Vintage ceramic hedgehog sculpture 1950s

This stoneware hedgehog figurine was designed by Elfriede Balzar-Kopp in Germany in the 1950s. Westerwald stoneware is a particular type of grey salt-glazed ceramic from the regions of Höhr-Grenzhausen and Ransbach-Baumbach in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The figurine is hand-painted in brown and cobalt colours. Elfriede Balzar-Kopp (1904 - 1983) was a German ceramist and craftsman. In 1937, Balzar-Kopp was the first German potter to pass the master examination. She worked as a lecturer at a technical ceramics college, where she gave lectures on glazing, red techniques in combination with salt-glazed stoneware. In her workshop she made pitchers, plates and dishes by hand, which had their own style, independent of industrial products. She also created her own technique. Balzar-Kopp applied her ideas to create figures, plates and pitchers with curved lines and a strong temperament. On the other hand, her sculptures are dreamy, often coquettish. She has taken Cologne bronze from industrial ceramics and applied it creatively alongside cobalt blue and manganese violet. Westerwald stoneware is salt-glazed stoneware produced in German towns such as Höhr, Grenzau and Grenzhausen in the region known as the Westerwald. Their products, produced from the 15th century to the present day, are moulded, stamped and sometimes cut. This figurine is in original vintage condition.