Manufacturer: Germany China

Fun vintage souvenir china find commemorating locations in Philadelphia, PA. A pair of small china vases, matching except for differing buildings or locations shown as the pictures on the front sides. Marked on both underside bases via black stamped "Made in Germany". We believe these were made pre-WW II (pre World War II, prior to the second World War) or circa 1920s-1930s based on the marks, style and lustre decoration on the china. One vase is marked and shows a view of "City Hall, Philadelphia, Pa." while the other is marked and shows "Independence Hall, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA."

Both vases stand about 5 inches tall, with a greatest width to the outwardly curved handles of about 3 1/4 inches. They are "flattened ovals" in shape, only having a depth to the main body and oval bases of about 1 1/2 inches. The oval picture area on the front sides is multi-colored, using blue, dark and light reddish orange and browns, with the actual drawing a black line drawing of the buildings/scenes and black for the location names below the pictures. The pictures and words are a transfer (you can see the dots); we are not sure if the coloring is hand done or not (we don't see dots here like we do for the black areas/design). On the front sides there is also a light green lustre paint at the top of the vases above the necks and along the bases, also having some gold line and gold dot décor. All this décor is only on the front side of the vases, with the back sides and both left/right sides just white china. These vases are porcelain, as they are translucent.

We've provided 8 images to try and show these vintage souvenir pieces from all sides with close-ups of the building/location pictures. These have been shot both with and without camera lighting, as the lighting tends to change the color somewhat (while making it easier for you to see condition and detail) and create white "hot spots" on the reflective surfaces. Please use the close-up feature to see all the detail.

These old souvenir vases are in very nice overall condition and in very nice collectible condition, but are not mint. On the City Hall vase, there is a tiny chip along the front top edge at the upwards point, with the gold line missing here, measuring about 1/8th inch in width. This vase also has a tiny flake on the front side bottom rim in the green lustre, measuring about 1/16th inch in width. We do not see any chips or flakes on the Independence Hall vase. With both vases they do show evidence of age wear via some scratches and scuffed/scuffed white/lighter paint areas on the building pictures (more so on the City Hall vase than the Independence Hall one), on the white areas there are surface scratches and pin, pit, brown & dark dots, some gold paint wear, age wear on the bisque/unglazed underside bases on which these pieces sit, etc. The green lustre paint on both pieces was not applied evenly throughout as manufactured, so there are visible areas that are less glazed and/or unglazed (this is also true on the white china on the Independence Hall vase). These souvenir china pieces, like many of the period, were not made as "fine china", having been more cheaply made, leading to the condition seen here which was common for these pieces. Please use the close-up feature to fully see the condition.

Still nifty antique pieces to add to any souvenir collection related to Pennsylvania in general or Philadelphia in particular. Would also make an interesting addition to a collection related to famous buildings or historical buildings or locations, particularly related to early American history.

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