Art Deco Pair of ‘Goldscheider / Staffordshire (Myott)’ Cossack Figurines

GOLDSCHEIDER : History of the Company.

Goldscheider, a Viennese factory (est. 1885), soon sped to the top of European ceramics makers. Figures and vessels of faience and terracotta as well as bronze and alabaster, all of top quality in respect of form and workmanship, were created in the Historicist, Jugendstil and Art Déco period styles. A crucial factor was collaboration with distinguished sculptors and ceramicists of the day - including Demetre Chiparus, Walter Bosse and Josef Lorenzl - who were responsible for a great many of the Goldscheider designs.
This success story was quashed by National Socialist organisation in 1938: the Goldscheider family was forced to emigrate, the firm was sold and the new proprietor was unable to sustain the high aesthetic quality standard. The Goldscheider brothers did manage to open new ceramics businesses while in exile in the US and England and Walter Goldscheider even returned to Vienna after the Second World War to resume his post as managing director of his old firm; however, in the 1950s the great ceramics tradition of this venerable Viennese business ended when it was sold to the German Carstens company.

This is a rare pair of figurines dating from the 1940’s. Marked, ‘Goldscheider’ (Austrian), and ‘Staffordshire England’, (please read above for details).

Good sized figurines; Male height; 21 cm, female height; 23.5 cm.

There is an old repair to the females foot but this is only noticeable on close inspection.

Otherwise, in good overall condition, as shown.