Although not marked as such, this vase has all the hallmarks of the firm Scheurich Keramik which started production in 1954, rather later than most of its competitors, but soon became the largest producer of commercial art pottery in Germany. Their pieces rarely carried the factory name but usually the model number followed by the height in centimetres with ‘W.Germany’ below, as here. Model number 269, with its variation on the ‘gourd’ form shapes found in earlier Chinese pieces, was one of the classic Scheurich designs occurring in a variety of sizes and decoration. A smaller pair in the same shape can be seen elsewhere in this auction. The decoration and colours here, though, are particularly striking with a vibrant modernist tone almost recalling Picasso. Dating to the 1960s or 1970s this is definitely a ‘stand out’ decorative accessory for the twenty first century!