This Art Deco earthenware vessel measures 4" high by 3" in diameter, and 2" in diameter at the rim and base. It depicts a very handsome and shapely form cinched at the neckline and at the hip. It is adorned with a fleur-de-lis in relief, on its front and back, framed in with tooled line designs above and below. This earthenware vase is glazed in a rich organic and stormy charcoaled-green glaze. This pot is marked Ekeby, along with a numbers '2653' on the underside, and guaranteed to be vintage Upsala Ekeby from Sweden c1930. This vessel is in original factory condition, with stilt marks on the underside, one with some clay pulled away, which happened in the making when separating the stilts from the vessel. This small earthenware pot makes a very handsome presentation.
Upsala-Ekeby was founded outside of the Swedish city of Uppsala in 1885 by the von Bahr family. The location was chosen because the area had clay that was particularly suitable for tile making. At first, the company made only bricks. However, it soon expanded production to include wall tiles, masonry heaters, tableware, and decorative ceramics. The first years were financially difficult, but then market conditions improved. By the end of the 1910s, the factory was the largest of its kind in Scandinavia with 300 employees. In the beginning, the production of utilitarian and decorative wares was modest, and the products were often copies of foreign models. Around 1920, Upsala-Ekeby began to recruit designers in an effort to raise its artistic standards. The World Exhibition in Paris in 1925 turned out to be an international breakthrough for Swedish utility art, but for Upsala-Ekeby, the breakthrough came later in the 1930s. In the ensuing decades, Upsala-Ekeby would become one of the brightest stars of the Swedish interior design world. Upsala-Ekeby had a short but brilliant art pottery era between the 1930s and 1960s. But in the late 1960s, the sales dropped because of increasing international competition. The factory downscaled during the 1970s and was finally closed in 1978. But interest in Upsala-Ekeby art pottery still lives on among fans and collectors! (Source: Mother Sweden website)