4 Busts Of Composers, Scheibe-alsbach Biscuit Period 1905-1962

Beautiful ensemble of four busts of great classical composers and musicians: Wilhelm Richard Wagner (Leipzig 1813 -Venice 1883), Georg Friederich Haendel (Halle 1685- London 1759), Giuseppe Verdi, (Roncole 1813 – Milan 1901) and Johannes Brahms (Hambourg 1833 – Vienna 1897). They are all in white bisque and three bear the marks of German manufactory Scheibe-Alsbach. Very decorative for a music room or library.

Size: H 21 cm

Manufactory of Scheibe-Alsbach, Thuringen in Germany, period 1905-1962.

Lit: In 1835 the former accountant Ludwig Oels moved from Blankenhain (Thuringia) to the town of Scheibe and founded a small business for decorating pipe bowls and stems that he purchased as ‘blanks’ from the town of Breitenbach. On May 30th of the same year, he applied to the local sovereign Friedrich Günther von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt for a license for his business. As he did not get any response at all he simply started production and soon had a workforce of 18 people, but the prince’s chamber which also run the forestry commission was not amused and simply refused to supply the business with urgently needed firewood so that Oels was forced to sell the business to Daniel Kämpfe and Friedmann Greiner in July 1839.

Kämpfe and Greiner had the same problems of not receiving firewood even after the license applied for by Oels was finally granted in 1840. The company had in the meantime employed another 30 workers but as the firewood problem could not be solved, the factory was sold to a Mr. Dressel (Eisfeld) and Johann Friedrich Andreas Kister (Großbreitenbach). Dressel and Kister had more luck and finally got a concession for firewood supplies and started producing small items like pipe bowls, walking stick handles and dolls’ heads. In 1847 the workforce had already increased to 148 people. Supplies were no problem as the kaolin and sand used came from the nearby Steinheid area. By 1857 the company was very well known as the first Thuringian factory which made figures on a larger scale, beginning with devotional items like Madonna’s and gravestone decorations and then figures in Rococo and Biedermeier styles. From 1860 onwards the product range was slowly enlarged with busts of famous poets and composers as well as animals and animal groups. In 1863 the son of Johann Kister with the name of August Wilhelm Fridolin Kister became proprietor of the factory. To further improve the product range, he employed a teacher of the arts school in Sonneberg, Professor Reinhard Möller as leader of the modelling department in 1877. From 1890 onwards, the factory started to make new groups like female dancers, dancing couples and centerpieces and during 1894 the factory also introduced figures in old Meissen styles, like lace figures as well as historical figures and groups. In the year 1905 August Kister sold the factory to his son-in-law Mr. Offeney who turned the business into a private liability company and introduced the crossed-through ‘S’ mark. During an exhibition in Turin (Italy) in 1911, the company was awarded its 12th gold medal in addition to the two silver medals and six Grand Prix awards received earlier at national and international displays. This of course increased business and in 1913 the company already employed just over 300 workers, a number that remained constant until 1937. The year 1920 saw Kister sell the factory to Baron von Schilling who kept the name of A.W.F. Kister GmbH, which existed in that form until 1962.

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