Rindskopf Czech Helter Skelter Marigold Pitcher

Someone had just outbid me on one of these pitchers during an online auction in December 2017. I felt a twinge of buyer's remorse every time I thought about it. You win some, you lose some, right? But when you have no information to go by, as to the value, sometimes we balk and sadly we lose out. I had never seen one of these before. The swirling action of the pattern intrigued me as it seemed to tighten towards the base, like a funnel of water going down a drain. My friend, Sandy Sage, has one that she found years ago and tells me it was named after an amusement ride, called Helter Skelter, in the UK. Actually, Wikipedia states that it was this ride that inspired the title of the Beatles song. The term Helter-skelter was first recorded in the UK at Hull Fair in 1905. It was a tall spiraling slide ride.

 

Well, during the same time this pitcher was being sold, here in the United States, my friend and fellow collector, Lynne  Martin, was bidding on the same kind of vase on eBay UK. Lynne heard how badly I felt about missing out and she kindly ended up offering to sell me this one for much less than I bid on the other one. What a sweetheart! She shipped it to me and it came a week or so later. I could not have been happier. The iridescence is so pretty. The size surprised me. It was smaller than I thought it would be and I really like smaller pitchers. They're charming.

The photos tell the story quite well and you can see it is very photogenic! The 3 1/8-inch base has an incised 12-ray star. It has not been ground. This pitcher was made in a two-part mould where you can see the mould lines going up the middle of the handle on one side and up through the spout on the other. There's a plain band along the top. Total height is 7 1/2 inches as is the distance from spout to handle. The opening is 4 1/2 inches wide.

The last three beautiful photos are courtesy of Lynne Martin.

The Christina Katsikas Collection

Thanks to Lynne Martin!