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Mark type #1, domestic, without any addition at all.
In 1890, Julius Griesbach founded this factory in Cortendorf (now part of the city of Coburg), which is also the home of the Hermann family who produced the famous Hermann Teddy Bears. The factory was able to work with many different materials and, apart from a few porcelain items, mainly produced various household stoneware items, including a large variety of mostly animal-shaped coffee and tea pots, most of which were sold unmarked to the US company Ebeling & Reuss of Philadelphia.
To improve his production capacity, Griesbach purchased the factory of the bankrupt Porzellanfabrik Beck AG (formerly Porzellanfabrik Beck & Tully), located in Hochstadt in Upper Franconia, in 1926. This subsidiary produced faience items until shortly before the Second World War where it was sold to the Porzellanfabrik Tettau. Ultimately, the factory ended up as a subsidiary of Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, producing electrotechnical items there until the mid-1950s.
Between 1955 and 1960, the wall masks produced by the Cortendorf factory caused a sensation in Germany, but the factory also won the iF award in 1958 for the Brilliant casserole series. Other iF awards in 1959 went to the Kasserolle 9571a casserole, the Schüssel 9580 and Schüssel 9578 bowls, and a not further specified dessert bowl.
Around 1963, the factory in Cortendorf introduced an additional range to meet the demand for "teak-style" items. These items were produced at the Achental-Keramik Gertraute Griesbach in Staudach-Grassau, but the concept, design and marking (a crowned "RS") came from the interior design studio Raumschmuck Dr. Irmgard Fenner, which was linked to the Griesbach family by business and family ties. All production ceased after the factory was taken over by the Goebel company in 1973.
One mark version (the "round C" above "Cortendorf") immediately caused problems because of their similarity to the marks of the company Werner Corzelius from Höhr-Grenzhausen. An appropriate court disagreed, stating that there was enough difference between the two. Nevertheless, several minor changes were made to the Cortendorf mark; for a short time even a sword was placed in the capital letter.
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Mark type #1, domestic, without any addition at all.
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Mark type #1, export, here with the early addition "Germany".
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Mark type #1, export, here with the later used addition "Foreign".
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Mark type #1, export. Used from 1955 onward. Addition "Made in Western Germany".
(Picture: Annie Esgro)
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Mark type #1, impressed without any addition. Export version includes a stamped "Western Germany" addition.
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Used from 1959 onward. Includes "Cortendorf". Export version includes "Western Germany" addition.
(Picture: Claire Bingham)
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Used from 1959 onward. Sometimes with "Western Germany" stamped elsewhere on the item.
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Mark type #3 was rarely used: a plain crowned "C" above "W. Germany".
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Mark type #4 then included "Cortendorf" above "Made in W. Germany" and "handgemalt".
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Sticker type #2 was quite neat and included "Made in W.-Germany".
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Mark type #5 was a plain crowned "C" above "Cortendorf" with "Germany" stamped elsewhere.
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Mark type #5 with "Foreign", for export to countries in which "Germany" marked items were problematic.
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Used 1946 to 1949, no "Cortendorf" but with sword, "Made in U.S. Zone", and "Germany".
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Used 1958+, a crowned "Friedrichsburg" above "Bavaria".
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Used 1958+, "Kronen-C" ("crowned C") was used as registered trademark in text form but was not used as base mark.
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