Bernard Bloch

Products from this producer offered by Prague Art & Design

Bernard Bloch was a pre-eminent entrepreneur in the field of ceramic industry and established the famous factory B. Bloch & Co. which, in 1920, was renamed to Eichwald Porcelain and Stove Factory Bloch & Co. In 1869, Bloch purchased an enterprise focusing on earthenware and faience production from the family of Huff. The facility was based in, what was then, the city of Hohenstein (today Unčín). It was characteristic of making richly decorated products with glossy colored glaze. The objects of both artistic and applied character were distributed throughout the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. These were coffee and tea sets of brown, green, red or bronze color, but also plates, vases and decorative tiles.

In 1895, Bernard Bloch extended the field of his activities via purchasing the prosperous firm of C. Teichert (Meissen) based in Eichwald (today the city of Dubí) which was the first on the Czech territory to apply the blue motif of the co-called onion. Apart from porcelain and figural earthenware, Bloch introduced the production of siderite objects, tiles and tiled stoves.

Bernard Bloch gained fame mainly by the production of figural tobacco containers and other tobacco products, characteristic of detailed and extremely refined processing. During the Second World War, the factory was confiscated by the Nazis and sold to the company Dr. H. Wider & Co. from the German city of Thuringen. After the war, in 1947, the facility was nationalized and affiliated to other porcelain factories – as, for example, Royal Dux and Thun – to form the company called Duchcovský porcelán (Duchcov Porcelain). The producers continued using the same logo as before the nationalization. In 1958, Duchcovský porcelán was transferred under Karlovarský porcelán (Carlsbad Porcelain).