The collector: Pippa Kahn, Nottinghamshire, UK. Owner of online 20th Century antiques and design gallery Fears and Kahn.

The collection: 1950s Kuba ceramics designed by Liesel Spornhauer for German Ceramics firm Schlossberg.

The story behind the collection...

In the early 1990s I went on a trip to Germany to get a feel of the culture and lived for a week with a family in Hamburg.  On my final day they gave me a gift of a small Schlossberg vase and this is where my interest began.  At the time I had no knowledge of the origins or designer of the piece.

Each piece is individually decorated by hand and therefore each piece has its own signature. I love the colour combination of yellow, teal blue and red, on the matt brown background with the white raised glazed freeform line. They have an incredible stylised 1950s feel to them and remind me of Piet Mondrian paintings.

I started collecting Schlossberg around 1999 when I first opened a 20^th Century design shop and needed to find items to sell.  For around 12 years I have amassed about 25 pieces. I try not to buy the same piece twice, but this is hard to stick to if I come across a bargain!

I am interested in colour, shape, form and the particular period of time when these were made, the 1950s.

I have the larger group of pieces arranged on a small vintage 1950s ebonised cabinet that has yellow painted drawers, so works well with the collection. The rest of the pieces are within a vintage teak wall unit behind glass sliding doors.

I particularly like the largest vase, because it is so impressive in scale and is harder to find. I also like the dish which works perfectly when a vase is on it filled with flowers.

Images Pippa Kahn and used with her kind permission.

www.fearsandkahn.co.uk

www.fearsandkahnblog.wordpress.com

www.flickr.com/photos/pippakahn