ES KERAMIK ‘ELLEN’ HANDLE VASE 883/20

A lovely, speckled, blue-on-blue jug vase from ES KERAMIK of West Germany.  The shape is arguably one of designer Hans Kraemer's most pleasing—with its bulbous pitcher form and dramatically angled handle.  The décor, 'Ellen,' dates from the 1960s and is possibly the work of Willi Hack.  A completely successful pairing!  The original silver-foil label is retained. HANS KRAEMER was born in 1930.  He was accredited as a ceramics modeler in 1950 following a three-year apprenticeship at a factory in Jünkerath—a small municipality in the Rhineland near the Belgian border—during that town's short-lived post-war foray into the clay industry.  He spent another two years as an employee of his instructor before signing on with ES KERAMIK in Rheinbach, southwest of Bonn.  Throughout his tenure with the firm, Kraemer was responsible for its entire mold-stock of ceramic products, utilitarian as well as decorative.  He created over 350 forms for ES KERAMIK—many of which were in production up until t