Kom met gemarmerd decor c. 1925 - 1930

Editor: Here we have a ceramic bowl with marbled decor, crafted by N.V. Plateelbakkerij Ram, circa 1925 to 1930. The muted blues and greens give it such a tranquil, almost aquatic feel. What do you see in this piece, particularly when we consider its historical context? Curator: What strikes me is how this object, seemingly simple, embodies a complex dialogue between art and industry during the interwar period. The Art Deco style, with its emphasis on geometric forms and luxurious materials, democratized through mass production. How does the "marbled decor," which is in fact artificially produced, speak to tensions of authenticity? Editor: That's a fascinating point. It is imitating something natural, but artificially, it has a kind of social statement maybe about longing for what is 'real'? Curator: Precisely. We should think about how such objects functioned within the domestic sphere. What kind of aspirational lifestyle were they advertising? In a society grappling with rapid industrialization and shifting social norms, such "decorative art" acted as both a marker of taste and an expression of new social identities, did this also promote a globalized aesthetic of shared styles and design? Editor: I hadn’t considered how much of a social signifier this bowl might have been. It seemed simply decorative! Curator: Exactly, which shows us the layers in its story, we're talking about much more than just the aesthetic here, and also questions the definition of beauty. It opens into discussions of accessibility and class as it intertwines. This one little bowl gives us much more to consider. Editor: It certainly does! Thanks to your perspective, I can see the Art Deco movement, as this decorative choice, became an embodiment of change itself, as you made clear, not a specific decorative aesthetic, but the transformation it was driving at the time!