Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware

2 posters

Go down

Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware Empty Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware

Post by FoxandThomas September 12th 2012, 9:13 am

I recently bought a Grete Prytz Kittelsen Cathrineholm bowl - plain yellow on the inside and stainless steel on the outside. I was wondering if there is a way of dating them based on the style of the base mark? From what I can gather the ones with 'Cathrineholm' in a script style font are the oldest? Mine is not one of those!

Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware Cathri10

Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware Cathri11

Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware Cathri12


FoxandThomas
FoxandThomas

Other / Decline to state Number of posts : 42
Age : 81
Location : Australia
Registration date : 2011-08-24

Back to top Go down

Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware Empty Re: Cathrineholm Plain Enamelware

Post by MirnaMinkoff January 7th 2013, 3:59 am

If you can find it the (I think) Summer 2012 issue of Atomic Ranch there is a 6 page article about Greta Prytz Kittelsen and detailed her work for Cathrineholm, and other design work she did. There was more information in the article than I've ever been able to find about her online doing general research. I don't own the issue but was told about it by a friend, so I went into a store and read the article.

Interestingly enough the article states the famous lotus pattern that cathrineholm is so well known for and is constantly credited to Greta was not her design, nor did she even particularly like it at the time. My understanding is while the fundamental body shapes of the bowls, pots, plates, etc..are her designs, the actual pattern was done by someone else.

Apparently the lotus pattern and others were test marketed among Norwegian housewives and they chose the lotus pattern as their favorite, so production was green lighted to much success.

Greta much preferred the solid color work she did at Cathrineholm, particularly a line of aluminum pots and pans where you have a solid white pan and then a primary colored lid.

I have quite a few pieces of the cathrineholm in the lotus pattern, and I'm also collecting the stripe and "napkin" pattern pieces. I'm quite a fan of the striped bowls after discovering some for a song at a flea market. I had seen photos of them over the years, but it took seeing them in person for me to appreciate them. I have a feeling this would be the case with much of Greta's work, its very simple yet the quality and elegance of design needs to be seen up close and handled to truly appreciate.

As for the "cathrineholm" marks on the bottom and it signifying production years, I'd be curious to know. I've always wondered why some of the lotus pattern pieces have the cathrineholm logo on the bottom, and others do not. I've wondered if it was earlier or later pieces that have the imprint. I'm thinking it could be later pieces because a firm in NJ started copying the lotus pattern and producing cheap plastic bowls. Maybe CH decided to start stamping their wares with the lotus pattern due to other firms copying the pattern? IDK but that's my hunch.

As for the solid color pieces and the difference in imprint I don't have any idea.

MirnaMinkoff
MirnaMinkoff

Number of posts : 56
Location : USA
Registration date : 2012-12-10

Back to top Go down

Back to top


 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum