Axel Salto (1889–1961)
Vase, 1936
Stoneware, Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory

This almost cylindrical vase is an example of Axel Salto’s distinctive and very personal ‘budding style’, which according to himself was inspired by corn cobs, pineapples and pine nut cones.¹ The style emerged in the years 1929–1930, when Salto worked with the potter Carl Halier at the latter’s workshop, Københavns Stentøjsbrænderi. The subsequent years saw further developments of the style, which later became characteristic of many of Salto’s stoneware works.

Early on in his ceramic career, Salto realised the advantages of making plaster moulds that allowed his stoneware to be reproduced. One of the reasons was that he wanted to experiment with different glazes on the same model, and numerous versions of this particular vase design are known, featuring many very different glazes. Another reason was that it would be time-consuming – and perhaps even impossible from the point of view of artistic inspiration – to recreate a given model if the original was lost in the firing.²

The vase in The David Collection is dated 1936, meaning that it was done during the initial stage of Salto’s time at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, with which he first became affiliated in 1933–34. From that point on until 1936/1937 he was a regular “working guest” at the factory, which meant that he had to pay for the clay used, the firing, and for any assistance given to him by the factory’s model and plaster workshops.³ Salto was subsequently permanently affiliated with the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, which meant that the factory took over the rights to some of his models and added them to their stoneware catalogue. In this way, it was a simple matter to continue to produce Salto’s stoneware work after his death – right up until 1985, at which point the factory stopped producing stoneware altogether.