RUSCHA KERAMIK ‘BLUME’ WALL TILE Nr. 763 WITH CHAIN

A rectangular ceramic wall tile from Ruscha Keramik with a yellow, red, and green floral decor on a metallic copper ground. RUSCHA KERAMIK was launched in 1948 when Rudolf Schardt assumed the management of Klein & Schardt, his father Georg's ceramics factory in the town of Rheinbach, located near Bonn in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. (RUSCHA is a syllabic abbreviation of his name.) The timing of the re-founding ensured that the company was in a good position to benefit from Germany's post-war growth boom. RUSCHA KERAMIK became a leading manufacturer during the "golden age" of Western German ceramics and is credited with some of the era's key developments. It produced some very successful and innovative forms and glazes, including the 'Vulcano' décor (Otto Gerharz, 1951)—which heralded the move towards thick, dripping fat-lava glazes—and the iconic no. 313 (Kurt Tschörner, 1954), probably the period's most famous shape. Hanns Welling, Adele Bolz, Heinz Siery, and Cilli