SECLA (Portugal)

Another trip around the charity shops, and found this. ....


Could anyone tell me anything about it...name of the pottery etc. I have looked in all the usual places. Seems to be some age, a lot of crazing on the pieces.
Many thanks,
Don

SECLA was born in Caldas da Rainha, one of the main places for pottery in Portugal, in 1947, and it's now sadly closed.
SECLA stands for "Sociedade de Exportação e Cerâmica, Lda." wich means that most of the pieces were destinated to the foreign market, especialy the USA and the UK.

In the beginning of the 50s, SECLA opened a pottery studio where artists could experiment new shapes and techniques.
These plaques were made in the studio, by Ferreira da Silva, one of the most important ceramists of the XX century in Portugal.

16X16X3 cm







15X15X2 cm

I have this set of plaques and I would like to attach them to a wood board so I can display them on a wall.
Can someone give me a suggestion about how to do it? If I use glue, what kind of glue should I use not to damage the plaques?

Here is a page from a 1960 american magazine showing concerns about what are the next Design trends.
At the down right corner you can see a note about the SECLA exhibition at The Architectural League of New York.



These pictures shows aspects of the exhibition, the entrance and the window outside.

Varig (Brazilian airlines) ashtray designed by Ferreira da Silva.
Here we have two examples, the one with the matte black finishing it's from an earlier period.

15x7,5x3 cm

In this factory catalogue page from c.1955 we can see one of the first trays that later was addapted and became the Varig ashtray, and also some vase shaped lamps.

Exactly the same size as the Varig ashtrays.

These vase shaped lamps were produced after Ferreira da Silva models and show a raised landscape of the small fishing village of Nazaré.

On the same catalogue page we can see a candlestick, it looks as it can also be used as a jug.
Here we have a pair of diferent sizes.

During the 50s and 60s SECLA produced large number of containers to Coffee House liqueur, a product of the Virgin Islands that was imported and sold in the US market. These handpainted containers were made in three diferent colour combinations and two sizes:
11 cm and 30 cm.
Now they commonly appear described as bud vases.

Hansi Staël (1913-1961) was a Hungarian painter that came to Portugal after the War and was one of the founders 8along with Ferreira da Silva) of Estúdio SECLA, a workshop established at the back of the factory, where the most interesting studio pottery pieces were produced.
Staël colaborated with SECLA from 1950 to 1957, and she died in London four years later.

This jug is 18 cm x 24 cm and it's made c.1955 after a shape hand thrown by her, several variations with diferent designs were made.

The same shape and size from a 1955 catalogue.



A similar shape c.1950.

Hi, this is my 1st post (anywhere!). I was googling Secla and came upon your forum. I may be a bit late but thought i´d send this anyway. It´s regarding fixing FdaS tiles to a wood surface. I recently fixed a similar panel (not as good as yours) to a board. I used MDF because I had some lying around and because it has a pretty smooth finish I scored it heavily (manically) with a craft knife. I then used a silicone based mastic(?). It´s not "no nails" as they eventually dry out and become brittle. Silicone will remain flexible. If necessary it can be cut away with a craft knife and the excess carefully removed from the tile`s back. I personally have no intention of removing mine from their base and have other examples of FDS backstamps and was more worried as to how to fix the whole panel to the wall. It weighs a ton (36 tiles in total). Anyways I don´t know if any of this helps and hopefully have not commited "sacrilege". When i´ve worked out how to do it, i´ll upload photos of the panel and some other Secla pieces, regards.

bones wrote:Hi, this is my 1st post (anywhere!). I was googling Secla and came upon your forum. I may be a bit late but thought i´d send this anyway. It´s regarding fixing FdaS tiles to a wood surface. I recently fixed a similar panel (not as good as yours) to a board. I used MDF because I had some lying around and because it has a pretty smooth finish I scored it heavily (manically) with a craft knife. I then used a silicone based mastic(?). It´s not "no nails" as they eventually dry out and become brittle. Silicone will remain flexible. If necessary it can be cut away with a craft knife and the excess carefully removed from the tile`s back. I personally have no intention of removing mine from their base and have other examples of FDS backstamps and was more worried as to how to fix the whole panel to the wall. It weighs a ton (36 tiles in total). Anyways I don´t know if any of this helps and hopefully have not commited "sacrilege". When i´ve worked out how to do it, i´ll upload photos of the panel and some other Secla pieces, regards.

Hi Bones, thanks for the message, not late at all. I suppose you are portuguese but we have to keep on posting in english or nobody will understand. - I hope this is not the sound of the panel falling off the wall...
It would be great to see your SECLA pieces, we'll be waiting!

I'm trying to complete these sets but the pieces are difficult to find as they were not produced in large quantities.

http://www.millersantiquesguide.com/items/145692/portuguese-secla-studio-pottery/

Somewhat inflated...

I've had a few pieces of Secla, mostly the green moulded leaf pieces, but most of it has been sold on. Without giving too much away, I believe that a member of this very forum now has one of them, bought through a well-known site quite recently, only this wasn't a leaf-piece. In fact, I'm not even sure that it was Secla, but either way I'm really pleased that it has gone to somebody who will appreciate it.
Bryan.
ps. if you recognise yourself as the buyer please don't say too much, I wouldn't be comfortable having our (my wife and I) auction site account-name published here, it just sort of feels 'wrong', like I'd be advertising or something.

the perils of posting at 2.13 am
Totally potty!

Not that potty Dan, it's the middle of the day for an insomniac like me (that's me, at any time of the night!), though I confess I can come across a little at times.
Anyhoo, by a 7.5 billion to 1 chance, one of the regulars here is almost certainly the person who bought a pot from us in one of our 'clear-out' auctions.
Just for context, we're not dealers, we just have the contents of our last home, a big 3-storey Victorian job, stashed in every nook and cranny of our very small bungalow, garage, shed, friends houses etc. so much has to go; it's just a slow process with us both being to some extent, and as the pieces that I'll be posting here are pieces that are not going to auction, there's little point in our user-name for the auction site to come up here. I certainly don't want folks here thinking I'm using you as a kind of price guide.
I'll have a root through my old pic files; if I still have a shot of the pot in question I'll add it to this thread.

R.Ferrao wrote:I'm trying to complete these sets but the pieces are difficult to find as they were not produced in large quantities.

I really like these, when do they date from?

Potty Primate wrote:I've had a few pieces of Secla, mostly the green moulded leaf pieces, but most of it has been sold on. Without giving too much away, I believe that a member of this very forum now has one of them, bought through a well-known site quite recently, only this wasn't a leaf-piece. In fact, I'm not even sure that it was Secla, but either way I'm really pleased that it has gone to somebody who will appreciate it.
Bryan.
ps. if you recognise yourself as the buyer please don't say too much, I wouldn't be comfortable having our (my wife and I) auction site account-name published here, it just sort of feels 'wrong', like I'd be advertising or something.

Hi Mr Primate!
I'm pretty sure you're talking about me, nobody else buys SECLA, hopefully... Please show as the mistery pot!

Hi Davee, these were produced during the 1950s, it's difficult to know the exact years. Maybe you can find some of these pieces abandoned at a flea market, that would be great!

I'm on the look out!

Hi Rita. Yup, I recognised your surname. I've had a look through and do have a pic left, I try to keep at least one for future reference where possible.



So, is it Secla as I thought?

Hi there! yes, it's a such small world.
This goblet was produced by SECLA in the late 60's and was made in several diferent colours. This is in fact a much darker blue than your picture shows and it's a glaze with very nice metalic tones, this tipe of glaze it's now forbidden by the European Union. It's not marked SECLA it's only marked "foreign", that can happen as these pieces were sometimes produced for diferent labels who usualy add a sticker to the base. If you find some more SECLA pieces, please send me a note, of course I'm only interested in the modernist ones, usualy with geometric or abstract designs.