Both the form here and its decoration are rather unusual for a West German ceramic piece, but fortunately similar pieces can be found, often with an identical format for the numbers underneath, and with an affixed label reading ‘Sawa’ with the initials ‘ESR’ above and ‘FOREIGN’ below (see images XXXX and XXXX for a jug in the same style with this label Keramik’. Sawa Keramik is one of the less well known firms producing ‘West German’ ceramics but seems to have had a distinctive and quite prolific output. Small signed vintage West German pottery vase with an arm handle made by Sawa Keramik. Founded in 1904, it was only in 1951 that the company started producing handmade ceramics and their chief designer from 1951-1965 was Heinrich-Maria Müller who decorated many of their pieces by hand himself. Each groove was carved by hand, and relief patterns were added using geometric stamps as here. These labour intensive techniques made Sawa ceramics expensive even at the time and the company enjoyed a reputation as one of the highest-quality ceramic manufacturers. Sawa Keramik was sold in 1992.

This vase, then, is a typical example of their work and may well have had input from Heinrich-Maria Müller himself. Dating is probably to the 1950s/1960s when abstract designs were particularly in vogue.