Keramos Water Set

Q: I found this set of pitcher and six tumblers at a flea market. They are marked “Keramos, Made in Austria.” Can you tell me the age of the set?

 

A: The triangular mark on your water set includes the initials “KWK,” which stand for Keramos Wiener Kunst-Keramik. It started in 1920 when a group of artists and disabled World War I veterans founded a ceramics workshop in Vienna, Austria, partly funded by the government. It merged with another porcelain works for veterans in 1924. The company bought Wiener Werkstatte’s molds when that factory closed in 1932. Brothers Rudolf and Heinrich Wolf ran it from 1941, giving it the long name Keramos, Wiener Kunstkeramik Und Porzellanmanufaktur Bruder Wolf (Keramos, Viennese Art Ceramics and Porcelain Manufactory Brothers Wolf.) The company closed in 1982. This triangular mark was used beginning about 1929.