Item Description

Gerbing and Stephan made this gorgeous figurine of a lady with a big hat during the 1890’s when the interest in exotic appealed to consumers.11" tall, all the marking are there. The piece bears maker's marks of ‘’G & St’’ for the Gerbing and Stephan factory. The Shape number is #2809.This was mark used between 1861 and 1900, increible condition for its age, a treasure, let me try to describe. Colors are still vibrant, it has some light surface scratches, it has some lines but I could not find a repair although the painting has some areas that were re- touched, look at the close ups, pretty much the condition is there, marked properly. History: In the year 1812 Johann Eugen(ius) Philipp Leyhn founded a small business in the town of Wermsdorf (Saxony) and started to produce pipe bowls. As the work itself did not require experienced workers, Leyhn employed young apprentices that were of course much cheaper than normal workers and the small business soon started to flourish. Soon a few larger customers like the metalware company Rössler in Nixdorf (Bohemia) became interested in his products as they were looking for a source of pipe bowls as they produced the fitting lids and mouthpieces. Because the supply with basic materials was not sufficient to support a larger business, Leyhn started to run a new factory in the town of Pirna (Saxony) in 1815 which did not become operational until 1817. Of course his apprentices followed him to Pirna and also continued to work for Leyhn long after their apprenticeship. It should be noted that the deal between Leyhn and Rössler was discontinued around 1923 after a drastic increase in custom fees on items that passed the border to Bohemia (Austria). Anyway, two of the apprentices working for Leyhn were Wilhelm Leberecht Schiller (*1797 in Kreppendorf bei Wermsdorf) and Friedrich Vincent Meinulph Gerbing (*1798 in Riesa) who together founded their own small business in Bodenbach in the year 1829; it at first merely consisted of a small house with a shed that was used as studio and the only kiln was located outside. ....... Julius Reinhold Hermann Stephan and his brother-in-law Friedrich Ludwig Gerbing refounded the company under the name of Gerbing & Stephan, an event that was soon followed by the birth of Friedrich's second son Emil Alexander Gerbing in 1861. In the early 1890s, the company was then taken over by Friedrich Alexander and Emil Alexander Gerbing who together run the factory without larger changes; they kept the company name of Gerbing & Stephan but from around 1900 onwards marked with 'F&A G'. The business was by now totally specialized on the production of historicism styled majolica and this proved fatal as the restrictions on imports to the US market were followed by a change of taste in direction of the upcoming art nouveau style. Unable to change the product range in a way that would have perhaps enabled continuing success, the brothers had to file for bankruptcy and close the factory in 1903, two years before their father Friedrich Ludwig Gerbing died at the age of 77.