Soholm Stentoj - Bornholm - Denmark

Søholm was the oldest ceramic factory on Bornholm until its closure in 1996. Sometimes you will see Soholm Stentoj (which just means Stoneware as all of the Soholm pottery is stoneware). Surprisingly for its size and popularity, I haven’t been able to yet find a book on Soholm pottery. There are snippets on the Internet and in magazines, but I haven't come across a book just on the history of Soholm Pottery. So I will share what I do know.

Soholm Pottery was founded by Herman Sonne Wolffsen and Edvard Christian Sonne in 1835, but from 1841 Wolffsen took over solo. In the beginning Soholm works consisted mainly of domestic fajance ware.

Today Soholm stoneware design is a big collector's item for retro and art pottery collectors. The range of ware they produced in the mid 20th Century was huge, and I keep finding more and more different patterns and designs. The one below is my favourite (so far!) designed by the iconic Einar Johansen.

Amongst collectors currently, Soholm is probably most well known for "blue series" designed again by Einar Johansen, (the first image below) and the highly coveted “double spiral” design and also the similar but paler blue range by Maria Philippi with its distinctive "Hares tooth" pattern (the following 3 images).

Soholm pottery is also very well known and collected for its unglazed and semi glazed stoneware pieces, with wonderful textural elements and subtle patterned areas. No marks were used on the pottery in the beginning.

From 1910 the backstamp was a crown and a ship, however, most items were only marked 'Soholm'. Some items were marked 'H. Wolffsen & Son' in the early part of the century.

A lot of the pieces you will find from the mid twentieth century are simply hand-signed, sometimes just with the words “Soholm”, Stentoj, Denmark.

Many are stamped with this logo, and if you are lucky enough you might find some with a sticker still.

A variety of different ceramic artists worked at Soholm including:

• Hans Ancher Wolffsen 
• Noomi Backhausen
• Henning Seidelin
• Maria Phillippi
• Einar Johansen (worked at Soholm 1958-1966)
• Johannes Hedegaard
• Nana Ditzel
• Haico Nitzsche
• Per Rehfeldt

They also had many visiting Artists from time to time. Finally, just yesterday I found a Danish Website run by a collector who is selling off a huge collection, and I saw this photograph on her website. One of the nicest Soholm designs Ive seen to date. I'm not sure if the Website is still current but worth having a look at anyway here. I will do a post in a few weeks just on SOHOLM WALL PLAQUES, as that is another area of interest currently.