MAX LAEUGER

1864-1952

Max Laeuger (or Läuger) was born in Lörrach in the south-west of Germany on September 30, 1864. He was a truly multitalented: Architect, garden-designer, painter, draughtsman and professor. Laeuger was an autodidact in the skills of  pottery, studied at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic and eventually became a professor. He is usually known as Professor Max Laeuger and some of his work is marked thus. In 1895 after travelling throughout Europe visiting the major cultural centres to study art he was appointed as the director of the art pottery department of Tonwerke Kanderne close to his home town.

From 1921 he had his own workshop in premises formerly owned by the company and produced designs for them there. The work produced fell into three types; slip decorated wares designed by Laeuger but produced entirely by the factory, pieces made at the factory but decorated and glazed by Laeuger and one-off pieces by the professor made from beginning to end in his own workshop. All were marketed by Majolika-Manufaktur. 

Through the thirties and into the Second World War he worked on his own, but after his workshop was destroyed in 1944 he returned to Lörrach where he died on December 12, 1952. Laeuger was a major figure in German ceramics. His designs and his glazes had 'organic' characteristics that are unmistakable and his work is much sought-after by collectors. His works are full of life, ceramics with a soul!