West German E S Keramik Crusty Camo Petal Vase

A fantastic ES Keramik petal vase with the uncommon crusty desert camouflage top glaze.

ES KERAMIK was founded in 1948 by Josef Emons and his two sons—ES being an initialism for Emons & Söhne—in the town of Rheinbach near Bonn in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia when Emons and then partner Jean Fuss dissolved their terracotta business. (Fuss established Marei Keramik with his son that same year.) Fuss & Emons had been formed in 1921 when the two men left employment with Klein & Schardt, the predecessor of Ruscha Keramik. Its output consisted of flower pots, ornamental ceramics, and eventually drainage pipes. With the start of WWII, production came to a near standstill—with the exception of the inserts for so-called “Hindenburg lichter,” an important source of wartime emergency lighting. The full program was resumed as conditions normalized after the war, but the two men chose to go in different directions. fter the death of Josef Emons senior in 1964, management of ES KERAMIK passed to his sons. The firm’s 50th anniversary was celebrated in 1971, and the factory closed its doors three years later. Some technical equipment had previously been sold off to Ruscha Keramik; but the company itself, its premises and the balance of the equipment—as well as the majority of the workforce—were taken over by the senior Emons’ former partner, Jean Fuss, and absorbed by neighboring Marei Keramik.