Scheurich 284-15

My first purchase of West German pottery was a small group of three which included the little guy above. As I had never owned anything like them, I was unsure of what I could do as far as cleaning them. It’s understandable when you see a true “lava glaze” like the one seen here, with its innumerable popped glaze bubbles — the first thought is, Will I damage them? Regarding the smoother sections, I was unsure as to what I could use as a cleaning agent and what implement I could use — again, out of fear of scratching that wonderful gloss. Finally, West German pottery sold from the 60s through the 80s frequently had a sticker denoting the maker or some unique feature of the vase — and those stickers had been left on for decades, creating a gummy mess which seemed permanent. As a result of all my worrying, I babied my first vases to a rather inordinate degree: rinsing them out with water, lightly rubbing the exteriors with a damp paper towel and generally leaving sticker residue to sit. What a mistake, in hindsight! It turns out German pieces were as tough as their cars — and like any car, could take a good cleaning inside and out. I found the best combination for tacking the exterior was regular dish liquid and a zero-scratch sponge exactly like the one pictured. For those interiors smelling like old flowers or (ack) cigarettes, I used a long-handled rubber bottle brush and scrubbed away. For those stubborn stickers, I found the residue lifted right off with a shot of WD40. As for those bubbles, well, you have to baby them a LITTLE. But it’s a small price to pay to make your vase look just like it did 50 years ago… when it was plucked off the shelf by someone whose taste was as good as yours!