SCHARVOGEL KUNTSTTÖPFERI MÜNCHEN, WALTER MAGNUSSEN STEIN
Circa 1904, stoneware and pewter, 9.25” high,
monogram for Scharvogel Kunsttöpferei München
Jakob Julius Scharvogel (1854-1938) had been educated to be a businessman, but his visits to the ceramics department of London’s South Kensington Museum inspired him to become a potter. Scharvogel began working as a potter at Villeroy & Boch, but he left in 1898 to establish Scharvogel Kunsttöpferei München, where he introduced a line of flambé-glazed stoneware. He hired progressive artists such as Peter Behrens and Walter Magnussen. His wares were exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900, in Turin in 1902, and in St. Louis in 1904.
The stoneware body of this stein appears to be a Magnussen design although the artist’s mark is not present on the bottom. I don’t know who designed the fantastic merman on the pewter top, but I’m sure research can determine if it was also Magnussen—note the way the metal is designed to integrate with the ceramic handle to form the merman’s tail.
