, it is a mark and is listed on this page in the Pottery Marks Database.
In addition to the pressed origin mark, numbers, letters or other characters can also be pressed onto the pottery with the stamp, for example to identify different models, shape (shape marks), decoration (decoration marks), sizes (size marks), associations (such as lid and jar by an association mark) or turners.
Further pottery mark terminology
Others also count scratched marks as marks and speak of scratch marks. The same applies to marks painted with a brush, which are called brush marks according to this classification, or those made with a pencil, which are then called pencil marks. Marks painted with a painting horn are called painting horn marks. Painters may also have immortalised themselves on the painted piece with a so-called painter’s mark.
Basically, it can be said that with such a broad definition of marks, marks can be found on earthenware, faience, stoneware, earthenware, but also porcelain, i.e. on all types of ceramics. So-called relief marks can also be found, especially on cast pieces (which are more likely to be considered factory wares and not studio ceramics). However, there are also blind marks that are not pressed, but are created when casting in a mould or when turning in a mould.
Special pottery marks explained
If there are numbers on a piece of pottery that indicate the year of manufacture, this is called a date mark. In England, by the way, there have been so-called registration marks in the form of a diamond since 1842, from which you can see the material, year, month, day and bundle number. In the middle of the diamond was a “Rd”, which probably stands for the English term “record”, which means “entry” in German.
A stamp mark is when the mark was stamped onto the pottery with a rubber stamp. From this we distinguish printing marks, which were applied by overprinting or silk-screen printing.
Then there are the stencil marks, where the mark is left on the pottery with the help of a stencil. And there are paper marks or paper labels, which are glued onto the finished pottery.
If the owner has left his mark on the pottery, it is called an owner’s mark. Sometimes there are also potteries on which one finds a dealer’s mark, either because the pieces were made especially for this dealer or because the dealer has further refined the pieces, for example in the case of purchased white ware.
Identification-Service of Pottery Marks
If you can’t find the mark in the Studio Pottery Marks Identification Guide below, you may be able to have me determine the pottery mark. More information about this pottery mark identification service and the contact details can be found here.
Pottery Marks Lexicon Database
And here now in the following pottery marks database you will find now the pottery marks with image display, where you can either use the letter selection to jump to the respective letter of the surnames of the ceramists or enter in the search box “Search” what you see on the pottery as a mark. Or simply scroll down and compare the mark on your pottery with the pottery marks listed here in the image display.
B | ↑ |
| Richard BAMPI * 1896, † 1965 |  RB (RB double and wavy underlined) |
| Richard BAMPI * 1896, † 1965 |  Rb in the oval |
| Alexandre BIGOT * 1862, † 1927 |  a Bigot |
D | ↑ |
| Pierre-Adrien DALPAYRAT * 1844, † 1910 |  LES GRANDS FEUX DE DALPAYRAT |
| Pierre-Adrien DALPAYRAT * 1844, † 1910 |  Dalpayrat |
| Gerhard DÖLZ * 1926, † 2007 |  GD |
| Otto DOUGLAS-HILL * 1897, † 1972 |  O-H◄- DOUGLASHILL |
| Paul DRESLER * 1879, † 1950 |  Two towers connected by a bridge, on waves |
E | ↑ |
| Stephan ERDÖS * 1906, † 1956 |  SiEM (also used by Ida Erdös-Meisinger) |
G | ↑ |
| Walter GEBAUER * 1907, † 1989 |  WG BÜRGEL |
| BURG GIEBICHENSTEIN |  Castle mark (house above a line and an arc) |
| Erhard GOSCHALA * 1928, † 2003 |  EG Meuselwitz in a circle |
H | ↑ |
| Ernst HÄUSERMANN * 1947 |  H in a circle |
| Georges HOENTSCHEL * 1855, † 1915 |  H in G |
| Albrecht HOHLT * 1928, † 1960 |  Old cat (used between 1946 and 1953) and cross |
| Studio HOHLT |  Cat aligned to the left with two waves underneath (double and wavy underlined) (old cat, used from 1946 to 1953) |
| Studio HOHLT |  Cat aligned to the right with two waves underneath (double and wavy underlined) (new cat, used from 1953) |
| Josef HÖHLER * 1909, † 1964 |  JHF |
| Arnulf HOLL * 1908, † 1984 |  HOLL KERAMIK |
J | ↑ |
| Kuno JASCHINSKI * 1897, † 1954 |  Hand, below "GOSLAR" |
| Karl JÜTTNER * 1921, † 2006 |  A little man with antennas and head in TV format and JUE written between the legs |
K | ↑ |
| Horst KERSTAN * 1941, † 2005 |  K in circle |
| Ruth KOPPENHÖFER *1922, † 1994 |  R K in a rectangle |
| Gerda KÖRTING *1911, † 2000 |  Human Figure on G K |
| Heiner Hans KÖRTING *1911, † 1991 |  H in K |
M | ↑ |
| Mario MASCARIN *1901, † 1966 |  M over M in oval |
| Jean-Marie MAURE |  Gres Artistique, J.M. Maure, St. Vérain (Nièvre) |
| Otto MEIER * 1903, † 1996 |  Rune for Spring (Ostara, Eostre) |
| Otto MEIER * 1903, † 1996 |  om (o on m) |
| Tanaka MOTOHIKO * 1954 |  源 (源彦 = Motohiko, 源 = Minamoto = source) |
P | ↑ |
| Auguste PAPENDIECK * 1873, † 1950 |  AP., Achterdieck, b.Bremen, in a circle |
R | ↑ |
| Gusso REUSS * 1885, † 1958 |  REUSS |
| Walter RHAUE * 1885, † 1959 |  wR (w above R or w on R) |
| Studio Chantal et Thierry Robert |  Ch and T in A |
W | ↑ |
| Fritz WAESCH |  FW |
Z | ↑ |
| Daniel ZULOAGA * 1852, † 1921 |  DANIEL ZULOAGA |
Nothing found? Let us identify the ceramic mark/signature for you!