c. 1928

MÜNCHNER WERKSTÄTTEN  Germany

Vase c. 1928

Blue and white modeled glazed earthenware with orange red outlines

Marks:   “M” over “W” mark, Germany

Provenance: Mr. Ernest L. King (Watkins) “Rockledge” Commission, Winona, MN c.1930’s Phillip Brooks Maher (interior architect), descended in the King Family to Bud (E. L. King Jr.) and Betty King, Winona, MN, Hollander Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, Private Collection, New York, NY

H: 9 ¾” x W: 8 ¼” x D: 8 ¼”

Price: $5,450

ROCKLEDGE, the summer home of Ernest and Grace King (the Watkins Family Company fortune was made from door-to-door sales of health potions and hygiene related products) was built and designed in its entirety from the expansive main home building with all of the furnishings to the custom silver service all the way down to the hand woven carpets and lace curtain designs, is arguably the most famous American Arts and Crafts commissioned home in America and was built and meticulously designed by George Washington Maher. It was finished in 1912, and was used by the Kings for the month of August only for a couple of decades before the interior was completely redone in the fashionable Art Deco design of the 1930’s. George Washington Maher’s son Phillip Brooks Maher, was hired for the project and went shopping for the best of the design of the period in both New York and Paris. He assembled a legendary collection of Art Deco design that comprised many important examples of both American and European Art Deco including the famous Donald Deskey square form telescope table, a Gilbert Rohde “Z” clock, a pair of Mies van der Rohe red lacquer and wicker armchairs, DIM furniture and rugs from Paris and rare Paolo Venini floor lamps and sculptural glass pieces among many other major 20th Century design works. This rare vase was indicative of the avant-garde furnishings throughout the King Home as well as the exquisite quality and attention to the detail of every single object that the Kings surrounded themselves with and became accustomed to enjoying and living with whether they were at their Daytona Beach resort, their lakeside property at Lake Tahoe or their plantation in Hawaii!