The cutlery was already founded
in 1904 in the Klingenstadt Solingen.
Where knife making has been at home in the Bergisches Land for 800 years, silverware companies such as Picard & Wielpuetz, Carl Mertens, Paul Wirths and Zwillings J.A.Henckels are still based.
In the beginning, the founder Carl Hugo Pott produced blades of Damascus steel in his workshop. Only in 1932, when Carl entered the family business, it developed into a manufacture of table ware.
The son, inspired by the Dessau
Bauhaus and the German Werkbund, carries his own ideas into the paternal enterprise.
Stylistically, design of dining utensils had already almost overcome the eclectic joy of the ornament of the ending 19th century and the art nouveau.
After his death in 1985, he left a comprehensive oeuvre in a consistent formal design, his unmistakable handwriting.
The first breakthrough came with a design from 1935, which laid the foundations for all further successes.
The international world exhibition in Paris in 1937 honored the model 16 with the diploma D'Honneur.
Further awards encouraged the only 31-year-old in his endeavor for the new practicality.
Numerous models designed by Pott are still to be found today in the program of the manufactory and remain unmistakable in their clear design quality.
Several master letters attest to the craftsmanship of C. Pott, who was not merely a designer, but also a craftsman, to design dining utensils with the utmost functionality.
Potts' work was honored internationally with more than 700 awards throughout his life.
In addition to his own work, he repeatedly called renowned designers to create models for his brand.
He was able to win Hermann Gretsch, who in 1947/48 brought into being piece no. 81, which, in addition to designs for Arzberg (Mod. 1382), belongs to one of his outstanding works.
Wilhelm Wagenfeld designed the silverware number 83 in 1950.
Josef Hoffmann, co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, designed the art cutlery 86
in the fifties with clear references to the expressive Jugendstil.
At the same time the airline
Deutsche Lufthansa was supplied by Pott - like Wolf Karnagel with Wilkens three decades later:
Don Wallance, known for works for Stelton, created the cutlery 21.
The extensive Pott Archive, which has been awarded a place at the Museum Solingen Deutsches Klingenmuseum, is a testament to the ongoing chain of milestones in the production of tableware.
After the death of Carl Pott,
manufacture and production were continued according to his maxim, which counted since the beginning of the productions.
In the foreground there is craftsmanship, many individual work steps are necessary to produce a single piece of cutlery, which bears the name Pott.
In a global modern world, the mode of operation could be almost touching museal,when the convincing quality of the results would not justify this effort.
Pott cutlery is still a craft
product, some technical innovations or optimizations are prohibited, in order not to reduce its quality.
This has not changed since 2006, when Seibel family from Mettmann took over the management of the company after 102 years in family ownership.
Shortly thereafter, the company Seibel, which was founded in 1895, named itself after its sale in mono Metallwarenfabrik.
Mono-a was the most successful German design for all, the productions of both product lines were merged.
In the same working time that is spent on a knife at Pott with many individual operations
- steel forged, bleached, the surface plastered and the knives subsequently reeled -
In this time a mill on another continent might produce a mutiple, but these numerous work steps are require for a Pott knife.
But that does not matter:
Unique in its surface with the
Pott-typical, dark brushed matting and the plastered knives, clear in its form, rectilinear in its material pure stainless steel or solid sterling silver.
Pott cutlery in stainless - from 22 to Zwetschgenholz
