Description
Atelier St. Joris (1923 – 1994) was a Dutch ceramics workshop in Beesel. In 1923, the Simons & Vogels brick factory was taken over and was renamed N.V. Steenfabriek St. Joris. Around the Second World War, ‘brick factory’ was replaced in the name by ‘clay ware factory’. Today the company is known under the name St. Joris Keramiek Industrie BV. In 1937 director Herman Driessen founded the Atelier St. Joris, as a department of the brick factory. The studio focused on the production of art objects, executed in stoneware. The studio mainly made religious pottery for churches and domestic use, including crucifixes, holy water bottles and statues of saints, but also profane work such as vases. These were marked with blind stamps “Beesel”, “Terraco” and / or “Dragon” and as a rule provided with the designer’s initials. Artists such as Charles Grips, Leo Jungblut, Louis Konickx, Frans Lommen, Albert Meertens, Jules Rummens, Piet Schoenmakers, Joep Thissen and Paul Vincken worked for St. Joris.
