Browsing the antiques fair in Benson, I found the chap on the left. I was intrigued, never having seen one of these items before. I found this unnatractive gentleman fascinating in design and had not a clue what it was for. The vendor told me it was a turn of the century porcelain matchstriker which, she felt, was manufactured in Germany. You can strike a match on the roughened base. A cigarrette can be put in the mouth and smoke will eminate from the holes in the ears. An interesting piece of Tobbacciana (? spelling). I bought it for £30 and that was that.A couple of weeks later I was at a bric a brac sale in Hampshire and was astonished to find the other chap (the one with the moustache). The guy let me have it for £15 - he hadn't know it's provenance but his wife had told him it was a match striker. So I thought there may be a set of these waiting to be collected. So I did a bit of research and found a couple pictures, below, of similar objects made by Schafer and Vater.
Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory was located in Volkstedt Rudolstadt, Thuringa Germany. Gustav Schafer and Gunther Vater wanted to produce high quality porcelain and founded the Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory purchased the List Porcelain Factory at Neuhaus in 1896. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory produced a wide range of hard paste porcelain such as figurines, and dolls' heads. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory also produced soft paste porcelain in bisque items. Majolica and Jasperware were other produce lines. They had become so successful that their unique and fanciful wares were picked up by the Sears Roebuck catalogue and became available all across America by 1910.Schafer and Vater succeeded because they made the kinds things few other companies would even attempt to make, interesting products of broad popular appeal, and they made them artfully.
The company had started by making doll heads, but Schafer&Vater had more adult products in mind — fun items involving sex and liquor.Their line of nudes and bathing beauties was more comical than naughty( go to : http://www.onr.com/user/bblady/schafer.html ), and their figural liquor bottles were designed to make cocktail time fun. These were most popular in the 1920s.
Schafer and Vater made decorative bisque and majolica wares, not so much to imitate the companies that made these things, but to put their own interpretation on them.One type of ware S&V dared to put its own interpretation on was Wedgwood’s jasperware, the finely ground stoneware that resembles porcelain bisque, stained with a colorful dye and decorated with white cameos in relief.
Wedgwood is always signed, so those pieces without a signature might well be S&V. Probably not be as valuable as Wedgwood, but still very collectible. Collectors like S&V jasperware for its thick, creamy cameos and romantic motifs. Wedgwood’s cameos are a bit flatter and the motifs are classical.
The best S&V wares were made between 1900 and the 1930s.A few teapots were produced by the company and are extremely hard to find and rare. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory produced many figural liquor bottles for distribution by pubs.Paul Schafer had taken over from his father in 1913. He working alongside Gunther Vater built up a successful workforce of around 200 people, using 3 kilns. The factory was destroyed by fire in 1918. A new factory was built to resume production. The firm closed in 1962 and it is reported that in 1972 the East German government assumed full control of the vacant factory and their records and moulds were destroyed.
The company had started by making doll heads, but Schafer&Vater had more adult products in mind — fun items involving sex and liquor.Their line of nudes and bathing beauties was more comical than naughty( go to : http://www.onr.com/user/bblady/schafer.html ), and their figural liquor bottles were designed to make cocktail time fun. These were most popular in the 1920s.
Schafer and Vater made decorative bisque and majolica wares, not so much to imitate the companies that made these things, but to put their own interpretation on them.One type of ware S&V dared to put its own interpretation on was Wedgwood’s jasperware, the finely ground stoneware that resembles porcelain bisque, stained with a colorful dye and decorated with white cameos in relief.
Wedgwood is always signed, so those pieces without a signature might well be S&V. Probably not be as valuable as Wedgwood, but still very collectible. Collectors like S&V jasperware for its thick, creamy cameos and romantic motifs. Wedgwood’s cameos are a bit flatter and the motifs are classical.
The best S&V wares were made between 1900 and the 1930s.A few teapots were produced by the company and are extremely hard to find and rare. Schafer & Vater Porcelain Factory produced many figural liquor bottles for distribution by pubs.Paul Schafer had taken over from his father in 1913. He working alongside Gunther Vater built up a successful workforce of around 200 people, using 3 kilns. The factory was destroyed by fire in 1918. A new factory was built to resume production. The firm closed in 1962 and it is reported that in 1972 the East German government assumed full control of the vacant factory and their records and moulds were destroyed.
Same as mine but different song
Will try to find more!!!
September - 
Well Dressing in Taddington
Chatsworth and a rainbow
Lyme Park
and the Damien Hirst 'Pregnant Woman'
Bakewell in the morning and Bakewell Puddings!