The Rameking

Worldwide Headquarters of the Australian Studio Art Ramekin, (and a few others) that piece of Australiana that has almost disappeared from our lives and tables. How many of you Baby Boomers have sat in front of a warm fire in winter, eating tinned spaghetti from a ramekin? In the period between the World Wars, and in the decades after, many famous artists made ramekins. They continued until cheap imports and copies almost killed them off in the 1970s. See them here in all their faded glory.

Ramekin is thought to come from a Dutch word for "toast" or the German for "little cream."

Name

Ramekin

Variant

Ramequin, Ramekin dish.

Pronounced

(ram′ə kin)[RAM-ih-kihn]ræməkin

Function

English Noun
Plural

Ramekins

Hypernym

A type of dish

Purpose

Cooking

Etymology

French Ramequin from Low German ramken, diminutive of cream, circa 1706. middle Dutch rammeken (cheese dish) dialect variant of rom (cream), similar to old English ream and German rahm. Ancient French cookbooks refer to ramekins as being garnished fried bread.

Meaning

1. A food mixture, (casserole) specifically a preparation of cheese, especially with breadcrumbs and/or eggs or unsweetened pastry baked on a mould or shell.

2. With a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 oz), it is a small fireproof glass or earthenware individual dish similar in size and shape to a cup, or mould used for cooking or baking and serving sweet or savoury foods.

3. Formerly the name given to toasted cheese; now tarts filled with cream cheese.

4. A young child usually between the ages of 3 months and 11 years exhibiting a compulsion to force or "ram" their head into various objects and structures.

These days, a ramekin is generally regarded as a small single serve heatproof serving bowl used in the preparation or serving of various food dishes, designed to be put into hot ovens and to withstand high temperatures. They were originally made of ceramics but have also been made of glass or porcelain, commonly in a round shape with an angled exterior ridged surface. Ramekins have more lately been standardized to a size with a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 ounce) and are now used for serving a variety of sweet and savoury foods, both entrée and desert.

They are also an attractive addition to the table for serving nuts,dips and other snacks. Because they are designed to hold a serving for just one person, they are usually sold in sets of four, six, or eight. Ramekins now are solid white, round, with a fluted texture covering the outside, and a small lip. Please bear in mind that whatever you ask for them on Internet auction sites, someone is still getting the same thing in an op shop for peanuts.

However, there are hundreds of decorative ramekins that came in a variety of shapes and sizes. They came in countless colours and finishes and many were made by our leading artists and ceramicists. My collection has ramekins with One handle only, fixed to the body at one point only. If it has no handle, it is a bowl. If it has two, it is a casserole dish. But the glory day of the Australian Studio Art ramekin is well and truly over. See some here, ask questions or leave answers.

P.S. Remember, just as real men don't eat quiche, real ramekins don't have lids or two handles. Also remember, two handles makes it a casserole dish. Also, please note If it aint got a handle, it's just a bowl.
P.P.S. To all you cretins who advertise your ramekins by associating them with "Eames" or "Eames Era". Get your hand off it, you are not kidding anyone. The Eames people have told me that they never made ramekins.
P.P.P.s To all the illiterates out there in cyberspace, just as there is no "I" in team, there is no "G" in Ramekin. I am the Rameking, they are ramekins.
If you have a set of Grandma's ramekins at the back of a kitchen cupboard, have a look through the site, maybe you will identify them. Thank-you for looking.
There are many of you out there that have knowledge of Australian pottery. Please let me know if you have anything that I can add to the notes. It is important to get the information recorded. You probably know something that nobody else does.
Please note that while your comments are most welcome, any that contain a link to another site will no longer be published.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Holmburg, Karl

Designer	Not Known
Maker	Karl Holmburg
Marks	Sweden 501 impressed to base with logo
Material	Glazed earthenware
Description	Small rectangular bowl with rounded corners sloping to base. Heavy green speckled gloss glaze to interior and exterior. Unglazed foot ring. Handle extending from upper third of exterior of bowl, grooved on top.
Condition	Excellent
Number	501 impressed to base
Production Date	Late 1960s
Width at rim	95mm
Width at Base	60mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	160mm
Weight	Varying from 151 to 180 gm
Volume	150ml
Acquisition	Purchase E-Bay 1 November 2017
Rameking Reference Number	HOL 001-007

Pickings have been a little slim on the ramekin front lately, so it came as a surprise when these came up on E-Bay recently. Almost unknown in Australia and still rare in their native Sweden, these ramekins are unusual in that they were made by a company that specialised in wooden products in the pre-internet days.

The large ramekin with lid is approximately 22cm wide (including handle) x 110mm high. The opening is approximately 120mm wide and the base is approximately 95mm wide. It weighs approximately 670 grams. Impressed to the base is "Sweden 520-2" and makers mark and there is a sticker on the lid. The smaller ramekin with pourer and lid is approximately 16omm wide (including handle) x 80mm high. The opening is approximately 75mm wide and the base is approx. 65mm wide. It weighs approximately 245 grams. On the base is "Sweden 520-2" and makers mark and there is also a sticker on the lid on this piece. The stickers read "Karl Holmburg Gotene UGNSELDFAST (Heat Resistant) Made in Sweden". The wooden tray is approx. 500mm long x 100mm wide x 20mm high and has a heat branding stamp.

This pottery ramekin/tapas set was made in the late 1960s in Sweden by Karl Napoleon Holmburg (1883-1955). The set comprises 4 square ramekins, 1 large ramekin with lid, 1 smaller ramekin (saucier) with pourer & lid and the wooden serving board of Bangkok Teak (Tectona Grandis). In those days, Teak was an expensive, exclusive timber used for high end products. It was known as “Burmese Teak”, because at the time, half of the world’s teak came from Burma (today’s Myanmar) and was used for furniture and small wooden products.

Karl Holmburg, a Carpenter, began making furniture in the early 1920s at Gotene in Vastra Gotland, Sweden. He started by working with his father Anders Johan Holmburg, also a Carpenter in the family business that Dad began in 1903. They initially made exclusive designer furniture to order for the larger furniture store such as Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Anders died in 1927.

The company expanded slowly over the next 30 years and by the early 1950s, they employed around 20 staff. At that time, they restructured and production switched to teak products for the home, mainly kitchen items such as trays and bowls.

Karl’s sons took over the running of the company with elder son Karl-Eric in charge. In the 1960s, the company launched its own teak cutlery series by which time they had around 100 staff and were Sweden’s largest maker of teak products. This couldn’t last and by the late 1960s, fashions had changed and despite attempts to diversify, the company was bankrupt by 1973. Teak had become much more widespread and commonplace by then.

It is odds-on that the tray was made by Karl’s company but it is likely that the ramekins themselves were made by Rörstrand, now part of Iittala, having moved their production to Sri Lanka and Hungary. In 1926 the company moved from Stockholm to Gothenburg and again from Gothenburg to larger premises at Lidköping in 1936. In 1983 Rörstrand was bought by Arabia and in 1987 they merged with Gustavsbergs Porslinfabrik. In 1990 Rorstrand were taken over by the Finnish Hackman Group. Between 1960 and 1990 Rörstrand had several owners, including Uppsala-Ekeby, Finnish Wärtsilä and Hackman and Gustavsberg . Check out my post for them for more information.

Iittala is a design company from Finland that specializes in housewares. In December 2005 their factory in Lidköping closed, ending almost 280 years of local manufacture. The former porcelain factory is now the Rörstrand Centre containing a museum, restaurant, art gallery and outlet store. The museum contains one of the best collections of porcelain in Europe.

I should point out that none of the Rörstrand ceramic designs are in any way similar to these ramekins and to further confuse things, as mentioned earlier, they were taken over by Upsala-Ekeby in 1964. (Uppsala-Ekeby began manufacturing porcelain in Uppsala in the 1960s because of increasing sales.) There are some similarities in colour and design with a few of the Uppsala-Ekeby products.

The products had various burned stamps, stickers and labels over the life of the company. They are marked “Karl Holmburg AB Akta Teak Gotene Sweden” or “Karl Holmburg AB Genuine teak Gotene Sweden”. The branded ones also have a number that may be a model and/or size designation. There is a label with the ramekins written in Swedish. (Not one of my languages, but here goes; - )

“Your beautiful ramekins and beautiful Bangkok teak tray will become more beautiful if they are used properly. Do not expose the ramekins to high heat and never put them in a dishwasher. Clean after use, by washing or wiping off with lukewarm water and immediately drying on a towel. They should be seasoned with cooking oil or paraffin oil occasionally.”

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Origin of the Australian Art Studio Ramekin

In the 19th Century, Ramequin Cases began to be used in cooking. These were paper cups, similar to those used for cupcakes or muffins. As time passed, people began to make them from clay and the spelling mostly changed from Ramequin to Ramekin. Ramequin still holds out in a few places, mainly in parts of the USA. The heyday of the Australian ramekin began in the 1930s.

Australian Art Studio pottery grew out of the 19th Century Arts and Crafts Movement. Following the upheaval of the First World War, potters found that many people still wanted hand made homewares. In Australia, many potters opened studios to meet this demand which intensified after the Second World War when returned ex services people set up their homes. It is the fallout from this ageing group that is now finding it’s way onto the market. Most of them may never be valuable, it is only their intrinsic value,but after another 100 years, who knows?

The Government, still in austerity mode encouraged manufacture of practical pottery post World War 2, by placing a higher tax on decorative wares, leading to potteriesmaking items that were decorative but had a practical use,thus avoiding the tax. This explains the absence of figurines that were the mainstay of many English potteries, and the proliferation of things like ramekins and vases.

Retraining programmes for returned and wounded soldiers at the end of the First and Second World Wars provided a workforce for the many potteries that flourished in Australia at the time. After the First World War, Bendigo Pottery needed a trained workforce to help make the flood of bricks for the housing in Melbourne. Towards the end of the Second, Guy Boyd worked at the Rehabilitation Hospital at Ingleburn, New South Wales, teaching pottery

Before take away food and plastics came to dominate the market, ceramics were used for a much wider range of products. The population explosion created by the Australian gold rush resulted in an increased demand for all kinds of locally manufactured goods. As the market diversified so too did the pottery, from commercial packaging to utility kitchenware. For the larger pottery’s, domestic items were, however, always a sideline to the main business of serving the building trade. For some, smaller potteries and individual potters, ramekins were the main income producer.

In 1957 the Australia-Japan Agreement on Commerce negotiated by Australian Trade Minister, John 'Black Jack' McEwan dealt a major blow to commercial potteries. This agreement opened the doors for mass- produced cheap Japanese ceramics to flood the Australian market. Many local commercial potteries were forced out of business by this competition, but a few managed to survive.

There are also the untold stories of some Eastern European migrants fleeing persecution who made a new life in post war Australia, thanks largely to ramekins. Because they made homewares and not art sculpture, their stories have not been adequately told. In some cases, this is the only place you will find part of their stories.

To help calculate the relative cost of these ramekins, I have here are a couple of items to compare the average weekly earnings for a man in Australia for the decades during which ramekins were popular; In 1940, it was $9.60, in 1950 it was $11.50. To convert to the old currency, divide by two.

Please Note

Comments on this blog are moderated BEFORE they appear on the site, and this takes time. There is often a delay between a comment being posted and it being approved. If you do not wish to have your comment posted, I will not post it.

The photographs form part of the description. Due to the light, my photos may show slight variances in colour and some shadows, distortions, reflections and highlights that should not be there. Also different computers and monitor settings will affect colours. My ramekins are all washed in warm water with mild detergent as this identifies any crazing or cracks that are very faint, or invisible to the naked eye. This ensures that the descriptions are more accurate.

Modern Ramekins

Ramekins are one of the few baking dishes that actually have their own name, setting them apart from generic sounding “cake pans” and “baking dishes.” Modern ramekins are small, cylindrical dishes that are used for baking individually sized dishes. They are ideal for baking small soufflés, as their straight sides make it easy for an egg white-based souffle mixture to rise up the sides of the dish and gain a lot of height, as well as for baking individual desserts, since they offer built-in portion control. Use them for little pudding cakes and baked egg-cups, and also for chilled desserts, such as panna cotta and chocolate mousse.

Ramekins can be made out of any heat-proof material; most modern ones are often made out of porcelain, pyrex or something similar. They can come in any size, but are most often found in 4-, 6- or 8-ounce volumes. Some will have very shallow sides, but most have a rise of about an inch or so, depending on the size of the dish itself.

Their small size actually makes them useful for applications outside of the oven. For instance, they’re often used when a cook is doing preparation work in the kitchen, separating chopped ingredients into individual dishes to be used at a later time. They’re also a nice way to present side servings of dressings, sauces and dips.

There are a small number of people who refer to ramekins as “pipkins”. I do not. Yes, there are similarities, but historically, a pipkin is a small earthenware or metal cooking pot used for cooking over direct heat. They had a tripod moulded into the base to stand clear of the fire. Examples of Romano-British pipkins are not uncommon. Late medieval and postmedieval pipkins had a hollow handle in order to insert a stick in it for manipulation. See the “Diana” ramekins for a recent homage to this. Many more recent ones have a spout at a right angle to the handle.

To me a ramekin without a handle is just a bowl or a dish.

It's simple really.

No handle-it's a bowl or a dish

One handle-it's a Ramekin

Two Handles-it's a Casserole dish

Copyright

Most of the images on this site are of my collection as are the comments. Other images and comments on this site are reproduced for the purposes of your information and interest only. I would be grateful for any information concerning Copyright and I will withdraw any items so described immediately on Copyright holder's request.

Please leave any other comments regarding anything on this blog. In the interests of accuracy, I will be pleased to have any information or comments you may have. There are many older people out there that have been involved in the Australian pottery world of the fifties and sixties. Get those arthritic fingers moving and put that knowledge out there. When you go, it goes with you.

Disclaimer

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The facts, figures, reviews, records, statistics, and other data presented on this blog is for suggestion and information purposes only. The Rameking is not responsible for any incorrect or incomplete information. The Rameking does not take responsibility for any user-reviews of websites inside its resource and reserves the right to keep or remove those. It is highly recommended that you review all the data for accuracy.

Name	Ramekin
Variant	Ramequin, Ramekin dish.
Pronounced	(ram′ə kin)[RAM-ih-kihn]ræməkin
Function	English Noun
Plural	Ramekins
Hypernym	A type of dish
Purpose	Cooking
Etymology	French Ramequin from Low German ramken, diminutive of cream, circa 1706. middle Dutch rammeken (cheese dish) dialect variant of rom (cream), similar to old English ream and German rahm. Ancient French cookbooks refer to ramekins as being garnished fried bread.
Meaning	1. A food mixture, (casserole) specifically a preparation of cheese, especially with breadcrumbs and/or eggs or unsweetened pastry baked on a mould or shell. 2. With a typical volume of 50-250 ml (2-8 oz), it is a small fireproof glass or earthenware individual dish similar in size and shape to a cup, or mould used for cooking or baking and serving sweet or savoury foods. 3. Formerly the name given to toasted cheese; now tarts filled with cream cheese. 4. A young child usually between the ages of 3 months and 11 years exhibiting a compulsion to force or "ram" their head into various objects and structures.