Plissée Porcelaine Noire Vase – Martin Freyer for Rosenthal, 1970s

This vase brings a refined note to smaller corners of an interior. It works especially well paired with another piece, as a dinner table vase, on a bedside or cosmetic table, or even as a discreet holder for scented sticks, where its dark surface can introduce a crisp, graphic pause without taking over the setting.

Hans Martin Freyer (1909–1975) was a German painter, graphic and industrial designer whose work ranged from architecture and stage design to textiles and product design. Best known to the wider public as the creator of the refined Volkswagen VW logo in 1938, he later worked as a freelance designer of patterns, structures and reliefs. From 1964 to 1974 he designed for Rosenthal, developing sculptural relief decorations for glass and porcelain in the studio-line – most famously the Plissée vases, whose pleated, fabric-like white or black bisque surfaces remain icons of mid-century and Op-Art influenced German porcelain design.