Sculptor, painter and designer - Trude Petri from Hamburg was one of the most important designers of her time. Proof of this success story can still be found today in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Today you can find out how Petri and KPM Berlin came together.

Trude Petri was born in Hamburg on August 25, 1906. From 1925 to 1927, she attended the State School of Fine and Applied Arts in Hamburg and began training as a potter. In 1927, she moved to Berlin and worked under Otto Gothe at the Vereinigte Staatsschule für freie und angewandte Kunst (today's UdK Berlin) in the ceramics class. This was Trude Petri's first contact with the manufactory, as Otto Gothe's ceramics class, where she studied, was affiliated with the State Porcelain Manufactory Berlin (KPM Berlin).

From 1928, Petri initially worked as a freelancer at the Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin (KPM Berlin) under the direction of Nicola Moufang. When Günther von Pechmann took over the management of the manufactory in 1929, Petri was employed permanently as a designer. Two years later, the sculptor, painter and designer created the URBINO dinner service. Consistently based on the basic shape of the spherical section, URBINO impresses with its clarity and elegance and is a perfectly shaped classic made of "white gold".

As simple as possible, as elegant as possible

For the design, which KPM Berlin presented to the public for the first time in 1932, Petri was inspired by Chinese rice bowls and flagless ceramic plates from the Italian Renaissance. Despite the historical models, URBINO betrays the influences of the Bauhaus period in which it was created. The versatility of the service has also been emphasized time and again. For example, the lid of the bowl can also serve as a bowl when placed on the handle. KPM Berlin was also the first traditional manufacturer with artistic ambitions to successfully launch a completely undecorated service, which represented the Werkbund's aspirations for "pure form" like no other. It is therefore not surprising that the URBINO shape was awarded a gold medal at the VI Triennale di Milano in 1936 and a Grand Prix at the International World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. URBINO is considered a model of timeless porcelain design and is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 1938, in collaboration with the sculptor Siegmund Schütz, she developed the service ARKADIA. The design is characterized by clear lines; the vessels are cylindrical or conical. The plates, with their sharp break between the rim and the mirror, are based on the pewter plates of the 17th century. The individual pieces of the service are decorated with medallions made of unglazed porcelain. The artfully cut relief medallions designed by Siegmund Schütz tell the story of the dreamland of Arcadia. Arcadia, the landscape of the Greek Peloponnese, was the setting for Hellenistic and Roman pastoral poetry.

The medallions are protected by a layer of wax applied with a brush before glazing. The wax melts during firing, releasing the delicate biscuit porcelain and allowing the other porcelain surfaces to shine in their brilliance.

Trude Petri's quest to design porcelain that is as simple as it is elegant led to the creation of the BLUMENBECHER in 1947. To mark the 100th birthday of the important KPM designer, KPM Berlin brought out a new edition of the timeless and functional vase in 2006. The BLUMENBECHER lends every bouquet a noble aura without pushing itself to the fore.

Her last design for KPM Berlin, the "Tee" vase (now CADRE), was produced in 1967. At the age of 90, Trude Petri died on February 5, 1998 in Vancouver, where she moved after the death of her husband. However, her designs have outlived her and are still handmade today and celebrated as design classics.