Two (2) small beautiful terracotta decorative bowl or dish from Arabia of Finland in the ARA line. Shape of these bowls is a sort of wavy square. The decorative flowers on the dish are part of the glaze, but the red glaze accents shown actually appear to have been painted on afterwards.
We’ve been trying to find out more about this “ARA” line that was made by Arabia. Apparently, ARA was begun in the 1930s as an ornamental decoration line meant for budget conscious consumers. Its design was spearheaded by Kurt Ekholm, who was artistic director for the company from 1932-1948. While he did personally design some of the ARA line, it’s unclear to us which of the items were actually made by him, since they don’t appear to have any identifying marks beyond the factory stamp.
Marked impression onto the terracota clay on bottom of dish reads “Arabia Made in Finland”. There’s also a mark that looks like an “S” on the glaze area near the bottom. Interestingly, these bowls do not have the “ARA” stamp as well – but we’ve sold one of these exact dishes before that did.
In good condition, with the exception of one bowl that seems to have a very faint, tight hairline. It’s difficult to tell – we’ve tried to take a photo of it but it doesn’t show up well. It doesn’t affect the display or use in any way.
Both pieces also have a few manufacturing flubs here and there as well as very minor crazing. There are one or two drips or accidental brushes of red paint (see the photo).
Bowls measure about 5″ across and 1.25″ tall.
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