Allach Porcelain

[tonys]

3

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Tony, these photos are very good. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Are these items faked today? I know very little about Allach.

Cheers, Ade.

[tonys]

Hi Ade,

There have been a few fakes done of some of the higher end items - "The Fencer" and I believe "the Rearing Horse" as well.

After the war, some of the artists moved to other porcelain companies (such as the Rosenthal company) and took their designs with them. Sometimes you get people putting fake Allach marks on these post war pieces trying to pass them off as authentic.

The Adolf Hitler dinner service has been outed as a fake Allach item as well. There are at least two versions of this circulating around with very well done Allach marks.

The other problems are people having restorations done on broken pieces and passing them off as untouched; and taking plain white pieces and painting them / enhancing them (although this seems to be rare)

Luckily Allach only used a few different makers marks so it's reasonably easy to spot the authentic items once you learn the markings.

[ironcross1]

Hi there Tony , i know nothing of this company or there product, obviously they make beauitiful sculptuered items , were they in some way contracted to the riech to make such stuff . i have seen some of this stuff at big military auctions overseas [germany] so thats what made me think they made stuff for the riech , just interested , cheers Raymond

[tonys]

Hi Raymond,

It is definitely Third Reich. Allach was actually an SS operation set up to impart some culture and artistic items to the German people. A lot of the pieces were given away as gifts to important dignitaries or awards or competition prizes but the German public could buy various pieces as well. Every piece was done in white but a lot of the animals and some other items were done in colored versions as well. Himmler thought white represented purity and I'm guessing that is some racial connection.

Lots of Allach is sold on ebay and that is where I got a good part of my collection from. It does not get pulled by ebay (luckily) as they do not recognize the crossed runes as being associated with the SS. Although on German ebay most sellers still cover that over. If you type in Allach on ebay you can see some pieces for sale right now.

One good thing about Allach is you can display this stuff in your house and visitors don't get offended. Only very few pieces had the nasty SS runes or Swastikas on them and those were mostly presentation pieces or special order items (which are really expensive now if you can find them). They just look like porcelain figurines which of course they are.


Here is a short summary from my website:

The Allach porcelain factory was set up by Heinrich Himmler under the control of Professor Karl Diebitsch. Himmler wanted to produce porcelain of the highest quality and had some of the best sculptors in Germany employed to fulfill this dream.

All the Allach pieces were marked with the crossed SS runes similar to what is on SS swords and the SS 1936 chain daggers (this mark is often associated with SS Obersturmbannführer Professor Diebitsch). Most pieces also had a catalog number and the name of the artist marked on them as well.

The range of pieces that were produced covered various equestrian (horse) subjects, human figures both current (at that time) and historical, animal figures, presentation bowls (for Reich Party Days), decorative plates and various pieces of tableware. Almost everything was done in pure white porcelain (for purity) but many items were also offered for sale in colored versions as well.

Allach porcelain is regarded as the highest quality even today. Prices for some of the rarer pieces are currently over $10,000 but the smaller items can go as low as a few hundred. It can be best described by Professor Diebitsch in a speech he made in April 1939 at the opening of the Allach showroom in Berlin:

“We know that all we may produce will be critically examined by those who come after us, and we do not want these later generations to give a poor verdict on our works”

[tonys]

For anyone who is interested there is a website entirely devoted to Allach items. The sites owner, Dennis Porrell, has probably owned almost every piece at one point judging by the photos he has taken.

Allach Porcelain

[Adrian Stevenson]

Very informative post Tony! Thanks very much.

Cheers, Ade.

[ironcross1]

Thanks for that Tony , very interesting reading , like i said iv seen some of the pieces at auction sites and they are awesome items , i might even be able to get a piece some day , thanks again , cheers Raymond

[tonys]

On MCF there is a section devoted just to Allach. It's way too much to post here (well I could but it would take me a while) but Kris Lindblom has done a careful analysis on the AH dinnerware and after reading it I have to agree.

You can see the thread here.

Board Message

[tonys]

If I can paraphrase some good very good advice from what one of the guys said on the other thread:

If it's marked Allach and if you can drink from it, eat off of it or sip tea or coffee from it, etc..stay away from it.