There’s a secret lurking around the West German Pottery world. If you can keep it quiet, I’ll let you in on it:

Many Roth vases are not actually that nice.

There, I’ve said it. Just felt that I needed to get that off my chest. Now don’t get me wrong, there are many, many lovely pots made by Roth:

This is one we brought back from Germany, but unfortunately managed to damage in transit. It still looks gorgeous though and is a good example of a nice Roth glaze.

Oh, go on then… this one’s alright too:

Unfortunately, despite some of the lovely glazes that Roth could make, they also made ones like this:

Some people love them. I personally h-h-hate them. Well, hate is a strong word. Perhaps I merely strongly dislike them.

Aidan’s been telling me off for saying that certain Roth vases are horrible – he thinks I shouldn’t publicly say it in case it hurts his chances of selling them on Ebay. However, I think if you like them, you like them and if you hate them, you hate them. What I say isn’t going to make a difference! Looking at pictures of this one might though:

Aidan has just informed me that he’s posted that one up on the Pottery and Glass forum and said it looks like it’s covered in slugs! So maybe he’s coming round to the ‘Ugly Vase’ idea after all.

If you’ve seen a particularly ugly vase, let me know. Share the link via the comments. Maybe we should have some kind of ‘Ugly Vase’ contest?