In 1876, a young man named Alfred Stellmacher, equipped with a great deal of artistic talent, technical proficiency and uncommon drive, established a company in Northern Bohemia devoted to the creation of new and exciting works of ceramics art. Through familial ties and attrition, several new companies were formed. Here, at long last, is the definitive account of the House of Amphora, the brilliantly innovative ceramic artworks bearing that name in fact or by association, and the five workshops that produced them.
With access to the most extensive Amphora collections worldwide and recently unearthed archives and records from the Czech Republic, the authors, all three specialists in their fields, piece together a fascinating story of talent, ambition, family ties and innovation. They journey from Amphora's beginnings in the Turn-Teplitz region of what was once Bohemia, to foreign markets where their artworks garnered mass appeal and on to the world's largest art exhibitions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Cognizant that all works of art reflect the times from which they emerge, the authors discuss the vital relationship between the ceramic workshops and the many movements, political, economic and artistic, that swept through Europe and the rest of the world at that time. Included are hundreds of specially commissioned photographs with detailed descriptions, chapters on collecting, care and conservation, and a lengthy study of marks, signatures and the Amphora numbering system.
As such, this book makes a unique contribution to the study of applied arts at the dawn of a new century, and to the appreciation of ceramic art at its highest and most imaginative.
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