The small factory of Josef Franz Sieber was stablished 1920 in the small town of Schwarza an der Saale ("Schwarza upon Saale") near Rudolstadt which should not be confused with Schwarza near Ilmenau. Its product range at first included a large variety of decoration items, richly covered with porcelain flowers, porcelain lace, and gilding, before slowly switching towards lace figurines. Sadly, there seems to be no base mark from this period documented anywhere (if he used one at all).
Production was stopped in 1943 as result of the war and during the last months of WW2 it was obvious that the whole region would remain occupied by Russian forces. Sieber was (like many other factory owners) expropriated shortly before 1949 and finally decided to flee westwards together with his main sculptor and decorator, Lothar and Gisela Keilhauer. Together they fled to the town of Küps (Bavaria), where Sieber retired. The Keilhauer's opened a factory specialized on lace figurines under the name of Gisela Keilhauer a few years later.
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