GRÄFLICH ORTENBURG CANDLEHOLDER

A glossy, citric-acid yellow candleholder from Gräflich Ortenburg. The curdling drip glaze is applied over a reddish-brown clay which peeks through as an accent color. GRÄFLICH ORTENBURG was founded in 1946 by Hungarian count Alram Graf zu Ortenburg (1925-2007) on his family’s estate in Tambach, Germany. Several clay pits had been developed on the property in 1939, and upon inheriting it, the Count decided to open a ceramics workshop in a side wing of his castle, Schloß Tambach. Initial production focused on ornately painted vases, bowls, and wall plates, all decorated by hand in an affiliated studio. As the decades progressed, more and more exciting Modernist designs—especially out of Italy—caught Ortenburg’s eye, and he re-aligned the studio’s aesthetic to take advantage of this post-war trend. In 1949 the workshops in Gräflich began producing coffee and tea services. For cost reasons, only very few pieces were hand-painted at this point. International designers such as Tunisian scu