Each tile is a handmade one-off, nickel-plated fittings and a window made of mica: while clearing out the basement of a house, the team from the Altmünster Revital shop discovered a side-stove from the 1920s, recognized its value and saved it for the Gmundner Kammerhofmuseum.
It is a small table stove that was created in the Gmundner ceramics workshop by Franz and Emilie Schleiss. The Schleiss dynasty operated the legendary manufactory from which today’s Gmundner ceramics emerged in 1923.
Actually, Revital could have sold the stove, and in fact antique dealers were already lining up to get hold of the collector’s item. But Michael Jaksch, the head of the clearing team, was able to convince the owner, the Viennese Andrea Mayrhofer, to leave the stove on permanent loan to the Gmundner Kammerhofmuseum.
With the loan, Andrea Mayrhofer also wants to commemorate her recently deceased aunt Wilma Tausch in Gmunden. She had had an amazing career in the Gmundner ceramics manufactory, having made it from an apprentice to an authorized officer in the management. Mayrhofer’s mother ran a shop with Gmundner ceramics in Attersee. “When we were kids, we were always unpacking things with green flames,” she recalls.
The Schleiss oven can now be admired in the Kammerhof Museum. It’s on the second floor in the plumbing showroom.
Source: Nachrichten
