Pott (cutlery manufacturer)

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The company C. Hugo Pott , today part of Mono GmbH , was founded in Solingen in 1904 by Carl Hugo Pott as a Damascus workshop . After son Carl Pott joined the company, the company developed into an important manufacturer of table cutlery in alpaca , silver and stainless steel .

Awards

The cutlery designs that have been and are produced by the company are among the most important designs in this field and can be found in numerous museums and exhibitions, for example:

  • Carl Pott's cutlery from 1935, number 2716 , was awarded an honorary diploma ("Diplôme d´Honneur") at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.
  • Cutlery 2716 was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in 1954 .

Many models were also included in the loose-leaf collection “Deutsche Wareenkunde” published by the German Labor Front (Dept. Beauty of Work ) and later by the German Werkbund .

history

When Carl Pott joined the company, the transformation of the company into a cutlery factory began. Only through his own production was he able to implement his artistic ideas, which were inspired by the Bauhaus and the Werkbund .

Carl Pott designed many of the cutlery himself. Subsequently, he also commissioned well-known designers such as Hermann Gretsch (Pott 81), Wilhelm Wagenfeld (Pott 83), Josef Hoffmann (Pott 86), Hans Schwippert (Pott 29) and many others with the Designs for cutlery.

The commercial success of this cutlery designed for simplicity and clarity of form came in the 1950s, when the company CH Pott supplied the "Model 21" by Don Wallance (1953) with an engraved crane logo for Lufthansa . Carl Pott managed the company until his death in 1985, after which his son Hannspeter took over the business, who continued the artistic line of his father.

Until recently, Pott cutlery was produced purely by hand in numerous manual work steps, which brought the company into financial difficulties in the competitive market despite the quality of the products. In 2006, Mono GmbH took over the Pott brand and relocated production from Solingen to Mettmann , where the mono brand design cutlery is also manufactured. The company buildings on Solingen's Ritterstrasse were demolished in 2007.

Pott archive

Since 2006, the German Blade Museum in Solingen-Gräfrath has housed the "Pott Archive" with examples of all the cutlery produced by Pott, a selection of around 170 awards for design, development series and samples. There are also draft drawings, catalogs, brochures and advertisements in the archive, which can only be shown temporarily because of their sensitivity to light. A comprehensive catalog of the archive's holdings was published in 2014.

literature

  • Antoinette Lepper-Binnewerg: Carl Pott - Completely design the useful. Hamburg 1993.
  • Barbara Grotkamp-Schepers (ed.); Antoinette Lepper-Binnewerg: C. Hugo Pott - Cutlery and Tableware (1904-2005), a contribution to the history of design in the 20th century. Goch 2014. (2 volumes)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.designlexikon.net/Firmen/P/pott.html
  2. ^ "Deutsche Warenkunde" 1939, p. 880 ff .: Images and descriptions of the models Pott 2716, 2718, 2717 and "Deutsche Warenkunde" 1955, p. 179 ff .: Images and descriptions of the models Pott 19, 20, 81, 83 , 84, 85
  3. ^ Report on the takeover by Seibel and the move from Solingen: Cutlery company Pott is leaving. In Die Welt on December 25, 2005, accessed on September 4, 2011.
  4. ^ Report on the demolition of the Solingen company building: Initials of the new era. In Solinger Morgenpost of October 16, 2007, accessed on September 19, 2015.
  5. ^ Information sheet from the German Blade Museum
  6. ^ Report on the inventory catalog of the Pott archive: C. Hugo Pott: History in two volumes. In Solinger Morgenpost from July 31, 2014, accessed on September 19, 2015.

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