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African head, No. 632 Theme: Black and white decor Hi resolution image available Decorated with copper bands and earrings. Mint condition. Value: £ 150-200 |
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African head, No. 632-D Theme: Black and white decor Hi resolution image available With white and black spiral stripes on the neck. Mint condition. Value: £ 150-200 |
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Ashtray, No. 242 Theme: Black and white decor Mint condition. Gift from Chiel. Value: £ |
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Ceramic Mask Theme: Black and white decor Hi resolution image available Date around 1955. Beautiful and rare African-influenced mask. Pristine condition, with cord for hanging. A range of these small to medium size items was produced, all sympathetically portraying aspects of tribal art and beauty. Also seen, for example, is a female mask decorated with metal attachments, that is stylistically similar to the 1950s African figures by Anzengruber of Vienna, Austria. A range of cute Ravelli animals was also produced in this two-tone colourway, and was made by handicapped people as part of a Social programme. Value: £ 150-200 |
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Cigarette holder Theme: Black and white decor From a smoker's set, originally consisting of this pot, an ashtray, and a wood-handled pestle for snuffing out the ash. Pretty common in Holland. A zebra pattern cigarette box (above) and a zebra pattern table lighter, are also seen, but are not common. Value: £ 2-6 (this single item) |
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Vase No. 51 Theme: Black and white decor Incredibly sleek, torpedo-shaped vase with a 'cloven-hoof' foot. Mint condition. Value: £ 150-200 |
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Vase No. 52 Theme: Black and white decor With beaked lip. The shape was influenced by a razor shell that Ravelli picked up on a beach. Minor traces of use, but no damage or crazing. The exterior has a black finish (which is either unglazed or matt glazed) and white glazed stripes inset into the body. The interior has a gloss, dark brown glaze. Value: £ 150-200 |
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Vase or jug, No. 29 Theme: Black and white decor With a diagonal stripe of white glaze against black, unglazed clay. Mint condition. Value: £ 80-100 |
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Vase or jug, No. 29C Theme: Black and white decor Fifties styling on this piece, with a Henry Moore-like body hole. Also seen decorated with a diagonal swathe of white on one half of the body, matt blackish brown on the other. A few scuff marks on the body, and a pinhead-sized flea bite on the mouth. Value: £ 40-60 |
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Vase, No. 37 Theme: Black and white decor Beautiful vase in which the clay, instead of being left unglazed as in most of these pieces, has a black glaze to offset the fantastic flowing white stripes. Mint condition. Value: £ 100-150 |
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Vase, No. 42-2 Theme: Black and white decor With a furrow running down two sides. Mint condition. Value: £ 80-100 |
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Vase, No. 44-1 Theme: Black and white decor Square section vase with a slight spiral twist, two opposite panels in white glaze. Mint. Value: £ 60-80 |
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Vase, No. 46-1 Theme: Black and white decor Vase with single furrow. Mint. Value: £ 80-100 |
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Zebra pattern cigarette box No. 253 Theme: Black and white decor Date around 1955. The box has a lid with zebra pattern picked out in white glaze. The base is brown, is glazed in dark brown on the inside, and has a white applied rim. Also seen with white interior glaze. Scarce, and in mint condition. Value: £ 20-40 |
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Colorite beaker-vase, No. 16-1C Theme: Colorite Mint condition Value: £ 80-100 |
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Colorite beaker-vase, No. 16-1C Theme: Colorite Mint condition Value: £ 80-100 |
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Colorite beaker-vase, No. 16-2C Theme: Colorite Mint condition Value: £ 100-120 |
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Colorite beaker-vase, No. 16-2C Theme: Colorite Mint condition Value: £ 100-120 |
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Colorite vase, No. 78-2C Theme: Colorite Mint condition Value: £ 50-80 |
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Colorite vase, No. 84 Theme: Colorite Mint condition Value: £ 150-250 |
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Ravelli Colorite vase, No. 81-C Theme: Colorite With a shield like motif in white and yellow halves, and two orange circles n the middle. Hairline crack to lip. Value: £ |
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Ravelli colorite jug, No. 79-IC Theme: Colorite This is the smallest of the three sizes (the medium and large sizes are 79-2C and 79-3C, respectively). Sometimes seen with CAMIZ stamped on the base. Mint condition. Value: £ 100-150 |
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Ravelli colorite jug, No. 79-IIC Theme: Colorite This is the medium size. Mint condition. Value: £ 100-150 |
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Black-brown Keramobile Theme: Keramobiles Dark brown matt glaze. Mint condition Value: £ 10-20 |
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Orange Keramobile Theme: Keramobiles Hanging flower container with a hole in the top to take a knotted string for hanging. This must have looked fabulous hanging in a window with plants trailing out of the holes. Mint except for two minute flakes from the rim of the big holes. Value: £ 10-20 |
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Ravelli look-alike tile (1967) Theme: Other Presumably a commission for a swimming club or festival in Utrecht. Unmarked, so I am not sure that it is by Ravelli. The ceramic seems rather thin for Ravelli It does have the dark brown unglazed ground with white glazed details, however. Bogaers says that cheap imitations of the Ravelli style were made by a company in Blerik. These were black painted, rather than being of solid black clay. Value: £ 5-7 |
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Hanging flower pots Theme: Red and white decor Terracotta finish above, white glaze below. Holes in lugs for suspension. Both mint but used condition, with traces of limescale; both with backstamps, and one with original label. Value: £ 10-15 (each) |
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Candleholder Theme: Seventies Ravelli Mint, unused condition. Value: £ 4-10 |
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Flower 'paddestoel' (toadstool) Theme: Seventies Ravelli Mint condition. Stamped: Ravelli 158. Value: £ 4-10 |
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Hangbloempot Theme: Seventies Ravelli Mint condition, with holes on the lugs to take a cord for hanging. No backstamp, but with the Ravelli sticker. Value: £ 4-10 |
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Ribbed jug with handle Theme: Seventies Ravelli Stamped RAVELLI 123-2. Mint condition. Value: £ 15-30 |
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Ribbed vase Theme: Seventies Ravelli Stamped RAVELLI 93-3 and also with sticker. Mint condition except for a minute pinprick to the brown glaze on one of the rings. Value: £ 15-30 |
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Small vase Theme: Seventies Ravelli Stamped RAVELLI 3. In mint condition. Value: £ 15 |
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Wall plate Theme: Seventies Ravelli With 2 holes on back, pierced through the wet clay during manufacture, for hanging on wall. Stamped RAVELLI 322. Value: £ 15-30 |
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Background information
Jaap Ravelli's pottery (Potterij Ravelli) operated from Valkenburg, near Leiden, The Netherlands, from 1944 - 1977. Ravelli pottery climbed sharply in value in the 1990, and then suffered a serious slump in prices after the stock market crash of 2000. The black-and-white tiles, the tribal pieces, the Colorite, and the one-offs or unique pieces turned and decorated by Jaap himself ('unicas', in Dutch) are the most expensive. Rumour has it that Ravelli made some of the unique pieces as gifts for his many female friends. The pottery is hardly known outside The Netherlands and most of the collectors are Dutch (although Ravelli did export across the world). The bright orange pieces and bark-effect vases are still affordable.For an excellent website with extensive photo galleries, see http://www.grul.nl/
Some of the information below was gleaned from 2 books (Marie-Rose Bogaers; and J.M. de Koning; see books page).
| Ravelli Themes |
Black and white decor Colorite Keramobiles Other Red and white decor Seventies Ravelli
Click a theme to see all the related items
Black and white decor
Slipcast, self-coloured, brownish-blackish-grey body, white glazed details (sometimes with an orange-peel effect), and dark brown glaze to the foot and interior of vases. Incised RAVELLI name and, usually, pattern number. Cheap imitations made in Holland at the end of the fifties had a white clay body overglazed in brownish-black. According to Bogaers, Ravelli's black and white range looked appealing against the blond wood furniture of the fifties. Occasionally, Ravelli applied polychrome glaze to their dark clay body to give the mosaic-like Colorite pattern. The Ravelli black and white ware is reminiscent of the 'Negro' (1953-58) and 'Domino' (1954-55) patterns designed for Upsala-Ekeby by Ingrid Atterberg.
Colorite
At the end of the 1950s, Ravelli was inspired by a holiday to Italy to introduce coloured enamels on the brown body. This polychrome decoration, accented with white lines from a pencil of white clay and oil, was influenced by the work of Italian ceramicists Guido Gambone and Marcello Fantoni. These pieces are now rare.
Keramobiles
All had holes for placement of plants; the body was spherical, hemispherical, ring-like or cylindrical. These were part of the seventies craze in Holland for having living curtains of hanging plants indoors.
Other
Items that do not fall within other categories
Red and white decor
Tough, impervious stoneware with red body and white glazed details. Vases are often seen with an overall white glaze, the red beneath showing through in areas where a stencilled pattern has been applied.
Seventies Ravelli
The sixties Ravelli palette was rustic; earthy browns, for example, or beech-bark effect textures. In the seventies, some very bright, shiny glazes were used in red, orange and yellow. The pieces from this period often have circular ridges from the turning.
| Stamp information |
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Ravelli Stamp |
The normal production of hand-turned work by the regular factory employees carried either an impressed stamp or the name Ravelli incised by the worker (and therefore in various handwriting styles) |
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Ravelli Signature |
Signature for all one-off pieces (unica) personally made by J.J. Ravelli himself. |
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Ravelli Sticker |
Yellow and black sticker applied to all pieces. Very small pieces have only the sticker and no impressed or incised name. |
