Smoking Stand

This smoking stand was manufactured by the B. Bloch company at its factory in Hohenstein, near Teplitz, Austria (today Teplice, Czech Republic), in the heart of what was the northern Bohemian ceramics-manufacturing region. The company’s namesake, Bernard (or Bernhard) Bloch was born in Metzling, Austria (today Meclov, Czech Republic) in 1836. He came from a German Jewish background and was educated in a Jewish religious school in his youth. He first worked in shipping in the Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) region of Bohemia, where the mining of clays and ceramic manufacturing were important industries. In 1871 Bloch had amassed enough capital to purchase the pottery in Hohenstein that had been founded by the Hufsky or Huffzký family in 1822. Over the next decades Bloch greatly expanded his company, taking control of two more factories in nearby Eichwald (today Dubí, Czech Republic) in 1889 and 1899 respectively. By 1906, the highly successful firm, which operated under the name B. Bloch, employed approximately 750 workers at its various factories and produced a wide variety of tableware and ornamental goods for the home in porcelain, stoneware, majolica and other earthenware bodies. B. Bloch exported its wares widely and had wholesale representation in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Barcelona, and London. The firm regularly exhibited at regional and international exhibitions including the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, where it showed “a very decorative line of porcelain and also majolica jardinieres and specialties” according to one critic. Following Bernard Bloch’s death in 1909, management of the factories passed to his three sons, Oskar, Artur, and Otto Bloch, who operated them until 1940 when the firm was seized as a Jewish-owned business during the Nazi occupation of what was then Czechoslovakia.

This smoking stand seems to be typical of the wares produced by B. Bloch’s Hohenstein factory which were usually marked with a “BB” trademark, as is the case here. Smoking-related items were made in majolica from the 1860s forward and by the late 19th century had become a specialty of Central European makers like Bloch, who were happy to cater to consumers' wants for such tobacco-consumption related accessories. This smoking stand model with its bright glazing and somewhat whimsical form is typical of Bloch’s work in this genre.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Sale, Strawser Auction Group, Wolcottville, Indiana, 29 May 2021, lot 2302; purchased by Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, 2021; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2024.