ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL THE STORY OF ROYAL BAYREUTH PORCELAIN Written by June Grayson Photographed by Richard and June Grayson Midwestern collectors of Royal Bayreuth porcelain had a special treat in 1990 when Woody Auction of Douglass, Kansas, sold the Mr. and Mrs. Willard Mauermann collection of fine porcelain in a St. Louis auction. Almost six hundred pieces of Royal Bayreuth - as well as many pieces of R. S. Germany, R. S. Prussia, and Old Ivory - changed hands that hot August weekend. The Royal Bayreuth figurals sold better than anyone had anticipated with the rare, brown kangaroo creamer going for $1,000. Relatively speaking, the scenics seemed modestly priced while the tapestry pieces and the Sunbonnet babies brought higher prices than expected. A tapestry pitcher listed at fifty cents in a pre-World War I catalog might have been one of those tapestry pitchers that brought $200 at the Woody auction. Not bad for an investment that could have brought daily joy to its owners for the last eighty years. Royal Bayreuth is the oldest Bavarian porcelain company still under private ownership today. Founded in 1794 in Tettau, Germany, the company has survived great wars, financial debacles, numerous changes in ownership and management, and - probably the most traumatic - a great fire in 1897 which destroyed all of its past records and original molds. In spite of these continuing challenges, for two hundred years this company has been noted for exquisite dinnerware, figurines, vases, and collector plates of pure white porcelain. However, those collectibles from the late 1800s to World War I hold the greatest appeal today. They can be classified as follows: 1. Babies and nursery rhyme items. The best-loved and most famous of these are the Sunbonnet babies, an adaptation in porcelain of the drawings of an American artist, Bertha Corbett. Ms. Corbett never drew faces but hid them under big hats. She pictured the Sunbonnet babies cheerfully doing their daily tasks. Among collectors, the Sunbonnet line will forever be associated with Royal Bayreuth. Forms in this series include creamers, sugar bowls, dishes, pitchers, plates, jars, candle holders, and teapots. Coffee pots, baskets, and bells are rarer items. Royal Bayreuth reissued a series of Sunbonnet baby plates in the 1970s, which became as popular as the originals. The beach babies and snow babies - as well as nursery rhyme characters such as Jack and Jill and Little Miss Muffet - are just as appealing but were made in smaller quantities so they are also hard to find. 2. Corinthian. Classical figures and designs in solid colors decorate assorted items such as pitchers and vases. 3. Devil and cards. A group of playing cards form a shape such as a pitcher or tray with a red devil providing adornment as a handle. Because this series was originally so popular, the company reissued a few pieces in the 1970s as an advertising item. You either like this design or you hate it. 4. The figurals. To some people, Royal Bayreuth and figurals are synonymous. They come in an almost infinite number of forms, colors, and sizes. Tomato and lobster pieces are plentiful and relatively cheap. Poppies and pansies are the most common of the flower figurals, although sunflowers, roses, mums, tulips, and irises were also made. The fruit figurals - oranges, lemons, apples, strawberries, grapes - look almost real. Animals of all kinds are represented, from dogs to monkeys to insects and to lobsters sometimes entwined around iridescent shells. People figurals delight the eye. Collectors crave the Santas, especially in the rare colors such as green, yellow, or pearl instead of the ubiquitous red. The bell ringer, coachman, clown, toby, Art Nouveau lady, milkmaid, and monk are also great finds. Even though the vast majority of figurals were made in one or more of the four sizes of pitchers (creamer, milk, water, and lemonade), other forms such as boxes, jars, ashtrays, dresser trays, and candlesticks abound. 5. Mother of pearl. This finish comes in a variety of shadings on the grape, shell, leaf, pansy, and poppy molds. It is especially beautiful on the Art Nouveau lady series and is similar to some of the R. S. Prussia finishes of the same period. 6. Scenics. Bucolic country scenes with farmyard animals, workers, hunters, and even Victorian ladies entrance us. The color green often predominates. Even the smallest animals have different facial expressions. 6. Rose tapestry. Probably the most expensive series for collectors today. The tapestry effect was produced by applying a burlap cloth to the molded piece before firing. The cloth burned away but the unusual rough "tapestry" finish remained. The all-over painted rose design was usually pink, but white and three color (white, pink, and yellow) designs can also be found. Rarer and still more precious are the items in orange tapestry and sterling tapestry - a silver gray produced in very limited quantities. Royal Bayreuth has used many marks during the last two hundred years: the Old Tettau mark, the blue mark, and the green mark which is generally referred to as the Export Trade Mark. Many pieces are not marked but an advanced collector can recognize the real Royal Bayreuth and pinpoint the approximate date of production. Fortunately, few fakes exist. According to Virginia Salley, one writer on Royal Bayreuth, these figurals were designed to be sold as inexpensive souvenir merchandise on which the Royal Bayreuth mark conferred no status or value. She says, "It seems ludicrous to suggest that other companies were attempting to fool the public by reproducing something of no value." However, a beginning Royal Bayreuth collector might well be fooled by later reproductions made in Japan after World War II. Similar fruit, vegetable, and lobster and shell items are pictured in Gene Florence's four books on the Collectibles of Occupied Japan. (See book 3, pgs 29 and 115, and book 4, pgs 89 and 105). Although some of these trinkets have a certain charm to collectors who have never seen the original Royal Bayreuth figurals, all you need to do is to place the two products side by side to become an instant expert. The Oriental porcelain is not as good as the German, and the lines and workmanship are much cruder in every respect. No one article can hope to document the hundreds of variations in which these appealing treasures are found. To stand before an advanced collection of Royal Bayreuth for the first time and try to take it all in, is only to marvel at the uncommon creativity of the unknown and unsung artists who first conceived and designed them in all their ramifications. Until 1982, Kern Collectibles distributed the Royal Bayreuth Christmas and Mother's Day plates in the United States. According to Michael Price of the H. Wittur Company of Evanston, Illinois, the present American representative of Royal Tettau, Royal Bayreuth trademark is still owned by its parent company, Royal Tettau, but is not in use at this time. Presently, none of their products are being imported into the United States because currency exchange rates make prices prohibitive. A five-piece place setting of dinnerware would have to sell for $300 now in the United States, which is not economically competitive. However, Royal Tettau still make a highly regarded line of dinnerware and giftware line that sells throughout Europe. My mother, born in 1900 and raised on an Iowa farm, marvels that I would pay so much to collect something so commonplace to her. "We had these animal pitchers in our kitchen and used them all the time. Everyone did then. We never valued them highly. Dad would bring them home as a treat for us children when he went to town with the horse and buggy," she remembers. No one knows how many people have their Royal Bayreuth treasures locked up in their best curio cabinet. The one place you will no longer find them is on the children's kitchen table. FOR YOUR INFORMATION Every yearly antique price guide devotes several columns to Royal Bayreuth collectibles. In addition, three books have been published about them. All of the books are out of print. Virginia S. and George H. Salley wrote ROYAL BAYREUTH CHINA, published in 1969 after they made a special trip to Tettau in 1968 to visit the factory. Joan and Marvin Raines published two books including price guides on ROYAL BAYREUTH FIGURALS in the 1970s. Eric Sidman, who specializes in Royal Bayreuth as the proprietor of Eric's Antiques in Newton, Massachusetts, wrote THE VARIETY OF ROYAL BAYREUTH, a definitive article published in December, 1986, in the New England Antiques Journal (Vol V., No. 6). ##### Thanks to the following experts who shared their knowledge of Royal Bayreuth with me for this article: Dee Hooks, Illinois,member of the Advisory Board for Schroeder's Antiques Price Guide; Dorothy Kliebhan, collector and dealer at Antique Market III, St. Charles, Illinois; and Mary McCaslin of McCaslin's Antiques, Indiana. #####