Gerold porzellan was made for many years and produced in thousands of styles, shapes and quality. Given the unrest in Germany during those years manufacture moved from one place to another. There are Gerold Porzellan pieces with a huge variety of marks.
Ebay has been a real gift to anyone interested in the works by this company. There is an ongoing interest in the pieces, but most can still be purchased for less than $40.00 so it is possible to assemble a nice collection without spending a fortune.
The most frustrating part of attempting to collect Gerold porzellan on Ebay is the quality. Some sellers seem to be half blind and others haven’t a clue how to pack. As a result, almost 1/4 of the pieces we have bought there arrive with some sort of damage that was not disclosed and/or happened during shipping.
In any case we have been able to find a wide variety of items and our collection has gradually grown. I hope to be photographing some of them soon and posting the pictures here.
Puzzle mugs are the
strange Gerold Porzellan mugs with holes around the rim which prevent
you from drinking from them unless you know the trick. Many, if not
most, have a nude lithophane in the bottom which is visible when you hold the mug to the light. Most are about 7″ - 8″ tall.
The trick to drinking from them is to think of a straw. If you block
the right opeing on the handle, you will be able to suck liquid into
your mouth. Not being a beer drinker myself, I haven’t tried this. In
any case, they are nicely made and come in a variety of designs. Many
have animals and hunting scenes on them. We have published our collection, some of which are for sale, at Puzzle Mug .
They are somewhat unusual, although not really rare. I think their appeal comes from the fun of springing the puzzle on unsuspecting friends which is then compounded by surprise when they empty the puzzle mug. — Now that I think about it, I am not sure that happens very often. If you have to effectively use a straw to drink, you would not be tipping the mug up to drain the last drop; which is what you would need to do to see the nude lithophane in the bottom.
So, they make a nice conversation piece, but are probably not used a lot by serious drinkers. :)
If well photographed and well described they will often bring $75-85.00 on Ebay. However, if you leave off the word “nude” they won’t do as well. We frequently see auctions where the sellers clearly don’t know what they are selling and fail to describe them properly.
Saw one of the really nice old Gerold Porzellan nudes for sale on Ebay from a German seller. The prices for German auctions always seem terribly low from the USA. Unfortunately, the cost of shipping is a big problem. This was one of the glazed figures with the gold band around the base of the stand. I believe these are the older ones.
It finally sold for just under $25.00 which seems like a great deal, however, if you add $55.00 for shipping it just isn’t worth it. I think that properly presented it might bring over $100 if sold by an english speaking seller in the USA. However, the risk of damage during shipping as well as the cost of shipping makes that to much for a UAS buyer.
Maybe someone will figure out a good way to buy and store in Germany and then send well packaged shipments to the USA on a regular basis. I think that could make for a profitable arrangement.