1927 Small Bowl – Pzh Gouda

Gouda (pronounced ‘how-da’) is the generic term used for all the pottery factories in Holland. The area around Gouda had clay to make pots, which is why most of the factories settled there. This style of pottery was pioneered in about 1898 by a company called Plateelbakkerij Zuid-Holland, or PZH, but they didn’t produce the type of pottery that you see on our website. That wasn’t made until about 1910 when they discovered a new process to produce matte glazed pottery.

They’re not hand-thrown, they’re all molded from liquid clay, but every one is hand-painted. That’s why there were so many different artists that worked for all the different factories. They’re signed on the bottom, mostly by the person that painted them. It’s not their signature in full but their initials, because when they were making them, they had to know which particular person made which pot. They were paid by the number of pots they produced, so the initial was used by the factories to determine how many pieces were made.